Tag: Beijing Olympics

Athletes with the most Olympic medals of all time from Summer and Winter Games

A look at the all-time individual Olympic medal count.

The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics officially began Friday with the Opening Ceremony, which means thousands of athletes from around the world have gathered for a chance to compete among the best at their respective sport.

The United States has dominated the total medal count with Summer Games, leading the world with 2,667 total medals before the Paris Olympics, including a world-best 1,070 gold medals. American swimmer Michael Phelps has the most individual medals ever with 28, including 23 goal medals, which is also an all-time record.

As the 2024 Paris Olympics get underway, we’re taking a look at the most decorated individual Olympians of all time:

When is the Beijing Olympics’ Closing Ceremony?

When and where to watch the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony.

The Closing Ceremony at the Beijing Olympics will take place on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 7 a.m. ET.

NBC will broadcast the events live at 7 a.m. ET, and the network will also re-air the Closing Ceremony in primetime at 8 p.m. ET and then again at 11:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. The ceremony will also stream on NBC’s Peacock, along with other services like fuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, YouTuve TV, or the NBC Sports App.

The events will take place at the Beijing National Stadium, which is also commonly referred to as the Bird’s Nest. Zhang Yimou, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who also directed the Opening Ceremony, will direct the Closing Ceremony.

While only a handful of fans will attend the closing ceremonies (and none from countries outside of China), there are nearly 3,000 athletes who were participants in the Beijing Olympics.

China will pass the Olympics flag to Italy, which will host the Winter Games in 2026.

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Canada gets its revenge against Team USA with dominant Olympic women’s hockey gold medal win

Canada gets its gold after besting the United States 3-2.

The United States’s bid for repeat women’s hockey gold medals at the Olympics is over.

On Thursday, Canada bested the United States — and got their long-awaited revenge — in the women’s hockey gold medal match 3-2 at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Coming into the tournament final, Canada had dominated the competition, outscoring opponents 54-8 and going fully undefeated en route to their fifth Olympic gold since 2002.

Sarah Nurse kicked off the scoring for Canada eight minutes into the game on a gorgeous set play off a face-off and the team never looked back, taking a 3-0 lead midway through the game. Hilary Knight opened the scoring for the United States in the final few minutes of the second on a great penalty kill effort, but outside of Amanda Kessel’s last-second tally in the final seconds of the game, Team USA could not find the equalizer.

Canadian legend — and perpetual thorn in the side of Americans for years — Marie-Philip Poulin was a major deciding factor in this one, scoring two goals en route to her third Olympic gold. Also making major strides at these Games was Nurse, who broke the Olympic record for most points in a single tournament (18).

Though there’s no shame in winning silver at these Olympic games, it’s a tough pill to swallow for Team USA against their bitter rivals. This Canadian team is the most dominant we’ve seen in years, but it did not feel like the United States was coached to their full potential, between the benching of key defensive players and having an abysmal power play percentage with such talent on their roster.

Here’s how the hockey world reacted to yet another intense gold medal bout between the United States and Canada.

Lindsey Jacobellis, Nick Baumgartner win mixed snowboard Olympic gold in epic finish

Snowboard cross is just the best!!!

Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner are Olympic mixed snowboard cross gold medalists after an absolutely epic finish.

On Saturday in Beijing, the final of the mixed team snowboard cross event got underway. Mixed snowboard cross is a new event at these Winter Olympics, featuring pairings of one man and one woman snowboarder in a relay race of sorts. The men start off the relay by racing down the course, then the women finish it with staggered start times for how their partners ended.

Just a few days after Jacobellis nabbed her long-awaited gold in women’s snowboard cross, the 36-year-old teamed up with 40-year-old Baumgartner for the mixed event as the oldest pair in the competition. Baumgartner went first, putting down an excellent run that set Jacobellis up with a 0.04 second lead.

Then Jacobellis did what she does best and finished off the relay with a stunning gold-medal winning run.

Baumgartner’s reaction to Jacobellis’s run is also absolutely heartwarming as he cheers her on from the bottom of the hill.

Jacobellis and Baumgartner now have the first gold medal in Olympic mixed team snowboard cross history after that incredible relay. Fans could not have been happier for both snowboarders after the final race too!

FTW weighs in: What Winter Olympic sports would you love to do or be terrified to try?

What Winter Olympic sports we’d definitely or definitely not do.

Over the course of the two-ish weeks of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the best winter sport athletes in the world are competing in 109 medal events across 15 different sports. Some hope to complete their competitions, some hope for a medal and some just want to take in the Olympic experience.

But there’s nothing easy about getting to or competing in the Olympics. And for the Winter Games, several events are downright terrifying — we ranked our top-9 scariest events — but they’re all awesome and so much fun to watch.

Ahead of the Beijing Olympics, For The Win asked several Team USA athletes a bunch of fun questions, including: What Winter Olympic sport would you love to try, and what sport would you be terrified to try? These athletes provided some stellar answers, but now it’s our turn to weigh in.

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Beijing Olympics: 6 wild things you need to know about the curling stone

If you are anything like us, when you are watching curling at the Winter Olympics, you find yourself having more questions than answers. 

If you are anything like me, when you are watching curling at the Winter Olympics, you find yourself having more questions than answers. The 2022 Beijing Olympics are no different.

Although many people say that curling is pretty similar to shuffleboard, from the perspective of someone who plays in a recreational shuffleboard league, I can confidently tell you the game seems awfully different.

For me, one of the most obvious differences is that dang stone. It’s gorgeous, isn’t it? I find that it is absolutely mystifying, anyway, and I wanted to know everything I possibly could with the men’s and women’s team competitions at the 2022 Beijing Games already underway.

So after spending some time researching and learning and studying them, here are some of the most interesting takeaways about the curling stone.

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Japanese halfpipe snowboarder Ayumu Hirano wins gold after NBC broadcasters rant over baffling score

Justice!!!

Ayumu Hirano deserved the gold medal twice over in the men’s halfpipe at the Beijing Olympics after earning a perplexingly low score on his second run.

On Friday in Beijing, in the final of the men’s halfpipe, two-time Olympic silver medalist Hirano was vying for his first gold in the event. Hirano was trailing Australian Scotty James’s score of 92.50 heading into his second run, and it seemed as if the Japanese snowboarder put down an all-timer of a run after pulling off a triple cork 1440.

The run seemed to be pretty clean by the eye test, but instead of a huge score, Hirano was only given a 91.75, putting him squarely in second place. The score drew the ire of NBC broadcaster — and former snowboarder himself — Todd Richards, who had an epic rant live on air trashing the judges’ credibility.

The crowd in Beijing too was not pleased with the judges’ scoring.

Thankfully, for everyone involved, Hirano had an even better run on his third attempt, a run which won him gold after he nailed two triple corks for a score of 96.00.

Richards also was relieved at the justice given to Hirano after such an incredible sequence of events.

Good for Hirano, who absolutely stuck it to the judges with that last run, and won gold in the process! You can’t ask for a better ending than that.

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How Mike Tirico’s double duty with the Super Bowl in L.A. and Winter Olympics in Beijing will work

Mike Tirico is hosting coverage of the Olympics AND the Super Bowl.

NBC has the rights to the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, which means one of its top broadcasters will be on double hosting duty.

Mike Tirico, who has been one of the best broadcasters in the business, has a lot on his plate during the lead up to the Super Bowl. Since February 3, Tirico has been anchoring NBC’s Olympics coverage from Beijing, and he’s doing that through Thursday, February 10 before flying to Los Angeles for the Super Bowl, per NBC.

But his Olympics coverage won’t end just because he’ll be back in the U.S. Friday and Saturday night, Tirico will still host the Olympics, and then he’ll switch gears for the Super Bowl pregame show Sunday, February 13.

It’s Tirico’s third Olympics as the prime-time host and his fourth Super Bowl.

(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

“It is a career highlight to host the biggest sports broadcast day any media company has ever undertaken,” Tirico said an NBC release in January. “The foundation of our Olympic and NFL productions are the incredible people behind the camera. It is their planning and excellence that make this possible. I have never been more excited for a work project and to quote the great Ernie Banks, ‘let’s play 2!’”

When the Super Bowl ends, Tirico will immediately return to hosting Sunday night’s Olympic coverage.

This is a historic moment for Tirico and NBC, who are setting multiple firsts with their dual broadcast of the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics.

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A joyful Chloe Kim threw down some absurd tricks in her first halfpipe final run at Beijing Olympics

Chloe Kim is absolutely unreal.

Chloe Kim is just unreal, folks.

On Thursday at the Beijing Olympics, the final of the women’s snowboard halfpipe got underway, with Kim looking to defend her gold medal from 2018. And after one attempt, Kim blew the competition away with some absurd tricks for what might just be the gold medal run.

In Kim’s first run of three on the day, the 21-year-old took to the halfpipe and laid down some absolutely ridiculous tricks. Not only that, Kim hit over 12 feet above the lip of the pipe, just an absurd height that showcases her power and speed as a snowboarder.

Seriously, you have to watch this run, which scored a bonkers 94 from the judges and vaulted her into first place.

Look at how incredibly joyous Kim is after just nailing that run.

What a moment for Kim! The rest of the competition will have to step up to meet Kim’s score, as she has one more run left in this event.

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Mikaela Shiffrin’s boyfriend has perfect heartfelt response to her Olympic performance

Well said!

Mikaela Shiffrin is having a rough go at it in the Winter Olympics, failing to advance past the opening run of both the slalom and giant slalom.

As a three-time Olympic medalist and the reigning giant slalom Olympic champion, she entered the Beijing Games with extremely high expectations from both herself and others. Not turning in the type of breathtaking performances people have come accustomed to has been yet another reminder of the pressure placed on these athletes. 

After her “Did Not Finish” in Tuesday’s giant slalom, Shiffrin’s boyfriend and fellow Alpine skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde shared a perfect message on Instagram about the pressure of competing on this level and how people should show support in these inevitable moments.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZwEvRkvE0o/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Fellow Olympic giant and gymnast Simone Biles also sent love Shiffrin’s way, just months from her own withdrawal from the Summer Games. 

 

The thing is, Shiffrin has been one of the very best athletes in an incredibly difficult and dangerous sport. The pedestal athletes like her and Biles are placed on as a result of their success – a very pressure-filled pedestal to be on – should afford them grace in these situations. That’s what Kilde wanted to remind people of.

Shiffrin appreciated the words of encouragement.

 

Olympic athletes train extremely hard for a once-in-every-four-years opportunity. When they fail to live out their dreams, especially the ones who have tasted that success, it’s not easy. 

Hopefully people keep that in mind the next time one of the world’s top athletes fails to live up to what they expect. It’s going to happen because no one is perfect. And more than likely, that athlete has higher expectations of themselves than anyone else.

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