BEIJING, China — After an Opening Ceremony full of fireworks and massive LED screens, Saturday marks the first full day of competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics — with the first medals up for grabs. Events include favorites like snowboarding and team figure skating, plus there’s a new short track speedskating mixed relay event.
While Saturday’s packed schedule includes nearly every Winter Games sport, here’s a few to focus on.
Jamie Anderson goes for slopestyle three-peat
Jamie Anderson looks to make history in women’s snowboard slopestyle by becoming the first snowboarder to win gold in the same event at three consecutive Games. Fellow Americans Julia Marino and Hailey Langland will also ride for a spot on the podium. It’s three runs and only the best score counts.
The U.S. swept slopestyle snowboarding gold in 2018, with Anderson and Red Gerard both winning.
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Night 2 of team figure skating
The U.S. leads the point standings heading into the second night of team figure skating. After the women’s short program concludes Saturday, the bottom half of the field will be eliminated and the remaining five countries will continue, starting with the men’s free skate.
The competition will conclude Sunday.
Alpine skiers take on the Rock
The first Alpine skiing medals of the Games are up for grabs in the men’s downhill competition on the Rock. Because test events were canceled over the last two years amid the pandemic, this week’s training runs were the first time that the world’s best skiers got a chance to see the Rock course up close.
Also, defending champion Mikaël Kingsbury of Canada looks to land atop the podium again in men’s freestyle skiing moguls.
In other action, the defending gold medal U.S. women’s hockey team faces the team from Russia. The U.S. mixed doubles curling team has three critical matches in round-robin play. Long track speedskating begins with the women’s 3,000 meters. And the first-ever medals will be decided in the new event of short track speedskating mixed team relay.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.