Olympics

The Winter Olympics are held every four years in February. That's Black History Month in the United States. But this year, likely less than 5 percent of the 224-member United States delegation to the Beijing Games is Black. 

Three Black Americans are women on the bobsled team, including Elana Meyers Taylor, who, in her fourth straight Olympics, piloted the two-woman sled to a bronze medal Saturday, behind two German sleds. Meyers Taylor also won silver last week in the new monobob event. There is one male bobsledder, Hakeem Abdul-Saboor. Others compete in skeleton (Kelly Curtis) and speedskating (Erin Jackson and Maame Biney). There are no Black Alpine skiers, snowboarders, or freestyle skiers on Team USA.

Although Team USA boasts Asian American stars like Chloe Kim and Nathan Chen, both gold medalists, Asian American athletes comprised less than 10 percent of the 2018 Olympic team and the representation is likely similar in Beijing, although four out of the six American figure skaters, including Chen, in individual events are of Chinese descent. 

Abby Roque is the first Indigenous woman on the U.S. women's hockey team but is also its only player of color in Beijing. 

There is a distinct dearth of diversity in the Winter Olympics overall, too. At the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, just 43 of 2,952 athletes, or 1.45 percent, were Black. In Beijing, the number is likely to be even fewer because of a decision by the International Olympic Committee to end a continental quota system for the sliding sports (bobsledding, skeleton, and luge) that had helped African athletes, most of them Black, reach the Games. Only six African athletes from five countries will compete in Beijing, all of them Alpine or cross-country skiers and most of whom live and/or train in Europe. No African athlete has ever medaled in the Winter Olympics. 

While many Asian nations are represented among the 2,871 athletes from 91 countries competing in Beijing, only China, with 174 athletes, Japan, with 124, and South Korea, with 64, have sizable delegations. Several Asian countries only send one or two athletes to the Winter Games, including India, Pakistan and Malaysia. 

Besides Roque, just four other Indigenous athletes are known to be competing in Beijing: Two on Canada's women's hockey team, one Canadian snowboarder and a Danish athlete from Greenland in the biathlon. 

How to increase the participation of athletes of color in winter sports is a complicated question with many small solutions that could, over time, add up to broader representation, domestically and globally, at the Olympics. 

To aid increasing diversity on a global scale, the IOC acknowledging the importance of equity in increasing diversity in winter sports would be a huge boon for domestic federations as they seek to do the same. 

The IOC should reinstate continental quotas for all sports. Quotas do not dilute the playing field; rather, they even it by providing athletes with the financial support they need to travel and train. For Black athletes coming from an African or a Caribbean country with few resources and no snow or ice, that support can be invaluable, as Akwasi Frimpong of Ghana told Sports Illustrated's Alex Prewitt. Frimpong, who competed in Pyeongchang, was the first Black male skeleton athlete at the Olympics and singlehandedly runs Ghana's bobsled and skeleton federation. "It's not that we're less talented," Frimpong told Prewitt. "We don't have the dedicated infrastructure. We don't have the knowledge. It takes support."

Winter sports, generally speaking, tend to be restrictive in a few ways. Most winter sports require specialized equipment. Unlike running shoes or basketballs, things like ice skates and skating costumes, skis and snowboards and sleds for sliding sports are not particularly accessible. And winter sports can be prohibitively expensive beyond the equipment costs, when you factor in things like lift tickets at ski areas, ice time at a rink or specialized coaching. Ice hockey costs the average family $2,600 a year; skiing and snowboarding, about $2,200 a year. A monobob on its own costs about $45,000. Figure skaters at the elite level can spend $50,000 a year or more in the U.S. 

The speedskater Erin Jackson, who won a gold medal in the 500-meter long-track event, became the first Black female gold medalist in her sport. In her post-race interview, Jackson said she hoped to be a trailblazer for other Black athletes. "Hopefully, this has an effect. Hopefully, we'll see more minorities, especially in the USA, getting out and trying these winter sports," said Jackson. Jackson has consulted with EDGE Outdoors, a Seattle-based nonprofit "created to address the invisibility of Black, Indigenous, Women of Color in snow sports," according to its mission statement, about starting a chapter in Utah, where she lives and trains. 

Access and representation for athletes of color in winter sports go hand in hand. Organizations like EDGE Outdoors or Winter4Kids, a New Jersey-based nonprofit that introduces children in the metro New York area to Alpine and Nordic skiing and snowboarding, can increase accessibility. EDGE provides scholarships for training and coaching. Winter4Kids provides transportation, coaching and equipment.  

But just putting athletes of color on ski slopes and on skates does not mean they will be accepted. 

Meyers Taylor wrote in a blog titled "Even Olympic Medals Can't Save You From" for TeamUSA.org that she would not buy one of the fastest bobsleds on the market because the manufacturer refuses to sell to Black pilots and has used a racial slur to describe them. "I'd give up a gold medal before driving a sled made by him," she wrote, but added that Team USA owns one of his sleds. 

Making athletes of color feel accepted in winter sports so that they continue to develop in them and become competitive at the elite level is a work in progress for many winter sports. 

The National Brotherhood of Skiers (NBS) works to "identify, develop, and support athletes of color" in winter sports through its member ski clubs. And while it aims to propel athletes to success at the Olympic level, its CEO, Henri Rivers, told the AP's Aaron Morrison that he wants the greater ski community to "embrace [skiers of color] and see them as the future of the sport" first. 

The national federations of many winter sports in the U.S. have publicly recognized their lack of diversity and committed to attracting more athletes of color to them. 

Membership in U.S. Skiing is more than 99 percent white, according to a recent DEI audit of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team. None of its coaches nor anyone on its board of directors was a person of color. Tiger Shaw, the president and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, said in a 2020 open letter to the organization that he hoped to "better engage and with and support" athletes of color. 

Anne Cammett, the president of U.S. Figure Skating, where Black members comprise just 2 percent of the organization, wrote in a similar letter in 2020 that the group had "embarked on an ongoing journey to make the organization more welcoming, specifically to Black and Brown people."

USA Hockey's website reports a "commitment to listen, learn and unite in an effort to make the sport more welcoming to all." Just 7 percent of USA Hockey's membership is comprised of people of color, and no one on its board is a person of color. 

It's a start, but actions need to back up words. If winter sports do not become more inclusive, fewer Black athletes will stay in them, and the lack of representation will negate attempts to make them accessible in the first place. 

One step winter sports could make toward greater inclusivity is to diversify recruiting. Many Black athletes in winter sports have made the switch from other sports. 

Jackson, for example, came to speedskating via inline skating. She learned to skate, alongside other future Team USA athletes, at a roller rink in Ocala, Florida. She was a world champion in inline skating but wanted to pursue an Olympic medal. 

Skateboarding skills can translate to snowboarding skills. Zeb Powell, an X Games gold medalist, got his start on a skateboard in North Carolina before moving to Vermont to train in snowboarding. Though he is unlikely to train for an Olympic discipline on snow, his success in the sport could and should spur scouts to check skate parks—often more accessible to more kids from a broader range of backgrounds—as well as the slopes. 

Many bobsledders (and other sledding athletes) come over from track and field, according to a New York Times article. Their strength, speed and agility translate well from running tracks to ice tracks. Vonetta Flowers, the first Black athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Games, was one of them. Flowers had tried and failed to make an Olympic team as a long jumper before making the switch. Kaysha Love, a bobsledder in Beijing, was a former track star, as was Abdul-Saboor, who also played football. Sylvia Hoffman played basketball. Kelly Curtis, the first Black American woman to compete in skeleton, was a heptathlete in college.

Meyers Taylor, now a five-time bobsled medalist with at least one medal in each of her four Olympic appearances, played softball, first at George Washington University, then professionally for a year. After she did not make the Olympic softball team, and inspired by Flowers' success, she made the switch to bobsled.

"Learning how to captain a [softball] team and then needing to do it from a bobsled perspective as a pilot, that definitely helped me in and of itself," Meyers told Bob Reinert for TeamUSA.org. 

Meyers Taylor said that although she had trained for softball as an endurance athlete, the current methods softball players use to train would help their bobsled careers, should they choose to switch. "Bobsled's all short sprints, really heavy lifting and fortunately, those were my strengths," she told Reinert. 

USA Bobsled & Skeleton announced last year that the federation was partnering with a platform that would allow athletes to try out for sled sports "from the convenience of a local football field, running track, or even their backyard." 

Diversity, equity and inclusion became buzzwords in sports and in corporate America following the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020, for good reason. But for winter sports to truly become diverse, equitable and inclusive, concrete changes need to be made. And they need to come from the national and international levels, which cannot leave the work of diversifying solely to the athletes. 

Changes like defraying the costs of transportation and equipment and diversifying recruitment and seeking competent athletes in other sports. Also providing financial support for travel and training from the highest international and national levels of the sport to athletes who would not even be able to try the sports to which they aspire. Without measures like these, athletes of color will continue to see fewer representations of what they could be on the Winter Olympics stage.

China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong captured the gold medal in pairs figure skating after finishing first in the free skate Saturday at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

Sui and Han, who also posted the highest score in Friday's short program, narrowly edged out the Russian tandem of Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov.

Here's a look at the combined results after the two-part event:

• Gold: Sui & Han (CHN): 239.88
• Silver: Tarasova & Morzov (ROC): 239.25
• Bronze: Anastasia Mishina & Aleksandr Galliamov (ROC): 237.71

Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier were the top Team USA finishers in sixth place.

Four years ago, Sui and Han stood atop the Olympic standings after the short program only to watch their lead slip away in the free skate as Germany's Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot overtook them to win the gold at the Pyeongchang Games.

The Chinese duo made sure it wouldn't be a repeat performance on home soil with nearly flawless performances to set the new pairs world record with 239.88 total points.

Olympic gold was the last missing piece for Sui and Han, who also own two golds from the World Championships and six finishes atop the podium in the Four Continents Championships.

It took every element in their bag of tricks to hold off Tarasova and Morozov, who finished second in both the short program and free skate. The difference was less than a half-point in each segment.

Even the score posted by Mishina and Galliamov (237.71) was higher than the one they used to win gold at the World Championships last year (227.59), so it was truly a display of the world's best pairs teams skating at the highest level over the past two days.

Meanwhile, the other American team in the pairs competition, Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, finished eighth, two spots behind Knierim and Frazier.

The ROC wraps up the figure skating schedule at the Beijing Games as the sport's biggest winner with six total medals (two gold, three silver and one bronze). Its gold in the team event is under dispute pending the outcome of the doping case involving Kamila Valieva. Team USA would move atop the podium if the ROC result is ultimately vacated.

Japan (one silver and three bronze) and the U.S. (one of each medal) are the only other countries to capture multiple figure skating medals at this year's Olympics.

Closing ceremonies in Beijing are set for Sunday.

And just like that, they're almost over. 

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing will draw to a close on Sunday, with the final competitions in bobsleigh, cross country skiing, curling and ice hockey wrapping up late Saturday night in the U.S. 

With a handful of medal events to come, it seems unlikely any nation will catch up to Norway in the medal count. As of Saturday morning in the U.S., Norway has the most overall medals (34) and the most golds (15). That's a new record for gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics. 

The United States has 21 total medals, which currently ranks third, and eight gold medals. 

Just like in the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony will be held at the Beijing National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird's Nest, and directed by Oscar nominee Zhang Yimou.

Everything you need to know to tune in to the closing ceremony, as well as what to watch for when you do, is below. 

Olympics Closing Ceremony

Date: Sunday, Feb. 20

Time: 7 a.m. ET (re-airs in primetime at 8 p.m. ET)

TV: NBC (primetime)

Live Stream: Peacock and NBCOlympics.com (first airing)

NBC has announced (h/t Deadline) that figure skating announcers Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir and sportscaster Terry Gannon will have the call of the closing ceremony. The three also announced the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games. 

Don't expect to see nearly as many athletes attend the closing ceremony as did the opening ceremony on Feb. 4. Given COVID-19 protocols, many athletes have been departing Beijing at the conclusion of their events. 

The athletes who will still be on hand Sunday for their final events include men's hockey players for Finland and the Russian Olympic Committee, who are facing off in the gold-medal game; female curlers from Great Britain and Japan, who are competing in their gold-medal game; women's cross-country skiers and male bobsledders. 

Athletes who have events on Saturday may attend the closing ceremony, as well. 

There won't be many spectators in attendance at the Bird's Nest, and the ones who are will have been selected by Chinese organizers. 

Yimou's artistic program will likely be smaller in nature than the opening ceremony. There are no confirmed performers announced as of yet. 

The hallmark of the closing ceremony will be Beijing handing the Olympics flag off to Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, as Italy will host the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games. The Italian Olympic Committee will also likely make a presentation to kick off its own preparations for the Games. 

The Olympic flame will also be extinguished. 

Team USA elected bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor as the United States' flag bearer for the closing ceremony. She had been slated to perform the role in the opening ceremony but tested positive for COVID-19, and speedskater Brittany Bowe took her place. 

Unlike in the opening ceremony, in the closing ceremony, athletes aren't grouped by nation when they march behind the flag bearers but rather march together. 

If you're not able to watch the live ceremony or the prime-time re-air, NBC will also broadcast the closing ceremony at 11:35 p.m. ET.  

Team USA figure skaters who sought to receive their silver medal from the team event early in the 2022 Winter Olympics before they leave Beijing had an appeal rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Saturday.

Les Carpenter of the Washington Post reported the CAS sided with the International Olympic Committee after the Associated Press' Eddie Pells previously reported on the appeal and the push for a "rapid ruling" ahead of the closing ceremonies on Sunday.

The medals are being withheld after the IOC announced events where Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who's under investigation following a positive drug test in December, finished on the podium wouldn't feature medal ceremonies until her case concludes.

Valieva and the Russian Olympic Committee won the team event, which took place Feb. 4 through Feb. 7 and featured eight separate disciplines. Japan secured the bronze.

The U.S. skaters also sent a letter to IOC president Thomas Bach saying the governing body's "own rules mandate that a victory ceremony 'to present medals to the athletes shall follow the conclusion of each sports event,'" per Pells.

Bach had offered the skaters a memento, such as an Olympic torch, as a holdover item until a final ruling on Valieva's case was handed down. Given those cases often include a lengthy court battle, the U.S. team doesn't want to wait months or years for the medal.

"Having a medal ceremony at an Olympic Games is not something that can be replicated anywhere else, and they should be celebrated in front of the world before leaving Beijing," U.S. Figure Skating executive director Ramsey Baker told the AP.

Denis Oswald, chairman of the IOC's Disciplinary Commission, said Tuesday the case will include a review of the Russian teenager's entourage.

"It is clearly a wish and a decision of the IOC but also WADA to examine all aspects of this case including the situation of the entourage, because of course you can imagine a girl of 15 would not do something wrong alone—so yes, the entourage will be investigated," Oswald told reporters.

Valieva is a "protected person" under the World Anti-Doping Code because of her age and in turn "is not expected to receive a harsh penalty," per Pells.

That said, if the ROC's team results are eventually thrown out, the U.S. will move up into gold-medal position followed by Japan and Canada, which finished fourth.

Top performers for Team USA in the team competition included winners in the men's short program (Nathan Chen), rhythm ice dance (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue) and free ice dance (Madison Chock and Evan Bates).

The Beijing Games' closing ceremony is scheduled for Sunday at 7 a.m. ET.

Sweden scored in the first extra end to capture the gold medal in men's curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics with a 5-4 victory over Great Britain on Saturday at the Beijing National Aquatics Center.

Great Britain, led by skip Bruce Mouat, forced curling's version of overtime with a point in the 10th end, but Sweden and skip Niklas Edin used hammer position in the extra end to build an in-house advantage the Brits couldn't clear.

It's the first Olympic gold in curling for the Swedes in the men's event. The country has finished atop the podium three times in the women's tournament, most recently in 2018.

Sweden and Great Britain delivered a fantastic final with no shortage of high-end shot-making, which led to a match that featured only a single end where a team scored more than one point—Sweden's two in the second end.

For the most part, it was a battle of well-played shot followed by well-played shot, which is reflected in the stats. The Brits posted a 90 percent shot efficiency in the final, a great number, but the Swedes still edged them out thanks to 94 percent efficiency.

Christoffer Sundgren was nearly flawless as the lead for Sweden, shooting 99 percent on his 22 shots in the match. Rasmus Wrana (95 percent) and Oskar Eriksson (93 percent) were also terrific, and even Edin, who shot 87 percent, posted an efficiency higher than his tournament average.

Hammy McMillan (95 percent) and Grant Hardie (94 percent) led the way for Great Britain in a match with minimal end-changing mistakes.

"God, it's nice. It's obviously been an incredibly long journey with pretty disappointing defeats," Edin told reporters. "It's been many nice years and a lot of success, and to get this Olympic gold medal now is an extra tick."

Mouat, who led all skips in efficiency for the tournament, lamented the Brits' sluggish start to the final.

"They have won nearly every medal possible in the curling world, so they're a very impressive team," he said. "We just had to have a better start and we could have probably won that game. That's going to sting for a while."

All told, it was a match fitting of an Olympic final, and either side would have been a deserving winner of the gold medal.

But, in the end, that ultimate prize belongs to Sweden.

Two of the traditional Winter Olympics powers will go after two of the final gold medals handed out at the Beijing Games on Saturday. 

Germany is in good position to win yet another gold medal in the sliding sports. It has three of the top four sleds in the four-man competition going into the third and fourth runs. 

Germany entered Saturday with seven of eight gold medals in the sliding sports. It swept the luge and skeleton events and won the two-man bobsled.

The Russian Olympic Committee is in search of a second straight gold medal in men's hockey. The ROC squares off with Finland for first place in the final event, which is set for Saturday night. 

Saturday Olympics Schedule

Bobsled: Two-woman Run 3 (7 a.m. ET, USA Network) 

Women's Curling: Sweden vs. Switzerland bronze medal game (7:05 a.m. ET) 

Men's Hockey: Sweden vs. Slovakia bronze medal game (8:10 a.m. ET, CNBC)

Bobsled: Two-woman Run 4 (8:30 a.m. ET)

Alpine Skiing: Team Event (8 p.m. ET, USA Network)

Women's Curling: Japan vs. Great Britain gold-medal game (8:05 p.m. ET, CNBC)

Bobsled: Four-man Run 3 (8:30 p.m. ET, NBC)

Cross-Country Skiing: Women's 30-kilometer Mass Start (10 p.m. ET)

Bobsled: Four-man Run 4 (10:20 p.m. ET)

Men's Hockey: ROC vs. Finland gold-medal game (11:10 p.m. ET, USA Network)

All events can be live-streamed on NBCOlympics.com and Peacock.

Picks

Germany Sweeps Four-Man Bobsled

Germany sits in a strong position to record a medal sweep in the four-man bobsled event. 

The sleds piloted by Francesco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner sit in first and second place, respectively, after two runs. The two teams are separated by three-hundredths of a second. 

The fourth-place slide led by Christoph Hafer resides 17-hundredths of a second behind third-place Canada. 

Hafer's four-man team delivered a better time in the first run compared to Canada, so there is potential for the time difference to be made up. 

Friedrich is going after his second straight gold medal in the four-man event, and he is in search of his second gold in Beijing after he won the two-man competition with Thorsten Margis. 

Lochner and Hafer piloted the sleds that finished second and third in the two-man event, which gave Germany the lone medal sweep of the Beijing Games. 

The top two German sleds have clear separation from the third-place contenders, and there is little chance they mess up and drop positions.

Hafer knows what it takes to be on the medal stand, and he can make up time on Canada in the third and fourth runs to beat out the North American nation.

A German medal sweep would be the fitting end to the country's time on the sliding track in Beijing. It won all but one luge, skeleton or bobsled gold entering Saturday morning. 

ROC Tops Finland In Men's Hockey 

The Russian Olympic Committee came into the men's hockey tournament as the favored side because it had the best non-NHL talent on its squad. 

Canada and the United States suffered from the lack of NHL players and neither side made it into the medal rounds. 

The ROC needed a shootout win to get past Sweden to reach the gold-medal game against Finland. 

ROC won two close games against Denmark and Sweden to advance to the final, and its experience from those contests should help it on Saturday night. 

Finland boasts a solid squad, and it has plenty of motivation to win the country's first gold medal in men's hockey.

However, the task will be tough for the four-time Olympics silver winner. ROC has arguably the deepest roster in the tournament, and the Finns did not face that level of competition so far in the knockout phase. 

Finland eliminated Switzerland and Slovakia to get to the final. It avoided Czech Republic and the United States, both of whom were upset in the knockout round.

Finland's defense conceded a single goal in the elimination bracket, but it was a bit leaky in the group stage, giving up six goals, including three to Sweden in an overtime loss. 

Some of the ROC athletes have played in a gold-medal game before, and that could ease some nerves, while Finland could play with extra pressure because the country's first gold is in front of it. 

Finland is capable of pulling off the upset, but until it does, ROC has to be viewed as the favorite as the Russian athletes attempt a repeat. They won gold under the Olympic Athletes from Russia banner in 2018.

In 2018, the Olympic Athletes from Russia beat Germany in the men's ice hockey gold-medal game at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

In 2022, the Russian Olympic Committee has reached the gold-medal game in Beijing. But if the ROC hopes to end up with the top prize, it will need to take down the team that has been the most impressive thus far at the Winter Games: Finland.

The Finns, who are the last undefeated team remaining at 5-0, will look to cap a perfect run to the gold by defeating the ROC on Saturday night (Sunday in Beijing). It'll be the first time these two teams have faced off at this year's Olympics.

Although Finland has previously won two silvers and four bronzes in Olympic competition, it has never won a gold. But that could soon change.

Here's everything else you need to know heading into the game.

Gold-Medal Game Info

Date: Saturday, Feb. 19

Start Time: 11:10 p.m. ET

TV: USA Network

Live Stream: Peacock, NBC Sports app and NBCOlympics.com

Preview

To get to the gold-medal game, both Finland and the Russian Olympic Committee had to play competitive matches against quality opponents. However, both the Finns and the ROC came through with big wins to ensure that they'll be leaving Beijing with either the gold or silver.

In Finland's semifinal matchup, it took on Slovakia, which had already lost to the Finns in the preliminary round. On Feb. 10, Finland cruised to a 6-2 win over the Slovaks. But the game wasn't nearly as lopsided when the two teams met again in the medal round.

Still, the matchup ended with the same result. Finland beat Slovakia 2-0, as the Finns notched their first shutout victory of the Olympics behind 28 saves from goaltender Harri Sateri.

"It feels amazing," Finland forward Marko Anttila said, per Ryan Quigley of NBCOlympics.com. "You can think about these things before the tournament or even during the tournament. Now it's possible. We have to play a better game than we did today to win the gold medal. We are ready for that."

Finland didn't generate much offense in the semifinals. Sakari Manninen scored a goal late in the first period, then the Finns didn't get the puck in the net again until Harri Pesonen scored an empty-net goal in the game's final minute.

If Finland hopes to win the gold, it may need a better offensive performance in the climactic game.

The ROC is coming off a solid defensive performance in the semifinals. It was tied at 1-1 with Sweden at the end of regulation, and then neither team scored during overtime. Each team scored twice in the first five rounds of the shootout, before Arseni Gritsyuk scored in the eighth round to lift the Russian Olympic Committee to victory. 

"Everybody who shot, we were united, and the whole team is happy that we are moving on," ROC forward Vadim Shipachyov said, per Quigley.

Sweden was having a strong showing in Beijing, so it was impressive that the Russian Olympic Committee held the Swedes to one goal. Ivan Fedotov recorded 34 saves as the team shut down Sweden's offense for most of the game.

The ROC has allowed eight goals over its first five games, and six of those goals came in its loss to the Czech Republic in the preliminary round. The Russians opened the Winter Games with back-to-back shutouts against Switzerland and Denmark.

This will be the first time that the ROC and Finland will face off at the Winter Olympics since 2014, when Finland notched a 3-1 win in the quarterfinals in Sochi, Russia.

New Zealand skier Nico Porteous won gold in the men's freeski halfpipe at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Saturday.

United States took second and third with David Wise and Alex Ferreira winning the silver and bronze, respectively.

Porteous has dominated the competition over the last few years. Not only is the 20-year-old the reigning halfpipe world champion, but he also won the last two superpipe events at the Winter X Games.

Now, he's an Olympic gold medalist after setting the standard Saturday.

Twelve skiers took the halfpipe Saturday. Each of them had three runs to post their best score. Here's a look at those results alongside some notes and highlights.

Results

1. Nico Porteous (New Zealand): 93.00

2. David Wise (United States): 90.75

3. Alex Ferreira (United States): 86.75

4. Noah Bowman (Canada): 84.75

5. Birk Irving (United States): 80.00

6. Kevin Rolland (France): 79.25

7. Aaron Blunck (United States): 78.25

8. Gus Kenworthy (Great Britain): 71.25

9. Brendan Mackay (Canada): 65.50

10. Simon D'Artois (Canada): 63.75

11. Miguel Porteous (New Zealand): 63.50

12. Robin Briguet (Switzerland): 21.75

Source: olympics.com

Notes and Highlights

Porteous took care of business early, earning his top score on his first run and never looking back:

Porteous' win marks New Zealand's second-ever gold medal at the Winter Olympics. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott earned the country's first gold medal earlier in the Beijing Games in the women's snowboarding slopestyle.

Porteous' gold marks his second Olympic medal. He won bronze as a 16-year-old in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Wise and Ferreira took gold and silver in those Olympics. They still medaled this time around, with Wise posting his second-place score of 90.75 on his first run.

The 31-year-old has posted a stellar resume over the years, notably winning gold in the halfpipe at the 2014 Olympic Games. He's also won four SuperPipe golds in the Winter X Games as well as first in the halfpipe at the 2013 World Championships.

Ferreira's 87.75 on his first run held up for the bronze:

The 27-year-old has notably won six Winter X Games medals, including gold in the SuperPipe in 2019 and 2020.

A frightening moment occurred on the last run after the United States' Aaron Blunck suffered a hard fall. Officials tended to Blunck as Wise ran to check on his teammate. Thankfully, Blunck eventually skied down the halfpipe on his own power:

Blunck, who won the 2019 World Championships in halfpipe, is a three-time Olympian.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White posted a farewell message Friday after his decorated career ended last week at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

White, 35, retired following the men's halfpipe at the Beijing Games, where he finished just off the podium in fourth place. In addition to his Olympic snowboarding success, he also captured 15 X Games gold medals between snowboarding and skateboarding.

The San Diego native captured his first Olympic gold medal in the halfpipe at the 2006 Torino Games. He repeated the feat in 2010 and 2018.

His final Olympic run couldn't deliver a storybook ending as he fell while attempting his second trick, but the other competitors met him at the bottom of the run to congratulate him.

White got emotional during an interview with NBC's Randy Moss while saying goodbye to the sport:

His first X Games gold medal came in 2003 when he won the superpipe competition. He claimed the top spot on the podium in a skateboarding event at the X Games for the first time in 2007 in the vert.

Although his days as an active competitor are over, he's still planning to remain heavily involved in extreme sports through his company, Whitespace, and as a mentor to the next generation.

He told Rachel Axon of USA Today there's a good chance he'll be at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy in that new capacity.

"I don't want to beat these guys anymore. I want to sponsor them," White said. "Not to sign them or whatever, but to help their career, to help guide and my experiences and what I've learned. Even Scotty [James] and I were joking, and he was like, 'I think I'm going again.' I would be honored to get that phone call from whoever to support and be a part of this sport in any way that's given me so much."

White along with legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, who he named in his farewell message as a "role model," have been the faces of extreme sports for the past few decades.

Now it's time for others, including Beijing gold medalists Chloe Kim and Ayumu Hirano, to carry the competitive torch into the future.

American figure skater Timothy LeDuc made Olympic history on Friday during the pairs figure skating competition. 

LeDuc became the first publicly out nonbinary athlete to compete at the Winter Games:

LeDuc and their partner, Ashley Cain-Gribble, finished seventh with a score of 74.13 in the short program. 

"I know for me, being openly nonbinary is only possible because amazing queer people have come before me and laid the groundwork for me," LeDuc told reporters after Friday's event. "So now I want to do that for others to come after, as well."

Per OutSports.com, there are at least 36 publicly out gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual and nonbinary athletes competing in the Beijing Games. 

LeDuc came out as gay when they were 18. The Iowa native spoke publicly about identifying as nonbinary for the first time in 2021. 

LeDuc and Cain-Gribble have been partners on the ice since 2016. The pair qualified for the Olympics in January by winning gold at the United States Championships. 

Quinn became the first openly nonbinary and transgender athlete to medal at the Olympics in 2021. They won gold as part of the Canadian women's soccer team at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. 

LeDuc will have an opportunity to medal in Beijing. They and Cain-Gribble will wrap up the 2022 Olympics with the pairs free skate on Saturday starting at 6 a.m. ET.