The 2022 Olympics

The 2022 Olympics

By Hannah Dunbar

The 2022 Winter Olympics are finally here! As the Olympic Games officially open, many Americans are flocking to see the annual event. The Winter 2022 Olympics is taking place in Beijing, China this time around. Even with COVID-19 still affecting daily lives, the games still arrived on time with bright colors on the 80,000 seat stadium.

The 2022 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony was built around by the concept of “The Story of a Snowflake”.

The event is relying on 100% fake man-made snow. Artificial snow has been used before; however, the Beijing Olympics is the first to rely entirely on fake snow. The “snow” tends to be more dense, a lot icier, and more like concrete on the ground- it is similar to that of shaved ice. It is good for keeping snow conditions consistent especially when using it for hills.

Team USA marched in with over 224 athletes. The U.S. by far has the largest number of people on their team. This team is being led by 2018 curling gold medalist John Shuster and speed skating medalist Brittany Bowe.

And there are many more U.S. athletes that are there such as: Jessie Diggins, Alex Ferreria, Eleana Meyers Taylor, Erin Jackson, Chloe Kim, Nathan Chen, and Mikaela Shiffrin.

Team USA leads in the figure skating team event. Nathan Chen found redemption in the Olympics this time around, placing the U.S. in first with a personal-best 111.71 points- the second-highest score ever recorded in the short program. It truly was remarkable to watch him skate and redeem himself.

Knierim and Frazier placed third for Team USA in the short program, finishing with a score of 75.00!

The USA Women’s Hockey defeats ROC with a score of 5-0. Savannah Harmon had a goal and two assists for the defending Olympic champions.

The United States curling team is on a winning streak! Team USA MXD defeats China 7-5. Team USA is now tied to fourth place with Canada in the mixed double standings.

Now, let’s move onto the other countries’ highlights!

Canadian freestyle skiing star, Mikael Kingsbury claims the third olympic medal! Kingsbury was a hair away from retaining his moguls title in Genting Snow Park, taking the lead with the penultimate run of the competition, but Sweden’s Walter Wallberg was the one to snatch the gold medal. Even so, Mickael Kingsbury believes that winning the medal was one of his greatest achievements yet.

Irene Schouten, speed skater of the Netherlands wins the women’s 3000m gold in Olympic record time. In fact, she set a new record with a time of 3:56.93. Canadian speed skater Isabelle Weidemann won the bronze medal- securing Canada’s 200th Winter Olympics medal.

The oldest athlete and woman competing at the games this year is German speed skater, Claudia Pechstein. She is 49-years old and competed in the women’s 3000m race. She will be 50-years old by the end of the Beijing Games. Despite coming in last place, she celebrated with a huge smile and a fist pump.

China won its first gold medal in a new mixed-gender relay event in short-track speed skating. Italy won silver and Hungary won bronze.

Therese Johaug of Norway wins the first gold medal after dominating the 15-kilometer skiathlon. Russian Natalia Nepryaeva claimed silver. Austria claims bronze with their athlete, Teresa Stadlober.

With this ongoing event, we can expect a lot more interesting occurrences! The Winter 2022 Olympics started on Feb. 4th and will last till Feb. 20th. The event will continue to be held in China across three zones: Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou. The ice sports were held in central Beijing. Yanqing will be hosting the Alpine skiing and sliding events. Then Zhangjiakou will be hosting the majority of the ski and snowboarding events such as ski jumping, cross-country, freestyle, and nordic combined.

There are over 15 sport events which will have a total of 109 medals, these include: Alpine skiing, curling, figure skating, hockey, biathlon, bobsled, snowboarding, speed skating, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, luge, short track, nordic combined, skeleton, and lastly, ski jumping.

Additionally, the Winter 2022 Olympics is adding six new events:

1. Women’s Monobob
2. Men’s and Women’s Big Air
3. Mixed Team Snowboard Cross
4. Mixed Team Aerials
5. Mixed Team Short Track Relay
6. Mixed Team Ski Jumping.

Videos of the opening ceremony can be found on YouTube along with more clips of all the sports that are currently taking place throughout the week. The games are also being streamed on Peacock, NBC, USA, and CNBC. You will not want to miss these events, especially as a sports fan! Go USA!