The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will kick off with the opening ceremony on Friday. Four years ago in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Team USA finished fourth in both total medals (23) and gold medals (nine). They will look to improve on that tally this time around, featuring a mix of longtime stars closing out their careers and up-and-comers looking to create names for themselves. The Post’s Jared Schwartz identifies the top American athletes to watch at the Beijing Games:
Chloe Kim
Snowboarding, halfpipe
When Kim landed back-to-back 1,080-degree spins (1080s) four years ago, she not only took over her sport — she immediately became a national star.
At just 17, she won gold in the halfpipe, becoming the youngest American ever to medal and the youngest woman ever to win gold in snowboarding. Throughout the competition, she captured fans’ hearts with light-hearted tweets and interviews, often just moments before her dominant performances.
Following her gold-medal win in Pyeongchang, Kim was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. She made the rounds of the late-night shows, got her own Barbie doll and landed on the Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box, which set a new record for fastest-selling cereal box in company history. Later that year, she took home three ESPYs — Best Female Athlete, Best Female Olympian and Best Female Action Sports Athlete.
In 2019, Kim was featured in Nike’s “Dream Crazier” ad with Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Megan Rapinoe and other female athletes, which appeared during the Academy Awards.
Kim’s rapid ascension in American and international consciousness was not, however, without its challenges.
Recently, Kim shared her struggles with depression, the constant attention her success has brought and the expectations that come with her sport, even admitting she at one point threw her 2018 gold medal in the garbage. She’s since become a leader and advocate for mental health awareness.
She will enter her second Olympics as one of Team USA’s most recognizable stars. On the halfpipe, she’ll be the favorite to win gold, and she promises to unveil three new tricks this time around.
Mikaela Shiffrin
Alpine skiing
The most dominant female slalom skier will enter her third Olympics as the most dominant female slalom skier.
Shiffrin, in the last women’s World Cup slalom before this year’s Olympics, claimed her record–breaking 47th career slalom win, making her the first in World Cup history to win that many races in any single discipline.
Shiffrin has owned the sport since the 2014 Olympics. That year, at 18, she became the youngest slalom gold medalist in Olympic alpine skiing history. Four years later, Shiffrin claimed gold in giant slalom and silver in alpine combined.
The alpine skiing — particularly slalom — record books are a testament to Shiffrin’s feats. She was the youngest skier, male or female, to reach 50 World Cup victories and the first athlete in World Cup history to win all six alpine disciplines. She is a six-time World Cup winner in slalom, and in 2019 she became the first alpine skier to win the world championships in the same discipline four consecutive times. That same year, Shiffrin became the first athlete to win 17 World Cup races in a season.
Now 26, Shiffrin will be a heavy favorite in slalom and giant slalom in addition to the other disciplines she competes in. She will look to become the most decorated alpine skier and cement her place atop the apex of her sport.
Nathan Chen
Figure skating
Chen will be looking for redemption in Beijing.
Four years ago, Chen entered the 2018 Olympics with sky-high expectations. He had gone undefeated in world competition leading up to the Olympics and was considered a favorite in men’s singles.
Chen’s first Olympics, however, didn’t go as planned. He showed the first real sign of fallibility of his career, and admitted he was thinking too much before his moves and jumps. Chen finished fifth in men’s singles, but did take home a bronze medal in the team event.
His disappointing first appearance on the Olympic stage did not cause Chen to sulk, though. He followed the 2018 Olympics by subsequently winning the next 14 contests he entered, including three straight world championships. He became the first skater to land five types of quadruple jumps in competition and eight quadruple jumps in a single competition. He’s also the world-record holder for the free skate and combined score.
Oh, and Chen has since started college at Yale, too.
Now 22 years old and in his second Olympics, Chen will look to use the experience and maturity he gained four years ago to capture in Beijing what he couldn’t in Pyeongchang. He will one again be a heavy favorite.
John Shuster
Curler
The face of American curling — and one of the sport’s greatest to ever pick up the stones and broom — will be competing in his fifth Olympics.
Shuster helped Team USA earn a bronze medal in 2006, the first-ever Olympic medal in curling for the U.S., but opted to form his own team after the Games.
After his team’s disappointing results in 2010 (10th) and 2014 (ninth), Shuster led the Americans to the gold medal in 2018, the first-ever curling gold for the U.S. Now 39 years old, Shuster has competed in nine world championships throughout his career, which netted him two bronze medals. He has been named USA Curling Male Athlete of the Year four times.
Shuster will be returning to the Olympic stage with the majority of his 2018 team intact. Nobody has ever won multiple Olympic gold medals in men’s curling, but Shuster said his team is “full of fighters.”
Erin Jackson
Speed skating
Jackson will enter her second Olympics as not just the world’s top female speed skater, but as perhaps the sport’s biggest trailblazer.
The 29-year-old recently won the speed skating World Cup, making her the first black woman to do so. In 2018, Jackson became the first black woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team in long track speed skating.
After finishing 24th in her Olympic debut in 2018, Jackson will attempt to stake her claim in the competition’s lore amid a rapid ascension to the sport’s peak. She won four of the first five 500-meter World Cup races this season, and set an American record (36.80 seconds) in the process. Previously, her best World Cup finish was ninth.
Jackson will be a gold medal favorite in the 500m. No American woman has earned Olympic gold in the 500m since 1994, nor has one captured any speedskating medals since 2002.
Shaun White
Snowboarding
All good things must come to an end.
Shaun White, now 35 years old, will enter his fifth, and final, Olympics to cap off a career that has spanned parts of three decades. For his last act, he’ll look to become the first snowboarder to win four Olympic gold medals.
White is the most decorated male Olympic snowboarder of all time with three gold medals in the halfpipe — in 2006, 2010 and 2018.
After the 2018 Olympics, White took a three-year hiatus from the sport, but returned to the halfpipe last March to finish fourth at a U.S Grand Prix event. His return to the sport will bring plenty of eyes to the competition in Beijing.
White entered the sport as a teenage wunderkind when he made his X Games debut at age 13, before becoming an international star for his flowing red hair, attention-grabbing tricks and significant amplitude on jumps. White’s 15 X Games gold medals are a record, and in the 2012 X Games, he became the only athlete to ever score a perfect 100 in superpipe.
This will be the last dance, or last midair flip, for the bona fide face of snowboarding, and perhaps of the Winter Olympics in general.
Hilary Knight
Women’s hockey
Do it again: That’s the only goal for Hilary Knight and the rest of the women’s hockey team.
Knight, now 32 years old, has been Team USA’s backbone for over a decade. She will enter her fourth Olympics looking to replicate the success of her third Olympics.
In 2018, Knight helped the Americans claim their first Olympic gold medal since 1998 and ended Canada’s streak of four straight gold medals. She scored Team USA’s first goal in the championship against Canada, and tallied two goals and an assist throughout the competition.
Knight collected silver medals in 2010 and 2014. She became the youngest player ever to compete on the women’s hockey team at 17 years old, and now is the oldest member of the squad.
A star at Wisconsin, Knight ranked second on the team in goals as a freshman and helped the Badgers reach the NCAA title game. In her second season, Knight led the nation in goals and points, both of which set school records, and led the Badgers to a national championship. Two years later, she led Wisconsin to another national championship and left the school as the all-time leader in career goals, game-winning goals and points before enjoying a career in the CWHL, NWHL and PWHPA.
