BEIJING 2022: Athletes to Watch
It’s a marathon not a sprint folks! Our third and perhaps most important chapter in the Beijing 2022 series of blog posts is all about the Athletes on the snow/ice/sleds/skis/ramps/whatever else there is in these crazy games. There are scads of veteran athletes back for one more final go (I’m getting too old for this stuff), there are youngsters who are changing the face of the sport, and there are dreams coming true and redemption stories yet to be told and again, if this doesn’t get you hype YOU DO NOT HAVE A SOUL.
Snowboarding
As discussed in the meet the sports post, this is where USA really shines. Starting with now 5-time Olympian Shawn White (US)- Who I thought was retired???? But you know what they say, just when you thought he got out, they find a way to pull him back in. The Flying Tomato is back baby (I mean, was he named to the team just because the governing org loves him? Maybe) - look for him in the halfpipe competition. Also he dates Nina Dobrev and I have been DYING to find a way to squeeze that fact into a blog post. You’ll remember ingenue Chloe Kim (US), who is adorable and medaled in the last Olympics at age 16 , but because of being a little bebe, had some #mentalhealthstruggles, took time off to relax and not stress (and by that I mean, attend Princeton University, you know, a very chill environment) and now is back and ready to go (she’s doing it ON HER TERMS). Red Gerard (US) in big air/slopestyle, medalist in 2018 & his GF Hailey Langland, also in slopestyle (Valentine’s day olympic special!), Jamie Anderson (US) will be trying to podium in slopestyle and Big Air- she’s the winning-est woman at the Winter X Games, Lindsay Jacobellis (US) in snowboard cross, which is like motocross but with snowboard (a freakin LEGEND at age 36). Like I said, lots of US homies here, but we also could see top performances from Yuto Totsuka (Japan) and Scotty James (Australia) in halfpipe, Ester Ledecka (Czech) in snowboard slalom (she made history in 2018 by winning medals in 2 sports in one Olympics!), Mark McMorris (Canada) in snowboard slopestyle/Big Air, Zoi Sadowski Synnot (New Zealand) in ladies’ slopestyle/big air (known for breaking the Kiwi’s 26 year medal drought in 2018), and Michela Mioli (Italy), who was robbed of a snowboard cross medal in 2018 after a big collision. Snowboarding is our field of expertise (perks of inventing the sport) but there will still be PLENTY of competition.
Alpine Skiing
Mikaela Shiffrin (US) is expected to be a top contender in Alpine despite the fact that she recently got Covid (she took 2 weeks off for the first time in her entire career). Mikaela is doing what we call “The Katie Ledecky” and competing in all of the Alpine events and trying to win all of them (or at least get on the podium. She was set to do this in 2018 but had some issues with the downhill (she’s more of a technical skiier rather than a speed queen), so stay tuned to see how it goes this time around. Soffia Goggia (Italy) could give her a run for her money on some events though along with Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) (no, that’s not a typo, just how her name is spelled??) and Ester Ledecka (Czech Republic), who won the Super G in 2018. US men have really struggled since the retirement of our New Hampshire neighbor, Bode Miller (who will most likely be commentating)- Bryce Bennet (US) is basically our only chance to medal in men’s, and teammate Ryan Cochran Seigle (US) will also... be there (I mean this is not to undersell him he did well at the world championships, but there’s tough competition here!). There are a LOT of mountain/cold countries who dominate here (basically anyone with an Alp in their borders): The Swiss team has strong contenders such as Corinne Suter, Lara Gut-Behrami, and Michelle Gusin (all of those names are perfectly swiss, they’re somehow slightly french and a little italian but mostly german).
Freestyle Skiing
Gus Kentworthy (GB), Olympic dog rescuer and LGTBQ icon is back. I know, you’re thinking he was American, well, he WAS but now he competes for UK, where he was born (also has a new boyfriend? Sorry yes we are a gossip blog now). Gals to watch: newbie Kelly Sildaru (Estonia) who was set to compete in 2018 at only 15, but tore her ACL right before (she’s also famous on YouTube), and Eileen Gu (China) in also in freestyle (fun fact, she was born and raised in the US but can compete for China now that she has Chinese citizenship through her mom). The biggest stars in MOGULS (aka the big bumpy downhill that looks really uncomfortable) right now are Perrine Laffont (France) and Michael Kingsbury (Canada). Good old team USA stars to root for: two time halfpipe medalist David Weis (US), X Games standout Alex Ferreira (US), 2014 bronze & 2018 silver medalist Nick Goepper (US), destined to compete in a snowy sport Winter Vinecki (US), and moguller Jaelin Kauf. Freestyle skiing is a lot of things so we aren’t going to get into it much, but it is insane and we do highly recommend watching it. In Ski Jumping, reigning champ Andreas Wellinger (Germany), Karl Geiger (Germany) and Piotr Żyła (Poland) are the strongest in the sport. In the newly introduced team event, expect a tight competition between Norway, Austria and Germany (who won at the youth games last year). And in the Nordic combined (a truly wild event) Akito Watabe (Japan), who has two silver medals and wants the top spot, and Eric Frenzel (Germany) are the names to know.
Biathlon
With the absence of French superstar Martin Fourcade, the men’s field is more open than one might expect, and Johannes Thingnes Bø (Norway) will look to capitalize upon that fact as he defends his 20km gold & attempts to improve upon his World Champs bronze in the pursuit. His teammate Sturla Holm Lægreid (gun to my head I could not pronounce that man’s last name) will be making an Olympic debut after winning four (4!) gold medals at the 2021 world championships. On the women’s side it’s anyone’s game as well, however I think the world would be shocked if Tiril Eckhoff (Norway, do not look this woman up, she is stunningly beautiful and it will ruin your day) didn’t medal after her dominance in recent competitions. Some former champions have retired since the last olympics, but Pyeongchang medalists Hanna Öberg (SWE) and Marte Olsbu Røiseland (NOR) will be in the hunt for a spot on the podium as well.
Figure Skating
After choking in 2018, and then, like Chloe Kim, retreating to the laid back Ivy League to tend to his wounds, Nathan Chen (US) is the best chance America has to medal in Figure Skating. One of them most powerful, innovative skaters of his time, Chen is notorious for his quads (and just how many he can put into one program), and he has won multiple national titles and the past 3 world championships: now, he just has to do it on Olympic ice. His biggest rival will be Hanyu Yuzuru (Japan), who has won back to back Olympic golds thanks to some flawless performances in 2014 and 2018. Uno Shoma (Japan) will also be looking to medal, but is unlikely to surpass the two superstars.
The US women are sending Mariah Bell (our oldest female figure skater in years! A practical GRANDMA at the age of 25!), but tbh she’s not expected to medal. Instead, we recommend throwing your support behind Anyone But (fake) Russia (cheaters!!!!!! never forgive never forget!!!!), specifically Satoko Miyahara (Japan) and young superstar Riko Kihira (Japan) who will make her olympic debut. She’s made history the first woman to land a triple Axel-triple Toeloop combination, however she’s yet to place in any top international competitions. The artists formerly known as the Russian Olympic Team will be sending Kamila Valeva (Russia), and in pairs they will send Evgenia Tarasova & Vladimir Morozov (Russia), however the Chinese duo of Wenjing Sui and Cong Han are favorites to take the gold.
On the ice dancing side of the sport, our favorite American sweethearts Meryl Davis & Charlie White are now long retired (RIP!!!) so we will be throwing our support behind the Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. Their biggest opponents will be Gabriella Papadakis (sounds greek???) and Guillaume Cizeron (France) who won silver in 2018. Personally it is crazy to me that these people participate in a sport where they must be touching their partner for the entire routine (aside from when they’re twizzling) and they’re not ALL IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER, but I guess that’s just professionalism.
Cross Country Skiing
The team to watch in cross country is Sweden who has put together a diverse (well, diverse in what events they specialize in, it’s sweden, they can’t be THAT diverse) team of highly skilled skiiers, including Queen of the XC Charlotte Kalla, the most decorated female Swedish Olympic athlete of all time, sprint specialist Jonna Sundland, and breakout star Frida Karlsson. Jessie Diggins (US) will attempt to maintain her solid standing from the 2018 games, where she claimed a gold in sprint (the first for the USA in a long while), but she’s been through a real tough time getting back here, so we’re not going to pressure her.
Hockey
In what is essentially a battle between the USA Women’s Hockey Team and the Canadaian Women’s hockey Team, you’re going to see a lot of familiar names. For the US, returning Olympians Hilary Knight, Capt. Kendall Coyne Schoefield, and Brianna Decker (who was carted off the ice in their prelim match against finland with a nasty leg injury) will look to repeat their gold. For Canada: Marie Philip Poulin, Sarah Nurse, and Jocelyne Laroque carry the team.
On the men’s side of the game, the US will lean heavily upon young superstar Matty Beniers to carry the squad (which has 0 NHL players, because everyone is a jerk) but the medal favorites will be the Fake Russian Team. Our neighbors to the north are hoping experience will guide them to gold with veterans such as Eric Staal, Maxim Noreau, Eric O’Dell, and Mat Robinson (Canada).
Speed Skating
If you are a small country whose identity is built around the color orange, well I’ve got great news for ya, this is your time to shine! Of course I am referring to the nonstop dominance of the Dutch in long track speed skating (not surprising since they are the tallest country in the world on average and height is a big part of the ideal speed skating body type). Legend Ireen Wuest (Netherlands) will return and challenge for more medals (she’s currently the most decorated active winter olympian, with 11 medals so far)- if she wins a gold she will be the first athlete to do so in 5 editions of the winter games (seems kind of like a bullshit stat like they give during football games, but the takeaway is that she is the GOAT). On the men’s side, Sven Kramer is back for his 5th games, and has been unstoppable year after year in the sport. Of course they’ll face a lot of steep competition, especially from their compatriots, such as: Kjeld Nuis, Antoinette de Jong, Irene Schouten, and Nils van der Poel (shoutout to the dutch for being incredibly dutch). For the American team, look out for Brittany Bowe, who is attending her 3rd Olympics (and is our flag bearer for the opening ceremonies due to some unforeseen circumstances detailed in the Bobsledding section), and won MAJOR POINTS with everyone at Speed Skating Trials when she gave up her spot in the 500m to USA Teammate Erin Jackson, who slipped in the race but had one of the best times in the world this year. Friendship! Comradery! Falling down on Ice! That is what these games are all about!!!!
For the Short Track Superstars- keep an eye out for Arianna Fontana (Italy) aka L’Angelo Biondo aka the Blonde Angel is headed to her 5th games and could be the oldest to stand on the podium in her sport. Also stay woke to the South Korean women’s team, especially Choi Min-Jeong.
Curling
The top nations in the Curling world (a world full of big stones and fun pants) are Canada and Sweden. Team Canada will look to John Morris (Canada) for both the men’s competition AND in mixed doubles, where he and his partner Rachel Homan are already off to a good start. The swedes are hoping Niklas Edin can carry their men’s team to another gold, and Anna Hasselborg has been able to win across competitions in the sport. However our scandanavian dfriends were shockingly left off the podium in the Women’s competition of World’s when they lost to the U S of A in a huge upset. Heck yeah USA Curling!!! Coming off our gold medal in men’s from 2018, John Schuster leads a team with Matt Hamilton, Chris Plys, and John Landsteiner. The women’s team features super sister duo Tabitha & Tara Peterson, Nina Roth, and Becca Hamilton.
Bobsled, Luge & Skeleton
It’s the fastest sports on sleds! In the Bobsled, Francesco Friedrich (Germany) and german teammates Candy Bauer, Alexander Schueller and Thorsten Margis will look to continue their success on the podium after sweeping the golds in 2018 and recent wins at World’s. American Elana Meyers Taylor (who currently has covid so let’s hope she’s better in time to race!) is back for her 5th olympics, determined to claim that elusive gold medal. Also on the USA Squad: former Canadian gold medalist Kaillie Humphries, who swapped flags following a toxic culture on the Canadian Squad. Kaillie is a total badass, AND happens to be reigning world champ, so we’re lucky she’s joined our team. Her former two-woman bobsled buddy Heather Moyse (Canada) as well as German duo Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Buckwitz all are in the race for gold as well. Also, in true Cool Runnings fashion, Jamaica has put together a 4-man bobsled team who is just thrilled to be there for the first time in 24 years.
In the Luge, again we expect the Germans to dominate. On the men’s side Felix Loch’s (Germany) only real competition will be David Gleischer (Austria). On the women’s course, Natalie Geinsenberger (Germany) will battle against teammates PyeongChang silver medalist Dajana Eitberger (GER) and Julia Taubitz (GER).
Last but not least in the Skeleton (spooky name for a spooky sport!) we’ll watch Yun Sung-Bin (South Korea) try to defend his Olympic title (after a grim 17th place finish in the world championships) against Christopher Grotheer, and long time veteran Martins Dukurs (Latvia)- he’s been to every Olympics since Nagano in ‘98. I didn’t see this one coming but apparently Team GB is quite a force when it comes to the Women’s Skeleton, but 2018 Gold Medalist Elizabeth Yarnold has retired, so they’ve put their hopes into Laura Deas (GB) to continue the winning streak. Zhao Dan (China) and Lin Huiyang (China) will represent the home country (an advantage since they’ve practiced more on the course) and, because apparently they cannot let anyone else be good on sleds, Jacqueline Loelling (Germany) and Tina Hermann (Germany) will compete as well.
When to Watch
Quite literally all the time!!!! And by that I mean mostly early mornings and late nights. As we said in our sports posts, Elena & I will attempt to keep you all updated with a daily schedule of can’t miss events and medal moments, or you could also just tune into prime time if you’re lazy, we won’t judge you too much. Let us know who you’re most excited to watch in comments, and make sure to cheer on RESPONSIBLY folks!
