The 24th edition of the Winter Olympiads have now come and gone with a plethora of athletes etching their names in the history books across the 19-day event. Now the door has closed on the Beijing Games, let's count down the top ten moments from the 2022 Winter Olympics.
10. Sweden Claims It's Maiden Curling Gold
The men's curling tournament, one of the Games most entertaining events, ran for 10 days, with the top four nations from the round robin preliminary round advancing to the medal round. After 45 matches, it was Great Britain, Sweden, Canada, and the United States who advanced to the medal round with the top two ranked nations both winning in the semi-finals to face off for the gold. In a match that lived up to its standing, it was the Swedish team of Christoffer Sundgren, Rasmus Wrana, Oskar Eriksson & Niklas Edin who walked away 5-4 winners and created history by winning Sweden's first curling gold.
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09. Scotty James Wins Halfpipe Silver
Snowboarder Scotty James won Australia's third gold medal at Beijing when he claimed the silver in the halfpipe final but if not for a late run from Japan's Ayumu Hirano, it could have been gold. James held the lead after his outstanding second run, ahead of Hirano, before the tables were turned. The gold medal came down to the third runs for James and Hirano, who held the top two spots. James qualified second behind Hirano, meaning the Australian went second last. He failed to nail his third run, meaning it came down to Hirano, the silver medallist at the last two Olympics who would go one better to win the gold over James.
08. Alessandro Haemmerle Takes Gold In Photo Finish
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Alessandro Haemmerle won Austria's fourth gold medal in Beijing in a thrilling finish of the men's snowboarding big cross final when he beat Canada's Eliot Grondin in a photo finish. It was Haemmerle's first taste of the gold, but it didn't come easy. Grondin made a last-ditch attempt to catch Haemmerle at the end by diving at the finish line, but he was unable to make up the narrow margin needed to come in first place. Haemmerle officially crossed the line 0.02 seconds ahead of Grondin.
07. (Ailing) Eileen Gu Makes Winter Olympics History
Despite its 24 years of history, the Winter Olympics had never seen an athlete claim three medals at a single Games. That was until (Ailing) Eileen Gu in Beijing. The American-born freestyle skier, who chose to represent China due to her Chinese-born mother, claimed two gold (halfpipe and big air) and a silver (slopestyle) to become the first 'action sports' athlete (freestyle skiing and snowboarding) to win three medals at a single Games.
06. Elana Meyers Taylor Makes Winter Olympics History
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Bobsled has become a mainstay of the Winter Olympics, debuting at the first Games in 1924. And history was made in Beijing when a new athlete became the most successful female bobsled athlete of all time. That woman is Elana Meyers Taylor. Taylor won two medals in Beijing to add to the three she'd previously won across the Vancouver, Sochi, and PyeongChang Games to take her place in the record books.
05. Chloe Kim Goes Back-To-Back
USA snowboard star Chloe Kim entered Beijing 2022 as the youngest athlete ever to have won snowboard Olympic gold after claiming the halfpipe title at PyeongChang 2018. Entering Beijing as the defending champion, Kim had all the pressure on her back but somehow scored an incredible 94.00 points on her very first run to take the gold.
04. Erin Jackson Wins Gold In Women's 500m Event
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American Erin Jackson made double the history with her gold medal win in the women's 500m speed skating in Beijing. Not only did Jackson become the first American woman to win the event since 1994, she also became the first black woman to win a speed skating medal at the Winter Olympics. It was some kind of campaign for the 29-year-old.
03. Jakara Anthony Wins Gold
It may have taken 12-years, but Jakara Anthony finally claimed Australia's first gold medal since Lydia Lassila won the women's aerials at the 2010 Vancouver Games. The 23-year-old demolished her moguls rivals to win the Super Final with a sensational score of 83.09, beating out American Jaelin Kauf (80.28) and Russian Anastasiia Smirnova (77.72) in the six-woman Super Final. It was a terrific performance from Anthony after her fourth-place finish in PyeongChang.
02. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wins New Zealand's first Winter Olympics Gold
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20-year-old Zoi Sadowski-Synnott made history during the women's slopestyle final as she became the first New Zealander to win Winter Olympics Gold. Sadowski-Synnott put down the run of her life in the biggest competition of her career to overtake the American Julia Marino, who had set the benchmark with her second of three attempts that nearly held up before she had to settle for silver while Tess Coady took the bronze to win Australia's first medal of the Games with a clutch final run of her own.
01. Ireen Wuest Makes Winter Olympics History
Ireen Wuest went into the Winter Games in Beijing knowing it would be her final time. Having competed at five previous Games, the Netherland's speed skater claimed gold in the 1500m and a bronze in the women's team pursuit to take her career medal tally to 13. She also became the first athlete to win gold at five separate Winter Olympics with only Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjorgen the only athlete to win more Winter Games medals with 15.
Topics: Australia, Winter Olympics
