Five things to watch at Beijing Winter Olympics on Saturday

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This article was published 03/02/2022 (1361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first medals of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will be handed out Saturday, including one in moguls, where Canadian Mikael Kingsbury is expected to compete for gold. Elsewhere, hardware will be handed out in the short-track speedskating mixed relay race, with a strong chance at a Canadian podium finish, and Canada’s women’s hockey team is in action against a strong Finland squad.

Here are five things to watch at the Beijing Games on Saturday, Feb. 5.

Kingsbury likely going for gold

Canadian moguls star Mikael Kingsbury will likely be skiing for his third Olympic medal and will be gunning for his second consecutive Olympic gold, to become only the second freestyle skier in history to repeat as Olympic champion. The first to do so was Alexandre Bilodeau, who accomplished the feat in the 2010 and 2014 Games. All three final rounds of the men’s moguls event will take place on Saturday.

Canada a strong medal contender in short-track mixed relay

Medals will be handed out on the short track Saturday, with the mixed team relay playing through from the quarterfinals all the way to the A and B final. Canada’s team is expected to be a strong podium threat in the event, which is making its Olympic debut in Beijing with names such as five-time Olympic medallist Charles Hamelin and 21-year-old rising star Courtney Sarault to pull from.

Weidemann a major speedskating medal threat

Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann will compete in the women’s 3,000-metre speedskating event, where she’ll enter, according to the International Skating Union’s rankings for the 2021-22 season, as the world’s top-ranked skater in long distances (3,000 and 5,000 metres). Though she has acknowledged that she hasn’t performed as she could have in the past in the month of February, the 26-year-old will get a chance to put that behind her with a strong, perhaps podium, performance on Saturday.

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Big early test for Canada’s women’s hockey team

The Canadian women’s hockey team will face its first real test of the tournament when it sees Finland. This matchup between the second- and third-ranked teams in the world isn’t likely to affect whether the two sides will reach the knockout round of the tournament (they’re both in Group A, along with the top-ranked United States, and five teams from Group A will advance to the quarterfinals), but the contest could play a large factor in seeding when elimination is on the line. Outside of future tournament implications, an encounter with a quality team early in their campaign should be prove to be a good learning opportunity for Team Canada.

Other events of note happening

Beyond the three events already mentioned, there are three more medal events happening Saturday in the mixed relay biathlon, women’s 7.5+7.5 skiathlon cross-country skiing race and the women’s normal hill individual ski jumping event. Additionally, Canada’s Rachel Homan and John Morris will play a couple more matches in mixed doubles curling, facing off against Sweden and the U.S. Lastly, Canadians Jasmine Baird, Laurie Blouin and Brooke Voigt will begin their Olympics during qualification rounds of women’s snowboard slopestyle.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb.3, 2022.