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Sunday’s competitors will function seven medal occasions on the 2022 Beijing Olympics: Cross-Nation Snowboarding (Males’s 15km + 15km Skiathlon), Freestyle Snowboarding (Girls’s Moguls), Luge (males’s singles), Ski Leaping (males’s regular hill particular person), Snowboard (ladies’s slopestyle), Velocity Skating (males’s 5000m) and Alpine Snowboarding (males’s downhill).
It will likely be an opportunity for america to get on the rostrum for the primary time after being shut out throughout Friday’s slate of occasions.
There was excellent news on the COVID entrance as bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor was cleared to go away isolation after two detrimental exams.
DAY 1 SHUTOUT:People don’t have anything to point out for first full day in Beijing
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WINTER OLYMPICS 2022:Answering 10 main questions for the Beijing Video games
Males’s downhill postponed after a number of delays on account of excessive winds
BEIJING — The climate wasted no time wreaking havoc with the Alpine snowboarding schedule on the Beijing Olympics.
The lads’s downhill was postponed Sunday due to excessive winds, which add an unacceptable stage of threat to a race during which skiers are already navigating jumps, turns and uneven terrain at speeds of as much as 90 mph. A make-up date was not instantly given.
“We wish the race to be honest. We wish one of the best ski racer to have the ability to win on race day. I’m glad the organizing committee acknowledges that,” stated Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who would have been the tenth skier, and second American, on the course.
“The wind is certainly a problem, and I don’t suppose it’s going to fully go away,” Cochran-Siegle added. “However there’ll hopefully be a greater alternative than there was at the moment. I can positively respect the choice that was made.”
With the Olympics already working on a good schedule, climate points might be significantly ruinous in Alpine snowboarding. There are different races every of the following 5 days, starting with the ladies’s big slalom Monday, and officers must resolve whether or not to double up or watch for a break within the schedule later within the Video games.
However that carries its personal threat as a result of there’s no assure there received’t be delays in different occasions. The postponement of the downhill race adopted the cancellation Saturday of the third and last coaching run, additionally due to excessive winds within the center part of the course.
“It’s all the time going to be windy. It’s simply how this place is,” stated Bryce Bennett, who would have been first on the course after drawing the No. 1 bib. “If we will do it the place it’s near as honest as doable, that’d be nice. If not, it’s what it’s.”
No less than skiers, and organizers, have follow with this.
4 years in the past on the Pyeongchang Olympics, howling winds upended many of the first week of competitors. Solely one of many first 5 races ran as scheduled, with the boys’s downhill, ladies’s big slalom and slalom, and the boys’s super-G all having to be postponed.
The ladies’s Alpine mixed, the final particular person race, was moved up a day as a result of extra excessive winds had been forecast.
The disruptions ended Mikaela Shiffrin’s hopes of racing all 5 occasions in 2018. She has stated she hopes to do all 5 in Beijing – climate allowing, in fact.
“The wind – ideally no one goes to face one of many actually, actually massive gusts the place you get completely misplaced. You just about get blown off the mountain and also you’re identical to, `Oh my gosh.’ How are you going to think about snowboarding in that, particularly pace?” Shiffrin stated Friday when requested concerning the potential for delays.
“Snowboarding pace, particularly if you’re getting air off the terrain after which in case you get an enormous gust if you’re within the air, it turns into not solely difficult however very, very harmful,” she added.
There may be an added complication in Beijing in that each the pace and technical occasions are being held on the similar venue. So if winds make it not possible to race on one course, it’s a great wager circumstances shall be related on the opposite.
In Pyeongchang, the pace and technical occasions happened at totally different resorts about half-hour aside.
“We need to race, however it’s what it’s,” Cochran-Siegle stated. “You’ll be able to’t management the wind.”
— Nancy Armour
Slip-ups drop USA to second in crew determine skating
BEIJING — Group USA is now all however sure to earn a medal within the crew determine skating competitors, however its slim hopes of successful gold seemingly died Sunday.
After Karen Chen fell within the ladies’s quick program, Vincent Zhou had a shaky displaying of his personal within the males’s free skate, an occasion he was favored to win. Zhou bailed on a deliberate quad flip try and completed third behind Japan and Russia with a rating of 171.44.
Collectively, the slip-ups by Chen and Zhou depart the U.S. in second place within the standings with 42 factors, sandwiched between the Russian Olympic Committee (45) and Japan (39). They entered Sunday in first.
The opposite two groups remaining within the competitors are Canada and China, although it seems neither would be capable of climb again into podium place, even with wins in the entire remaining occasions.
The crew competitors will conclude Monday with the free dance, pairs’ free skate and ladies’s free skate.
— Tom Schad

Marino wins USA’s first medal in Beijing
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — America is on the board with its first medal of the Beijing Olympics.
Julia Marino used an enormous second run Sunday to win silver in ladies’s snowboard slopestyle, giving america its first medal general of these 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand received the gold and Tess Coady of Australia took the bronze.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Jamie Anderson crashed in coaching and certified fifth. She completed ninth general Sunday.
— Rachel Axon

Russians overtake USA for lead in crew determine skating
BEIJING — The U.S. slipped to second place within the crew determine skating occasion after the ladies’s quick program when Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee dazzled and American Karen Chen took a tough fall.
Chen, 22, skated a clear first a part of her quick program however slammed into the ice on a deliberate triple loop leap towards the top. She ended up fifth with a rating of 65.20, easing ROC’s path to the highest of the standings.
The Russians entered the week because the heavy favorites to win crew gold, and they’re in place to take action on the halfway level of the competitors. ROC is first with 36 crew factors, adopted by the U.S. (34), Japan (29), Canada (24) and China (22).
The competitors will now shift to the lengthy applications, beginning with the boys’s free skate later Sunday. Vincent Zhou is slated to skate for the U.S.
— Tom Schad
Scores for opening ceremony plummet
NBC’s broadcast of the opening ceremony from Beijing drew an all-time low Friday, averaging simply 16 million viewers from the U.S. viewers, in response to the community. The quantity contains viewership on its complete menu of networks and streaming companies, per the early projections.
That’s a large 43% scores drop from the 2018 opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea, which drew 28.3 million viewers.
There are a number of causes that would clarify the weak numbers to begin these Olympics.
Pleasure round these Video games has been muted within the U.S. because of the controversy surrounding host nation China. The U.S. is one in every of a number of governments to stage a diplomatic boycott over human rights points, together with what they’ve referred to as a genocide occurring in opposition to the Uyghur individuals and different ethnic minorities within the Xianjing area.
One other potential issue working in opposition to NBC is viewer fatigue. As a result of the Tokyo Video games scheduled for 2020 had been delayed by a yr because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that is the second Olympics inside six months.
It’s additionally seemingly that point zone points have performed a task. That is the third straight Olympics in Asia, which suggests stay protection largely happens both early within the morning or in a single day for American audiences. The smaller viewers for the Beijing opening ceremony was foreshadowed by what occurred in Tokyo, when NBC’s preliminary figures confirmed an viewers of 17 million.
These are nonetheless massive tv audiences for Friday night time primetime viewing home windows within the U.S. however disappointing in comparison with earlier Video games. NBC paid $7.75 billion in 2014 to increase its unique broadcast rights of the Olympics till 2032.
— Dan Wolken

US tabs veterans on Day 2 of crew determine skating
BEIJING — The U.S. entered Day 2 of the determine skating crew occasion in first place. And it turned to a pair of skilled skaters in hopes that they will maintain tempo.
Veteran Karen Chen was chosen to skate the ladies’s quick program over first-time Olympians Mariah Bell and Alysa Liu. Chen, 22, positioned eleventh on the 2018 Olympics and fourth on the 2017 and 2021 world championships.
On the boys’s facet, Vincent Zhou was tapped to skate the lengthy program and try and construct on the efficiency of Nathan Chen, who set a private greatest along with his quick program Friday morning. Zhou’s lengthy program is ready to music from the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
The crew competitors will conclude Monday.
— Tom Schad
US relying on Chen to remain shut with Russia
BEIJING — Karen Chen doesn’t must be spectacular when she skates within the determine skating crew competitors Sunday morning, she simply must be regular. However spectacular wouldn’t be dangerous.
With the United States holding a stunning lead after the primary day of the determine skating crew competitors, Chen would be the first American on the ice Day 2, competing within the ladies’s quick program. Her objective is to remain as shut as she presumably can to Russia’s Kamila Valieva within the crew quick program. Valieva shall be anticipated to win this portion of the competitors. How good are the Russians? Their three ladies are anticipated to comb the medals within the particular person competitors later within the Olympics.
With america forward of Russia, 28-26, if Chen had been to complete within the prime three, she would be certain that Group USA would nonetheless be at the very least tied with Russia. (First place is value 10 factors, second place 9, and so forth.) A second-place end and the USA would nonetheless be forward going into the boys’s lengthy program, the opposite occasion Sunday.
The competitors ends Monday with the pairs and ladies’s lengthy applications and the free dance.
— Christine Brennan

White absorbing each second of ultimate Olympics
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Shaun White has been relishing the small components — the final opening ceremony, the final time testing the halfpipe and, quickly, his final Olympic runs.
White affirmed what appeared seemingly: his fifth Winter Video games shall be his final snowboarding competitors completely, the final time anybody may see the three-time gold medalist on the stage that he had used to assist develop his sport.
“For me, this has all had this superb glow to each single determination, each single competitors as a result of this shall be my final Olympics,” White stated Saturday. “I’m simply so enthusiastic about every thing. Opening ceremony was unbelievable. The venue appears to be like unbelievable. Simply having fun with each single second.”
White stated the choice turned evident whereas coaching in Austria within the lead-up to those Video games. He had referred to as off coaching due to a lingering ankle damage, had ache in his knee regardless of surgical procedure to restore it and had tweaked his again figuring out.
— Rachel Axon
Olympic groups elevate issues over quarantine motels
BEIJING — Not sufficient meals. Inedible meals. No coaching gear. Some Olympic athletes unfortunate sufficient to check constructive for the coronavirus on the Beijing Olympics really feel their quarantine circumstances are making a foul state of affairs a lot worse.
“My abdomen hurts, I’m very pale and I’ve large black circles round my eyes. I need all this to finish. I cry every single day. I’m very drained,” Russian biathlon competitor Valeria Vasnetsova posted on Instagram from one in every of Beijing’s so-called quarantine motels.
Her downside wasn’t with any signs of the virus. It was the meals.
— Related Press

Anderson seeks third consecutive gold in slopestyle snowboarding, two different People attempt for medals
BEIJING — Snowboarder Jamie Anderson is in fifth place after the snowboard slopestyle qualification, main the way in which for the U.S. ladies. The two-time reigning and defending gold medalist scored a 74.35 on her first run, good for a second-place rating. Her subsequent run was clear till the ultimate moments when she fell.
“I positively hoped to get that second run, however I’ll take what I can get,” Anderson instructed NBC. “I’m excited for tomorrow.”
Fellow American Julia Marino redeemed herself on her second run with a rating of 71.78 and sixth place. Rounding out the People competing within the last is Hailey Langland in ninth after a clear second run that scored a 68.71. The highest 12 advance.
Group USA’s Courtney Rummel completed 18th with a greatest rating of 48.30 and can miss the ultimate.
The ultimate is scheduled to start Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET.
— Alex Ptachick
US beats China in combined doubles curling; Czech Republic and Switzerland up subsequent
BEIJING — The U.S. combined doubles curling crew picked up one other key win Saturday, defeating host China 7-5, roughly 24 hours after squeaking out a win over Sweden.
With these two victories, the crew of Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys moved to 3-2 on the halfway level of round-robin play. They’re now sitting in a tie for fourth place out of 10 groups, with 4 matches to go.
The highest 4 groups advance to the semifinal spherical.
Persinger and Plys’ subsequent match in opposition to Canada at 7:05 a.m. ET shall be significantly pivotal, with the neighboring nations now tied for that fourth and last spot. The U.S. will then face the Czech Republic and Switzerland on Sunday, and Nice Britain on Monday.
— Tom Schad
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