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The 222 athletes who will signify Workforce USA on the Olympic Winter Video games Beijing 2022 are set.
And on Feb. 4, lower than six months after the Summer time Video games wrapped up in Tokyo, the highest U.S. winter athletes will march into the long-lasting “Birds Nest” stadium for the 2022 Opening Ceremony.
It’s a star-studded U.S. crew, highlighted by defending gold medalists comparable to Mikaela Shiffrin, Chloe Kim, Shaun White, and Jessie Diggins. Alongside rising stars like Nathan Chen, Erin Jackson, and Kristen Santos, they are going to look to enhance upon Workforce USA’s 9 gold and 23 whole medals from 4 years in the past on the Olympic Winter Video games PyeongChang 2018.
Competitions in Beijing will reuse among the iconic venues from the 2008 Summer time Video games, together with the Water Dice — which is now nicknamed the Ice Dice. Northwest of the capital, extra competitions shall be held within the mountain districts of Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. Beijing may also mark the debut of seven new occasions that proceed towards the Worldwide Olympic Committee’s aim of gender fairness on the Video games.
Right here’s a snapshot of what to search for when the motion formally kicks off on Feb. 2.
Alpine Snowboarding
As soon as once more Mikaela Shiffrin leads the U.S. alpine snowboarding crew into the Olympics. Nonetheless simply 26 years previous, Shiffrin already has two gold medals and a silver medal from her two earlier Olympics. She’ll be favored to win extra in Beijing, particularly within the technical occasions of slalom and big slalom. Breezy Johnson has additionally had success this season within the downhill. In the meantime, guys like Bryce Bennett, Travis Ganong and Ryan Cochran-Siegle will attempt to get the U.S. males again on the rostrum after lacking out in 2018.
Athlete Highlight: Mikaela Shiffrin
Solely two skiers have received extra world cup races than Shiffrin, and with 73 she’s closing in on fellow American Lindsey Vonn (82) and Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark (86) for the highest spot. In January, Shiffrin received her forty seventh slalom race, making her the winningest skier in a given race. She’s additionally a three-time world cup general champ and three-time Olympic medalist.
Key Date: February 9
No skier in historical past has received as many slalom races as Shiffrin, and she or he’ll have a chance to win her second Olympic slalom gold medal on this present day. After profitable her first in 2014, Shiffrin simply missed out in 2018 ending fourth.
Biathlon
Biathlon, the game combining cross-country snowboarding and rifle capturing, stays the lone Winter Olympic sport by which Workforce USA has by no means received a medal. The People have come shut, together with in 2018 when the lads’s 4×7.5-kilometer crew took sixth place. That marked the very best U.S. relay end since 1972. Amongst these trying to break the streak in Beijing are veterans Clare Egan and Susan Dunklee, each of whom shall be retiring on the finish of this season.
Athlete Highlight: Susan Dunklee
The Vermont native has the excellence of being the one U.S. lady to have received a person medal on the biathlon world championships. She received a silver medal within the mass begin in 2017, and three years later she received one other silver medal within the dash. Now 35, Dunklee is embarking on her third and last Olympics.
Key Date: February 15
4 years after putting sixth within the males’s 4×7.5-kilometer relay, Workforce USA will purpose for an additional sturdy end within the occasion in Beijing. Among the many athletes who may participate for the U.S. are Sean Doherty and Leif Nordgren, each of whom are headed to their third Olympics and have been additionally on the 2018 squad.
Bobsled
Workforce USA heads to Beijing with two of the highest pilots on the ladies’s facet. Kaillie Humphries received two Olympic gold medals and a bronze medal whereas competing for Canada; since switching to Workforce USA in 2019 she’s added three world titles to carry her whole to 5. Elana Meyers Taylor, in the meantime, has received a medal in every of her three Olympics to date. Each ought to contend for the rostrum within the two-woman occasion along with the single-woman monobob occasion that’s making its Olympic debut in Beijing.
Athlete Highlight: Elana Meyers Taylor
Meyers Taylor made her Olympic debut in 2010 as a push athlete, profitable a bronze medal in Vancouver. She’s since moved as much as the pilot’s seat, the place she received Olympic silver medals in 2014 and 2018. Coming into her first Olympics as a mother, Meyers Taylor shall be trying so as to add an Olympic gold medal to her two world titles.
Key Date: February 14
Historical past shall be made on Valentine’s Day when the primary Olympic champion is known as in ladies’s monobob. It might simply be an American. Each Humphries and Meyers Taylor have received monobob races this season, and Humphries is the defending world champ.
Cross-Nation Snowboarding
Coming off the nation’s first Olympic gold medal within the sport in 2018, the U.S. cross-country crew ought to be able to contend once more in Beijing. Jessie Diggins, one half of that profitable crew spring in 2018, is again, together with different sturdy ladies together with Rosie Brennan and Julia Kern. JC Schoonmaker leads a gifted younger group of males’s skiers to Beijing.
Athlete Highlight: Jessie Diggins
Right here comes Diggins once more. The Minnesotan offered one of many high thrills of 2018 along with her cost to victory in PyeongChang. Her crew spring associate Kikkan Randall has since retired, however the 30-year-old Diggins is as sturdy as ever. In 2021 she grew to become the primary American to win the celebrated Tour de Ski multi-stage occasion, and she or he ended the season as the primary American to say the world cup general title.
Key Date: February 8
The dash occasions are quick and thrilling, and in Beijing they may simply finish with People on the rostrum. Athletes are grouped into six-person heats for a collection of brief races — 1.2K for girls, 1.4K for males. The ultimate is an all-out cost for gold. This occasion, utilizing the freestyle approach in Beijing, may be Diggins’ finest guess for a person medal.
Curling
John Shuster’s five-point takeout throw in opposition to Sweden gave U.S. curling its iconic Olympic second. The fellows went on to win the sport and declare Workforce USA’s first gold medal within the sport. Now Shuster and Co. are again for an additional go of it. Competing in his fifth Olympics, Shuster, the crew skip, returns with John Landsteiner and Matt Hamilton, in addition to newcomer Chris Plys. Tabitha Peterson is skipping a U.S. ladies’s crew with three returning members from 2018. Plys and Vicky Persinger will signify the U.S. in blended doubles.
Athlete Highlight: Tabitha Peterson
Peterson took over as skip when Nina Roth was out on maternity depart in 2019-20. The curlers saved their new positions when Roth returned, and so they rolled proper again to a different Olympics. Becca Hamilton can be again from 2018, whereas Tabitha’s youthful sister Tara Peterson is the newcomer. Coming off a 2021 world bronze medal, Workforce Peterson will look to be the primary U.S. ladies’s crew to win an Olympic medal.
Key Date: February 10
The second day of round-robin play within the males’s match options the anticipated rematch of the 2018 gold-medal sport when Workforce Shuster takes on skip Niklas Edin and the Swedes.
Determine Skating
No man has matched Nathan Chen’s resume for the reason that 2018 Winter Video games. In the meantime, Madison Chock and Evan Bates are coming off their third U.S. title in ice dance, however Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are proper on their heels. Each groups have Olympic expertise and world championships medals to their names. Mariah Bell leads a U.S. ladies’s crew that’s chasing down the high-flying Russians. In the meantime, Timothy LeDuc, who’s coming off a U.S. pairs title with Ashley Cain-Gribble, will develop into the primary overtly nonbinary athlete to compete on the Winter Video games.
Athlete Highlight: Nathan Chen
Chen’s Olympic debut in 2018 didn’t begin as deliberate as he completed seventeenth within the brief program. His rousing free skate a number of days later was an indication of issues to return. Chen quickly started a profitable streak that included the 2018, 2019 and 2021 world titles. Teammate Vincent Zhou, a former world championships bronze medalist, might be a podium contender in Beijing too.
Key Date: February 12
As soon as recognized for its ladies’s skaters, Workforce USA has developed a brand new fame as a high ice dance nation. A U.S. crew has reached the rostrum within the final 4 Olympics. Chock/Bates or Hubbell/Donohue — or possibly each — might make it 5 after this present day’s rhythm dance.
Freestyle Snowboarding
Since becoming a member of the Olympics in 1992, freestyle snowboarding has grown to embody a menagerie of competitions together with aerials, moguls, halfpipe, skicross and slopestyle. So what’s yet another? An enormous air snowboarding occasion will make its Olympic debut in Beijing. Workforce USA has loved sporadic success in aerials and moguls, however the 2014 inclusion of halfpipe and slopestyle created a brand new energy for U.S. skiers. In Beijing, the slopestyle skiers may also compete in huge air, a contest by which skiers go off an enormous ramp to carry out the most important trick conceivable.
Athlete Highlight: David Clever
Already the primary freestyle skier to personal two gold medals, the 31-year-old halfpipe skier will purpose to develop into solely the second freestyle skier to win three whole medals. Whether or not Clever wins one other gold might come down to a different showdown with teammate Alex Ferreira, the 2018 silver medalist.
Key Date: February 10
Huge air may be a wholly new competitors, however one other new freestyle snowboarding occasion additionally makes its Olympic debut in Beijing: blended crew aerials. Groups of three skiers — at the least one man and one lady — will put their high scores collectively on this present day in hopes of incomes the occasion’s first Olympic medal.
Ice Hockey
The U.S. ladies’s crew claimed its second gold medal — and first since 1998 — in an exhilarating shootout victory over Canada in PyeongChang. The 2 rivals stay the leaders within the sport and are favorites to fulfill for gold once more. The lads’s match was upended when the NHL was pressured to withhold its gamers attributable to pandemic disruptions to the league, however a U.S. crew with 15 school gamers and 10 non-NHL professionals, together with one returning Olympian from 2018 in Brian O’Neill, is about to contend for its first medal since profitable silver in 2010.
Athlete Highlight: Hilary Knight
A deadly scorer, Knight made her U.S. debut in 2006 and has already performed in three Olympics. Nonetheless simply 32, the Idaho native will nonetheless develop into the oldest U.S. Olympic ladies’s participant ever. She’ll have loads of assist from three-time Olympians Kendall Coyne Schofield, Brianna Decker, Amanda Kessel and Lee Stecklein.
Key Date: February 8
After all, everybody is absolutely ready for the gold-medal sport, but when previous Olympics are any indication we would get a preview of the ladies’s last at this time when the U.S. performs Canada to conclude round-robin play. The U.S. males play Canada 4 days later.
Lengthy Observe Speedskating
Workforce USA is bringing two defending world champions to Beijing in Brittany Bowe and Joey Mantia. In the meantime, Erin Jackson has gotten off to a blazing begin on the planet cup season and ranks No. 1 on the planet within the 500-meter. They’ll be trying to construct off the one medal Workforce USA received 4 years in the past in PyeongChang. And what’s extra? Bowe, Jackson and Mantia all received their begin as inline skaters rising up in Ocala, Florida.
Athlete Highlight: Erin Jackson
Jackson grew to become the primary Black lady to make the U.S. Olympic lengthy observe crew in 2018, and this 12 months she might contend for a medal. Nevertheless, she virtually didn’t make it to Beijing. A fluke mistake within the 500-meter race on the Olympic trials left her on the skin of the U.S. crew, however longtime buddy Bowe relinquished her spot within the occasion so Jackson might compete.
Key Date: February 17
Bowe was a part of the bronze-medal effort within the ladies’s crew pursuit in PyeongChang. She’ll be trying to win her first particular person Olympic medal this present day within the 1,000-meter, an occasion by which she’s a three-time (and defending) world champ, in addition to the world-record holder.
Luge
4 years in the past Chris Mazdzer charged down the icy observe in PyeongChang to win a silver medal, marking the very best end ever for a U.S. singles luger. Following a spin on “Dancing With the Stars,” a marriage to his longtime girlfriend and now a child, the 33-year-old is again for a fourth Olympics. Workforce USA is sending eight sliders to Beijing — three males, three ladies and a males’s doubles crew. Mazdzer, who continues to be making his method again from a damaged foot, joins Summer time Britcher, Emily Sweeney and Tucker West as returning Olympians.
Athlete Highlight: Summer time Britcher
In 2012, Britcher and West have been a part of the relay crew that received a gold medal on the Winter Youth Olympic Video games. Now she comes into her third Olympics as Workforce USA’s top-ranked singles slider. All three U.S. ladies are ranked among the many high 20, whereas the U.S. males are 21-22-23.
Key Date: February 10
The U.S. relay crew has discovered the rostrum twice to date this world cup season, and the group will get one other probability on this present day. Within the relay a person, lady and doubles crew from every nation race one after the opposite for a mixed time.
Nordic Mixed
For a quick however wonderful interval, the U.S. was on the high of the world in Nordic mixed, with People profitable 4 medals — together with a gold — on the 2010 Winter Video games. A brand new technology of athletes on this mixed ski leaping/cross-country snowboarding sport has some followers believing one other such golden period might be coming once more quickly. As common, although, they’ll face loads of competitors from the game’s conventional powers like Norway and Germany. The five-man U.S. crew options 4 athletes 25 or youthful and two first-time Olympians.
Athlete Highlight: Taylor Fletcher
Rising stars like Ben Loomis and Jared Shumate may be the long run, however don’t write off Fletcher — the 31-year-old nicknamed “Previous Man” by his teammates. Fletcher reached his fourth Olympics by profitable the Olympic trials in December, and he needed to high finishes within the regular hill and enormous hill occasions on the final world championships.
Key Date: February 9
Followers will get an opportunity to see how this U.S. group stacks up in opposition to the world’s finest when the Nordic mixed competitors begins up on this present day with the traditional hill/10-kilometer occasion. The big hill/10K occasion is on Feb. 15, with the crew occasion two days after.
Quick Observe
For years the lads have been the driving pressure behind the U.S. brief observe crew, with stars like Apolo Ohno racking up at the least one medal in each Olympics since 2002. This time round search for the 5 U.S. ladies to take heart stage, led by Kristen Santos and 2018 Olympian Maame Biney, who in PyeongChang grew to become the primary Black lady to make a U.S. speedskating crew. The U.S. is bringing two males to Beijing, which isn’t sufficient to subject a males’s relay crew however will permit Workforce USA to compete within the latest Olympic occasion, the blended relay.
Athlete Highlight: Kristen Santos
Santos missed out on making her first Olympic crew in 2018 whereas nonetheless recovering from a blade lower that sliced her hand and wrist. This time round she’s Workforce USA’s high medal hope, getting into the Video games ranked among the many top-10 in all three particular person races. She missed the rostrum by one spot within the 500 finally 12 months’s world championships.
Key Date: February 7
That is the primary day of particular person racing, and Santos may have an opportunity to maneuver onto the rostrum within the 500-meter occasion. That’s additionally Biney’s strongest occasion, whereas the lads will race the 1,000.
Skeleton
It takes a particular type of athlete to willingly slide face-first down an ice-covered observe, reaching speeds as quick as 80 mph. Fortunately there’s no scarcity of keen individuals. Because the sport returned to the Olympic program in 2002, U.S. sliders have received 5 medals, although none since 2014. Veteran Katie Uhlaender leads a three-person crew headed to Beijing trying to finish that drought. These shall be Uhlaender’s fifth Olympics, whereas fellow People Kelly Curtis and Andrew Blaser are making their Olympic debuts.
Athlete Highlight: Katie Uhlaender
Uhlaender has a world title to her identify from 2012, however she’s nonetheless in search of a primary Olympic medal after coming as shut as sixth in 2006 and fourth in 2014. The 37-year-old, who additionally competed on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Workforce Trials for Weightlifting, is ranked No. 13 on the planet.
Key Date: February 12
Three days of skeleton racing on the Yanqing Nationwide Sliding Centre wrap up with Curtis and Uhlaender going for gold within the ladies’s occasion. Within the Olympics every slider takes 4 runs, two per day. The ultimate males’s runs are Feb. 11.
Ski Leaping
The U.S. males got here out sturdy in PyeongChang, posting their finest outcomes since 2002. Kevin Bickner, the chief of that crew, is again after profitable the Olympic trials on a picturesque Christmas day in Lake Placid, New York. Nevertheless, reaching the rostrum might be an uphill battle for Workforce USA, which has medaled simply as soon as in Olympic ski leaping historical past. No U.S. ladies certified for the Beijing Video games, which implies the U.S. received’t subject a crew within the new blended crew competitors. The U.S. males additionally didn’t qualify sufficient skiers to subject a crew.
Athlete Highlight: Kevin Bickner
Bickner completed 18th within the regular hill and twentieth within the massive hill occasions in PyeongChang. These have been the very best finishes for a U.S. man since Alan Alborn was eleventh within the regular hill in 2002. Bickner, who holds the U.S. distance document of 244.5 meters, is considered one of a number of high ski jumpers from the Chicago space.
Key Date: February 6
In PyeongChang Bickner posted the longest bounce within the first spherical of the traditional hill occasion. He’ll purpose for the same feat within the males’s regular hill last on this present day.
Snowboarding
The addition of snowboarding to the Olympic Winter Video games in 1998 has confirmed to be a boon for Workforce USA. People have received a document 31 medals within the occasion, and that quantity is more likely to rise in Beijing. Workforce USA brings again each defending champs in halfpipe (Chloe Kim and Shaun White) and slopestyle (Jamie Anderson and Pink Gerard). The slopestyle riders may also compete in huge air, whereas Lindsey Jacobellis, Nick Baumgartner and Co. will look to get the U.S. again on the rostrum in snowboardcross after lacking out in 2018. Snowboarding competitors additionally consists of parallel big slalom.
Athlete Highlight: Jamie Anderson
One in every of two snowboarders to personal three Olympic medals, Anderson comes into Beijing because the two-time defending slopestyle champ. The South Lake Tahoe, California, native, now 31, additionally claimed a silver medal within the Olympic debut of massive air in 2018. She ought to be a contender once more in each.
Key Date: February 11
Shaun White grew to become the primary snowboarder to win a 3rd Olympic gold medal when he claimed one other halfpipe title in PyeongChang. The 35-year-old White will purpose to make it 4 within the males’s halfpipe. It comes in the future after Chloe Kim goes for halfpipe title No. 2.
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