On the second day of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, medals will be presented in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, luge, ski jumping, snowboarding and speed skating. Of the seven events, the headliner will be the men’s downhill from the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre (Saturday evening, 10 p.m. ET).
At 34 years of age, Switzerland’s Beat Feuz (+400) is still looking for his very first Olympic gold medal. He previously won the silver medal in the men’s super giant slalom and a bronze medal in the men’s downhill at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. Feuz, who was the 2020-21 World Cup downhill champion, has significant momentum heading into Beijing as he won the prestigious World Cup downhill in Kitzbuhel in January. Other contenders at this time are Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (+200, the 2021-22 World Cup downhill leader), Austria’s Matthias Mayer (+700, Sochi Olympic downhill champion, second in the 2020-21 World Cup downhill standings and third in the 2021-22 World Cup downhill standings), Italy’s Dominik Paris (+700, third in the 2020-21 World Cup standings), and Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr (+1100, reigning world champion).
In cross-country skiing, Alexander Bolshunov of the Russian Olympic Committee will try to prevent Norwegian dominance. He is a strong gold medal contender in the men’s 15km and 30km events. On Sunday, the men’s 30km skiathlon takes place (Sunday, 2 a.m. ET). Bolshunov (+188) is the reigning gold medalist from the 2021 World Nordic Skiing Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany.
In freestyle skiing, Perrine Laffont of France (+175) is the gold favourite in women’s moguls. She is the reigning Olympic champion and world champion. Australia meanwhile could win their first medal of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games as Jakara Anthony is the 2019 World Championship silver medalist and has been extremely consistent this season. The United States have a lot of depth in the event, but might find it difficult to get by Laffont, Anthony, and Japan’s Anri Kawamura to reach the podium.
In luge, the first two runs in men’s action took place on Saturday. Johannes Ludwig of Germany is the leader with a time of 1:54.501. He currently leads Wolfgang Kindl of Austria by .039 seconds. Run three will be at 6:30 a.m. ET, and the fourth run will be at 8:15 a.m. ET.
In ski jumping, the men’s normal hill will take place at 7 a.m. ET. Watch out for German Karl Geiger, the current World Cup leader. In speed skating, Nils Van Der Poel of Sweden (-400) will try to break his own world record in the men’s 5000 metres (3:30 am ET). On December 3 in Salt Lake City, he set a world record with a time of 6:01.56.
Meanwhile, Zoi Sandowski Sandott (-120) could be New Zealand’s first ever Olympic Winter gold medalist. The 20-year-old won the 2019 and 2021 gold medal in women’s slopestyle snowboarding. Yesterday, she won qualifying with a score of 86.75 points. The women’s slopestyle snowboarding final will be on Saturday (9:24 p.m. ET).
Finally in mixed doubles curling, Italy continues to lead the standings at 6-0. On Day two, they face China (Sunday, 1 a.m. ET), and Sweden (Sunday, 5 a.m. ET).
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