Olympic Recap: February 6

The United States won their first two medals of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on Sunday. Jaelin Kauf of Alta, Wyoming won the silver medal in the women’s moguls, and Julia Marino of Westport, Connecticut won the silver medal in the women’s slopestyle snowboarding.

In the women’s moguls, Kauf posted a score of 80.28. She was in first place with one mogulist left in the super final, and then Jakara Anthony of Australia delivered with a gold medal winning score of 83.09 points. It was Australia’s sixth gold medal all-time at the Olympic Winter Games. Anastasiia Smirnova posted the third best score of 77.72 points to take the bronze. Anthony reached the podium by 2.92 points over Perrine Laffont of France, who had a fourth place score of 77.36 points.

In women’s slopestyle snowboarding, Marino posted a score of 87.68 points. Just like Kauf in the women’s moguls final, Marino was in first place with one competitor left. It was Zoi Sadowski Synnott’s time to make Olympic history, as we predicted before the Olympic Winter Games. Sadowski Synnott became the very first Winter Olympic gold medalist ever from New Zealand as she had a winning score of 92.88 points. Tess Coady of Australia won the bronze medal with a score of 84.15 points. Marino earned a medal by 6.27 points over Laurie Blouin of Canada, who finished in fourth place with a score of 81.41 points.

In speed skating, there was another Olympic record set. Just one day after Irene Schouten of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the women’s 3000 metres with an Olympic record time of 3:56.93, Nils van der Poel of Sweden set the Olympic record in the men’s 5000 metres with a time of 6:08.84. Van der Poel also has the world record in the event, as he posted a time of 6:01.56 at a World Cup in Salt Lake City in December.

Like Sadowski-Synnott, we successfully predicted Alexander Bolshunov of the Russian Olympic Committee would win the men’s 30km skiathlon in cross-country skiing and Johannes Ludwig of Germany to win gold in men’s singles luge. Meanwhile in normal hill ski jumping, Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan won gold,

In team competitions, Australia stunned Canada 10-8 in mixed doubles curling. Australia was once up 7-0 after four ends. Meanwhile in women’s hockey, the United States trounced Switzerland 8-0 to improve to 3-0. They next play Canada on Monday night at 11 p.m. ET.