Olympics

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott posted the best score at the 2022 Beijing Games women's snowboarding slopestyle qualification round, finishing with 86.75 points in her second run.

Kokomo Murase and Enni Rukajarvi were the only other competitors to finish with more than 75 points in a single run, each posting their best scores the second time around. Murase had 81.45 points, and Rukajarvi earned 78.83 points.

Twenty-eight competitors took part in qualifying at Genting Snow Park H & S Stadium. Each of them had two runs, with the best run serving as the qualifying score.

From there, the top 12 snowboarders advanced to the finals, which will take place on Sunday.

Here's a look at the top 12 qualifiers along some notes.

Qualifiers 

1. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand): 86.75

2. Kokomo Murase (Japan): 81.45

3. Enni Rukajarvi (Finland): 78.83

4. Anna Gasser (Austria): 75.00

5. Jamie Anderson (United States): 74.35

6. Julia Marino (United States): 71.78

7. Laurie Blouin (Canada): 71.55

8. Tess Coady (Australia): 71.13

9. Hailey Langland (United States): 68.71

10. Annika Morgan (Germany): 67.63

11. Reira Iwabuchi (Japan): 67.00

12. Ariane Burri (Switzerland): 65.55

Source: olympics.com

Top Performers

Sadowski-Synnott came into this competition as a favorite given her recent form. The gold medalist at the 2019 and 2021 World Championships in slopestyle is also a three-time slopestyle gold medalist in the Winter X-Games.

The 17-year-old Murase is also an accomplished snowboarder, who landed a double cork 1260 four years ago at the X-Games:

She's also dominant in the big air.

This could end up being a duel for the gold between Sadowski-Synnott and Murase, but Enni Rukajarvi is close as well. She improved by 12 points from her first to second runs.

The 31-year-old is a two-time slopestyle medalist, finishing with silver in 2014 and bronze in 2018. She's in position for her third straight medal now after taking third here.

Jamie Anderson, who won gold in slopestyle at the last two Olympic Games, safely qualified for the finals by taking fifth. She was one of three Americans to qualify, with Julia Marino and Hailey Langland also moving on.

The finals will take place at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.

The 2022 Winter Olympics are officially underway.

Opening ceremonies kicked off the festivities Friday in Beijing, with the Chinese capital becoming the first to ever host both a Summer and Winter Games. Beijing previously hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics. 

While the action in some events had already gotten underway earlier this week, the ceremony kicks off the action that will take place over the next 16 days. 

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, this was not the most extravagant opening ceremony in Olympics history. China did not allow any foreign fans into the country, and only a select number of people will be allowed to attend events every day.

"In order to ensure the safety of all participants and spectators, it has been decided that tickets should not be sold anymore but be part of an adapted program that will invite groups of spectators to be present on site during the Games," an announcement released last month read.  

As it stands, the festivities in Beijing were as spectacular as they could be while also maintaining the health and safety of the athletes.

The procession featured 91 national olympic committees set to take part in the Games, with the athletes in attendance all taking the Olympic oath after having their moment of recognition.

It would not be an Olympic ceremony without someone going shirtless, and Nathan Crumpton of American Samoa took the honors this year despite freezing temperatures. 

Tonga’s Pita Taufatofua, who rose to fame for his shirtless entrances to three Olympic Games, was not able to make the trip to Beijing. Taufatofua is currently helping with relief efforts in Tonga after a volcanic eruption and tsunami.

The snowflake theme of the parade of athletes was fitting given the frigid, below-freezing temperatures Friday night. Each of the Olympic teams was given a placard that was put together in the design of a snowflake featured in the ceremony.

The United States was represented by Brittany Bowe and John Shuster as flag bearers. 

Friday featured a light schedule for women's hockey at the 2022 Olympics with just two games. 

China and the Russian Olympic Committee began their quest for gold in Beijing with victories. Both teams scored three unanswered goals to pull away in their respective wins. 

Polina Bolgareva finished with a hat trick in the Russian Olympic Committee's 5-2 victory over Switzerland. 

Friday's Results 

China 3, Denmark 1

Russian Olympic Committee 5, Switzerland 2 

Group A Standings (Goal Differential)

1. Canada 1-0-0-0, 3 points (plus-12)

2. United States 1-0-0-0, 3 points (plus-3)

3. Russian Olympic Committee 1-0-0-0, 3 points (plus-3)

4. Finland 0-0-0-1, 0 points (minus-3)

5. Switzerland 0-0-0-2, 0 points (minus-14)

Group B Standings (Goal Differential)

1. Czech Republic 1-0-0-0, 3 points (plus-2)

2. Japan 1-0-0-0, 3 points (plus-2)

3. China 1-0-0-1, 3 points (Zero)

4. Sweden 0-0-0-1, 0 points (minus-2)

5. Denmark 0-0-0-1, 0 points (minus-2)

China and Denmark played a thriller in the first game on Friday. Malene Frandsen made history when she scored the first Olympic goal for the Danish women's team in the first period to give her squad a 1-0 lead. 

Denmark was able to maintain its advantage until late in the second period. Yu Baiwei and Wang Yuting assisted Lin Qiqi to get China on the board. 

The game looked like it was headed for overtime with the score tied 1-1 in the final minute of regulation. Qiqi took over at that point, though, first by setting up Lin Ni on the go-ahead goal with 50.9 seconds left to play. 

After Denmark pulled goalie Cassandra Repstock-Romme to get an extra skater on the ice, Qiqi sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 32 seconds left to play. 

The win marked China's first women's hockey victory at the Olympics since Feb. 12, 1998. This is the country's first appearance at the Winter Games since finishing seventh overall in 2010. 

Denmark has a quick turnaround for its next game against Japan on Saturday at 3:40 a.m. ET. China will square off with Japan on Sunday at 3:40 a.m. ET. 

Things weren't quite as dramatic in the Russian Olympic Committee's 5-2 win over Switzerland, though it did feature its own type of excitement. 

Yekaterina Dobrodeyeva put the Russians ahead 1-0 less than six minutes into the first period.

A penalty on Yelena Dergachyova gave Switzerland a power-play opportunity late in the first period, though, and Lara Stalder took advantage of it with a game-tying goal with 2:44 remaining before the first intermission. 

The good vibes didn't last long for Switzerland, as Bolgareva put the Russian Olympic Committee back on top 13 seconds after Stalder's goal. 

The Swiss team got back into the game on Alina Muller's shorthanded marker in the second period. The Russian Olympic Committee kicked things into gear from that point, starting with Anna Shibanova's go-ahead goal with 9:30 remaining in the second period. 

Bolgareva scored two goals in less than five minutes of game time between the end of the second period and start of the third period to put the Russian Olympic Committee ahead 5-2. 

"It was a really hard game for us because we didn’t have practice a lot of times," Bolgareva told reporters after the win. "I’m really happy. It’s my first Olympics. My teammates did it all for me. They gave me perfect passes."

Maria Sorokina stopped 28 of 30 shots in goal for the Russian Olympic Committee. Swiss counterpart Andrea Braendli fared much better in this game than she did in the opener, when Canada scored 12 goals on 70 shots. The 24-year-old stopped 26 of 31 attempts in Friday's loss. 

The Russian Olympic Committee has a huge test against Team USA on Saturday at 8:10 a.m. ET.  Switzerland's next game will also be against the Americans on Sunday at 8:10 a.m. ET. 

If the sport you're most excited to watch at the 2022 Winter Olympics is snowboarding, you won't have to wait long for the action to kick off.

Following the opening ceremony on Friday, the first snowboarding event—women's slopestyle qualification—will take place at the Genting Snow Park in Chongli District, Zhangjiakou, China. The venue is located about 150 miles from Beijing.

The women's qualifier will take place on Saturday at 10:45 a.m. Beijing time, which is 9:45 p.m. ET stateside (Beijing is 13 hours ahead of New York). 

The Olympic slopestyle course has been showing up nonstop on the athletes' social media, and for good reason. 

The course features a replica of the Great Wall of China, which, in addition to serving as a stunning backdrop to the riders' runs, also serves to protect them from strong westerly winds.

In typical fashion, the course features three jib sections up top before giving way to three massive jump sections. And by all accounts, the quality of the course and the snow is good enough to allow for riders to show off unseen progression, which is always the most exciting aspect of any Olympic snowboarding competition. 

Let's take a closer look at the women who will contend for a place on the podium in slopestyle at the Beijing Games and break down when and how you can tune in. 

Women's Slopestyle Odds

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, NZL -115

Jamie Anderson, USA +250

Tess Coady, AUS +700

Anna Gasser, AUT +1200

Schedule

Women's slopestyle qualifying: Friday, Feb. 4 at 9:45 p.m. ET on USA; streaming on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com

Women's slopestyle final: Saturday, Feb. 5 at 8:30 p.m. ET on USA; streaming on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com

The name to know for the U.S. in women's slopestyle is Jamie Anderson. She won the first-ever gold medal when the discipline made its Olympic debut at the 2014 Sochi Games and successfully defended her gold medal four years later in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

This time around, though, the 31-year-old has some stiff competition.

New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is making her second Olympic appearance. At Pyeongchang 2018, she finished 13th in slopestyle but surprised for bronze in big air, becoming New Zealand's first Olympic medalist in 26 years. 

These days, the 20-year-old isn't accustomed to finishing off the podium in slopestyle. She most recently took gold at X Games Aspen in January, beating out Anderson, and also took first place at Dew Tour in December. 

At X Games, the Kiwi became the first female snowboarder to land a combo of a frontside double 1080 (three full spins and two off-axis flips) and backside double 1080 in competition. The combo, should she successfully put it down in Beijing, will almost certainly win her gold. 

Sadowski-Synnott also has a 1260 in big air, and may need to attempt it at the end of her slopestyle run depending on how high the level of competition gets among the women. 

Australia's Tess Coady is another podium favorite, coming off a slopestyle win at the Laax Open in Switzerland in January. She finished the season ranked third in the world. 

Anna Gasser of Austria has landed a triple cork in training but has yet to successfully perform it in a big air or slopestyle competition. 

In all, there are 30 competitors in the women's slopestyle field representing 19 nations. Twelve will progress to the final, which will be broadcast in prime time on USA Saturday night. 

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.

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Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier helped the United States figure skating team maintain a lead in the team competition at the 2022 Olympics with a third-place finish in the pairs short program. 

China's duo of Wenjing Sui and Cong Han took the top spot with a world-record score of 82.83. Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galiamov of the Russian Olympic Committee were a close second (82.64). 

Team USA currently has 28 points overall through three of eight segments. Knierim and Brandon Frazier placed third with a score of 75.00.

Final Scores

1. Wenjing Sui and Cong Han (China) - 82.83

2. Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galiamov (Russian Olympic Committee) - 82.64

3. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier (United States) - 75.00

4. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (Japan) - 74.45

5. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro (Canada) - 67.34

6. Karina Safina and Luka Berulava (Georgia) - 64.79

7. Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise (Italy) - 60.30

8. Elizaveta Zukova and Martin Bidar (Czech Republic) - 56.70

9. Sofia Holichenko and Artem Darenskyi (Ukraine) - 53.65

Team Standings (After 3 of 8 Segments)

1. United States - 28 

2. Russian Olympic Committee - 26 

3. China - 21

4. Japan - 20

5. Italy - 18

6. Canada - 16

7. Georgia - 15 

8. Czech Republic - 12 

9. Ukraine - 4 

10. Germany - 3 

Standings via NBCOlympics.com

Mishina and Galiamov had the highest technical score of any pair in the competition (45.22), but they finished .44 points behind Sui and Han in the component score (37.86 to 37.42) to finish in second place overall. 

Knierim and Frazier were competing for the first time in nearly three months. They had to sit out the U.S. Championships in January when Frazier announced he tested positive for COVID-19. 

Despite not being able to take part in that event, Knierim and Frazier were named to the U.S. Olympic team. They didn't show any rust in their routine set to "The House of the Rising Sun."

The score of 75.00 was a personal best for the Knierim-Frazier tandem since they paired up in April 2020. Knierim placed fourth in the pairs competition four years ago with a score of 69.75 when she was partnered with Chris Knierim. 

Sui and Han are taking part in the team competition for the first time. They won silver in the individual pairs event in 2018 and posted the high score in the short program. They have put together a fantastic routine over the past six months, winning the Asian Open and Grand Prix at the Skate Canada International. 

Based on the early returns, Sui and Han are still in peak form as they look to win their first Olympic gold medals. 

Breakdancing came to prominence in New York City in the 1970s, and the popular street-dancing style has blown up around the world since then. How much so? Enough that it's about to become an Olympic sport.

When the Summer Games come to Paris in 2024, the lone new sport added to the competition will be "breaking," which is the competitive name for breakdancing events. Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing, all of which were added during the 2020 Games in Tokyo, will also return.

It may seem a bit early to start thinking about the 2024 Summer Games, considering the 2022 Winter Olympics just began this week in Beijing. However, there have already been plenty of details released about what to expect in Paris.

For one, the 2024 Summer Games already have a logo. Here's a look at what you'll be seeing around the French capital:

This will be the first time that the Summer Olympics have been held in Paris since 1924, although Albertville hosted the Winter Games in 1992.

The Paris Olympics are scheduled to take place July 26-Aug. 11, 2024. There isn't an event schedule set yet, but there will be 306 events across 32 sports.

Breaking will be a unique addition to the Summer Games, as there hasn't been anything quite like it in Olympic competition in the past. There will be a men's and women's event, each of which will feature 16 competitors. Their performances will all be scored by the judges as they battle it out for medals.

Sport climbing will again feature three formats: bouldering, speed and lead. The men's and women's participants will have to compete in all three, with their final scores coming from a combination of the results. At the Tokyo Games, Spain's Alberto Gines Lopez and Slovenia's Janja Garnbret won the inaugural gold medals.

It was no surprise that skateboarding and surfing were added to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, as both have been part of the Summer X Games for years. And it will be exciting to see both return in Paris.

Skateboarding features four events in which competitors can earn medals: men's park, women's park, men's street and women's street. Japan came away with three of the four golds in its home Games.

Brazil's Italo Ferreira (men's shortboard) and the United States' Carissa Moore (women's shortboard) were the first gold medalists in surfing at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Those events will again be the two competitions for the sport in 2024.

Although breaking has been added and several other new events are remaining at the Olympic Games, a pair of sports will not be back in 2024. Baseball and karate will not be among the events taking place in Paris after both were featured in Tokyo.

The 2024 Summer Games may still be more than two years away, but there are reasons to start getting excited. For example, there are going to be beach volleyball matches played directly in front of the Eiffel Tower, which will provide a remarkable backdrop to the action.

Not only that, but the 2024 Summer Olympics will also have the first opening ceremony to be held outside a stadium. According to Evan Hilbert of USA Today, the parade of nations will be "a 162-boat flotilla on the Seine River, with spectators able to watch from the banks for free."

So, enjoy the 2022 Winter Olympics but also remember there are plenty of reasons to look forward to the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, which should be quite the spectacle.

Every two years, the Olympics get harder to watch. This year is no different.

Even if you normally keep your head in the sand when it comes to international affairs, allegations of human rights violations committed by the Chinese government have been impossible to ignore in the leadup to the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Repression of the peoples of Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan, along with suppression of freedom of speech and protest among Chinese citizens, gained renewed attention as China prepared to take center stage in the sporting world. 

Tensions ramped up in November when tennis player Peng Shuai said a former government official sexually assaulted her and then disappeared from the public eye, prompting concern over her well-being. And let's not forget that these Olympics are again being held during a pandemic. Last month, Chinese authorities quarantined the 13 million residents of Xi'an in their homes with limited resources in an attempt to contain a COVID-19 outbreak under the country's zero-COVID policy.

But the biggest controversy leading up to these Olympics concerns the massive human rights crisis taking place in the Xinjiang region. As many as 2 million members of the Uyghur people and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups are being held in internment camps there, according to the U.S. State Department, which calls the treatment of the Uyghur people "genocide" and "crimes against humanity." Former detainees allege that the prisoners face torture, forced sterilization and more in an effort to wipe out their culture. Chinese officials have denied the allegations, branding the camps as "re-education camps."

Now, as athletes from around the world gather in a display of international friendship and competition, these issues call into question how much those in power are willing to tolerate for the sake of a sporting event. As President Xi Jinping uses the world's biggest sporting event to veil his government's alleged atrocities, is there anything we lowly viewers can do but sit and watch?

Unfortunately, we can't count on those with political or monetary power to take a stand. Companies like Visa and Procter & Gamble are holding back on their Olympics-related advertising, but they're not pulling their sponsorships despite pleas from over 200 groups around the world as they strike the delicate balance of appeasing both the American public and the Chinese markets. The U.S.'s diplomatic boycott, along with those of Lithuania, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, feels like an empty gesture. And when questioned about the issues at hand, International Olympic Committee officials won't take a stand, often citing the "political neutrality" outlined in the Olympic Charter.

What's more, by awarding the Olympics to Beijing for the second time since 2008, the IOC enables, and indeed condones, the actions of what Human Rights Watch calls an "authoritarian state" that "systemically curbs fundamental rights." 

"The IOC deserves all of the disdain and disgust that comes their way for going back to China yet again," said Bob Costas, the former NBC commentator who hosted 12 Olympic Games, on CNN last month, adding: "They're shameless about this stuff."

Part of the IOC's lack of response comes from its unwillingness to upset one of the few countries that is willing to host an Olympics anymore. The cutthroat bidding wars that decided who would host the Games in decades past are all but nonexistent. A study published in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs cites the "spiraling costs" associated with the Olympics, along with the likelihood that hosting the Games doesn't have a positive economic impact. Instead, we get dead venues that become the stuff of depressing slideshows. 

The IOC's desperation—along with, of course, the monetary value of its premier sporting event—means it's willing to overlook Russia's oppression of gay rights, Japan going ahead with the 2020 Olympics despite a lack of public support and Brazil's displacement of unhoused people in the leadup to the 2016 Olympics. Now, it means ignoring what many consider to be genocide by the Chinese government.

The IOC's decision isn't victimless. Hosting big events like the Olympics is an effective tool for "sportswashing," or using sporting events or teams to distract from political issues like human rights abuses. Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, warned that those associated with the Olympics should "question whether these Games are legitimizing and prolonging grave abuses." Indeed, Xi stated that he hopes the Games will "show a good image of our country and demonstrate our nation's commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind." In 2008, then vice president and in charge of preparations for the Games, he called a safe Olympics "the most important symbol of the country's international image." 

Regardless of where the Olympics are held, they have negative consequences on the communities that are supposed to reap the rewards. Citizens are displaced, public funds are misspent and overspent, and cities are militarized for the sake of a spectacle that is meant to represent a nation's greatness.

Potential solutions exist for these problems, like hosting the Games in the same city each time or having a few cities rotate the responsibility. Alternatively, the format could change entirely. It could be time to question the things we take for granted each Olympic cycle, like why all these events have to happen in the same place.

But change will only come if the risks of hosting—or, in the case of the IOC, organizing—the Olympics start to dramatically outweigh the rewards that come with sportswashing. The Olympics will only change if we change how we think about the Olympics. One potential outcome of Beijing 2022 is that media coverage of the alleged genocide will make the public see the Games as a gaudy display of nationalism used by governments to cover up injustices (call it an Olympic rebranding). When Americans see the opening ceremony in Los Angeles in 2028, it may evoke disgust over what it took to get there, rather than national pride. And maybe someday everyone will be able to enjoy the world's biggest sporting event without pangs of guilt.

For a brand as well protected as the Olympics, it's probably too much to ask. But a girl can dream.