Team USA won the first gold medal on Day 5 and on Day 6 there were some notable gold medal wins for them.
Team USA won gold in the first-ever Mixed Team Aerials Freestyle Skiing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. This is the first gold for the US in Aerial Freestyle Skiing since 1998. China finished in second position and Canada finished in third position.
The next US star on Day 6 was Nathan Chen, the world’s most dominant skater in recent year,won gold in Men’s Singles Figure Skating. The 22-year-old skater went into today’s event in first place after a world record breaking performance at the short program earlier. Chen earned a standing ovation after completing his routine to an Elton John medley to finish with an overall score of 332.60, three points off his world record.
The ‘quad king’ opened with a quadruple flip, followed by a triple toe loop. He performed a total of five quad jumps, including a quadruple lutz . Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama took silver with his compatriot Shoma Uno earning bronze.
After Chen’s near-flawless performance, it was Chole Kim of the USA who drew the most attention. The defending champion won gold in the Women’s Snowboarding Halfpipe, pulling far into the lead with her first run. Though falling in her second and third runs, she was able to finish at a final score of 94. Queralt Castellet of Spain won silver with a a best score of 90.25 and Japan’s Sena Tomita took bronze with a best score of 88.25.
Irene Schouten of the Netherlands won her second Beijing 2022 gold medal when she won the Women’s 5,000m Speed Skating event by breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record.
Austria’s Johannes Strolz won gold in Men’s Alpine Combined, taking forward the legacy of his father, Hubert Strolz, who accomplished the same feat in the same event 34 years earlier at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway secured silver while James Crawford of Canada won bronze.
Norway’s Therese Johaug won her second gold of the Beijing Games when she clinched the top position in the Women’s 10km Cross-country Classic event. Earlier she claimed top spot in the Women’s Skiathlon. The Finnish pair of Kerttu Niskanen and Krista Parmakoski won the silver and bronze respectively.
Germany, the team that was composed of Luge specialists like Natalie Geisenberger, Johannes Ludwig Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, won their third straight Luge Team Relay gold. The event that was first added to the Olympics in 2014, is everytime won by the Germans till. The gold is the seventh7th Olympic medal for Geisenberger, who passes Armin Zoggeler as the most decorated Luge athlete in the history of the Olympic Games.
Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle crossed the line just inches ahead of Canada’s Eliot Grondin in a photo finish end to the Men’s Snowboard Cross.