Highlights from Day 1 of the 2022 Winter Olympics

The 2022 Winter Olympics have kicked off with the completion of the initial wave of medal events on Saturday.

Following the Opening Ceremony at the Beijing National Stadium on Friday, Team USA showcased a spectacular performance on Day 0.

Saturday marked the official start of competition with six medals up for grabs. Norwegian cross-country skier Therese Johaug secured the first gold in the 15-kilometer skiathlon event.

Norway, renowned as the most decorated nation in Winter Games history, claimed two gold medals on the day. Slovenia, Italy, Canada, and the Russian Olympic Committee also secured two medals each, while host country China clinched its first gold of the Games.

Although the U.S. is yet to win a medal, there are promising developments hinting at potential success in the future. Notably, the U.S. women’s hockey team delivered another dominant performance, defeating the Russian Olympic Committee with a 5-0 victory.

Here are some of the standout moments and highlights from Day 1:

Crew USA, ladies’s hockey

The U.S. opened the Winter Video games by upsetting Finland, 5-2, on Day 0, however the defending Olympic gold medalists took an enormous hit when star ahead and assistant captain Brianna Decker suffered a critical leg harm simply moments into the match.

The loss did not decelerate the Individuals towards the ROC, as they breezed to a 5-0 victory in a feisty matchup on Saturday morning (ET). 5 totally different U.S. gamers scored, with Savannah Harmon breaking the ice halfway via the primary interval off of a beautiful no-look dish from Hillary Knight.

With Decker out, different gamers stepped up, with Grace Zumwinkle and Jesse Compher each notching their first Olympic targets.

It was a very dominant efficiency, with the U.S. outshooting the Russians 62-12. If not for the efforts of ROC goaltender Maria Sorokina, the rating may need been rather more lopsided.

Jamie Anderson, snowboarding

Anderson is arguably the world’s most profitable feminine snowboarder of all time, because the 31-year-old California native is a seven-time X Video games gold medalist and two-time defending Olympic champion in slopestyle. She received the game’s debut on the 2014 Sochi Video games and adopted that up with gold in Pyeongchang in 2018.

On Saturday, she breezed via qualifying on the picturesque Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, finally qualifying fifth amongst 12 finalists. They’re going to battle for gold on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Beijing time (8:30 p.m. ET Saturday evening).

Right here is Anderson’s qualifying run.

Therese Johaug, cross nation snowboarding

The skiathlon is a cross nation ski occasion that mixes each classical and freestyle snowboarding methods. After a mass begin, skiers competed within the first half of the racing utilizing the classical method, then switched skis to race utilizing the freestyle method to the end line. The ladies raced back-to-back 7.5-kilometer legs.

Johaug fought wind and frigid temperatures to win by snowboarding away from a chase group of 4. Russian athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, the present general World Cup chief, pulled away from the group on the final climb to take the silver. Teresa Stadlober of Austria adopted simply behind for the bronze medal.

Crew USA, curling

After beginning the combined doubles Olympic curling match 1-2, the US scored a much-needed victory over Sweden, 8-7, on Friday to push its report to 2-2. The round-robin portion of the match continued Saturday because the U.S. returned to the ice.

The U.S. duo of Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys had an up-and-down day, first edging China 7-6, earlier than falling to Canada 7-2. That leaves them 3-3 in round-robin play and fifth general within the standings with their closing three matches towards the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Nice Britain.

Crew China, brief monitor pace skating

Host nation China received its first gold of the Beijing Video games, rising victorious within the combined staff relay at brief monitor pace skating, the occasion’s Olympic debut. Wu Dajing edged Italy’s Pietro Sighel by .016 seconds — or half a skate blade — to assert gold on Saturday evening. Hungary earned bronze.

The USA appeared to advance to the ultimate after ending second in its semifinal warmth. Nevertheless, it was penalized following a prolonged assessment for blocking an infield skater. Third-place China moved on to the ultimate as an alternative and took benefit of the chance.

Walter Wallberg, moguls

Walter Wallberg of Sweden dethroned the so-called King of Moguls to take house the gold within the freestyle snowboarding males’s moguls.

The Swede regarded nearly in shock when his rating of 83.23 flashed on the scoreboard, edging that of defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada. Wallberg picked up factors for his pace over the graceful and technical snowboarding model of Kingsbury, who ended up with silver.

Wallberg’s shock victory interrupts the boys’s moguls dominance of Crew Canada, which had received the occasion within the final three Winter Video games. This was the 21-year-old’s first main win.

Nineteen-year-old American Nick Web page, competing in his first Olympics, completed fifth with this spectacular run.

Irene Schouten, pace skating

The primary pace skating self-discipline of the Winter Olympics was the ladies’s 3000-meter race, and it was dominated by Dutch skater Irene Schouten, who broke a 20-year-old Olympic report. Skating within the final of 10 pairs, Schouten turned in a blazing closing lap to submit a successful time of three minutes, 56.93 seconds.

That broke the earlier Olympic mark of three:57.70, set by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein on the 2002 Salt Lake Metropolis Video games. Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida held on for the silver in 3:58.06. The bronze went to Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann in 3:58.64.

American Mia Kilburg, a 32-year-old Florida native who received the occasion on the U.S. Trials, completed nineteenth.

Ursa Bogataj, ski leaping

Slovenia’s Ursa Bogataj took Olympic gold in ladies’s particular person regular hill ski leaping, floating 100 meters (328 toes) with 121 factors on the ultimate bounce.

Katharina Althaus of Germany earned silver for the second straight Olympics and Bogataj’s fellow Slovenian Nika Kriznar took bronze. Japan’s Sara Takanashi had entered as one of many favorites, however completed fourth. This was the third time ladies had jumped for gold within the Winter Olympics. American Anna Hoffmann didn’t qualify for the ultimate.

Crew Norway, biathlon

The primary biathlon occasion on the Winter Olympics kicked off with the combined 4x6km relay, simply one in every of 9 combined biathlon occasions included within the Video games. Norway received gold, beating France and the Russian staff within the first biathlon occasion of the Beijing Olympics.

The U.S. combined relay staff of Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Sean Doherty and Paul Schommer completed seventh. The U.S. has by no means received a medal in biathlon, a sport that mixes cross nation snowboarding and capturing. It’s the solely Winter Olympic sport during which the Individuals have been shut out.