The 2022 Winter Olympics are in progress in Beijing, China and it is the first time the Winter Olympics have been staged in the country. This is the third of three consecutive Olympics in East Asia and there will be a total of 109 events in 7 sports across the games, which run from the 4th to the 20th of February.
For those who are interested in having a wager, there are several leading online bookmakers taking bets on the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of which are listed at asiabet8888.com. However, before predicting what might take place in future events, let us look at some highlights of the 2022 Winter Olympics to date, beginning with the 500m men’s speed skating.
Gao Tingyu won the bronze medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018 and in doing so became the first Chinese man to win an Olympic medal in speed skating. Better things were to come at the National Speed Skating Oval in 2022 and Tingyu won the gold medal for China in the men’s 500m speed skating. The 24-year-old set a new Olympic time in the process, beating the time of 34.41 set by Norwegian Haavard Lorenzten four years ago. You could see how much the victory meant to Tingyu and his teammates and coaches as they engulfed him at the end of the race. Tingyu celebrated as he did a lap of the circuit with the Chinese flag, and it followed a nervous wait as 16 other skaters took to the ice to try and beat his time. It was extremely tense and one of the best moments at the 2022 Winter Olympics so far.
The United States regularly compete for the medals at the Winter Olympics, but they were forced to wait until the seventh day of competition to pick up their first gold medal in Beijing. It was a special moment as Lindsey Jacobellis won the snowboard cross in her fifth appearance at the Winter Olympics. Having fallen in the race in Torino sixteen years ago that resulted in a silver medal, Jacobellis became snowboarding’s oldest Olympic medallist as she raced to victory in Beijing. Considering her five individual world titles and 10 individual X Games wins, it is not a major shock to see Jacobellis win gold but at the age of 36, time was beginning to run out and the pressure was enormous.
Not every highlight of the Winter Olympics must include an athlete winning a gold medal. Colby Stevenson of the United States finished behind Birk Ruud of Norway to win the silver medal in the men’s ski big air final. Speaking after the event, Stevenson said, “It is all so unexpected. It is a total miracle for me to get on the podium today,” before continuing, “I was just thinking of my friends and family screaming at the TV, so I am happy I was able to perform for them.” It is a miracle Stevenson is even alive following a car crash on Mother’s Day 2016 when he fell asleep at the wheel. He suffered a shattered skull, broken ribs, eye socket, jaw, and neck. Just six months later Stevenson returned to the snow to win a World Cup slopestyle event in Italy and against all odds, he now has an Olympic silver medal to his name.
Some of the other highlights to date in the 2022 Winter Olympics include Ester Ledecka becoming the first-ever repeat Olympic champion in the women’s parallel giant slalom and China’s Eileen Gu, who became the youngest freestyle skiing gold medallist in Olympic history, having put down a time of 93.75 in her first run of the big air final.
