(Looking for a recap of Wednesday's events? We've got you covered.)
Nathan Chen's quest to exorcise the demons from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang is nearly complete.
Following a record-breaking short program earlier this week, Chen is in position to win his first Olympic gold medal and second overall for the Americans at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Lindsey Jacobellis won the USA's first gold Wednesday in snowboardcross.
Meanwhile, Chloe Kim will take a swing at history, as she looks to become the first woman to win two Olympic gold medals in the halfpipe.
“She’s on her own level up there. She rides like a guy, which is a huge compliment in our sport,” said Hannah Teter, the 2006 gold medalist and 2010 silver medalist. “She just has that clean, smooth, style-y, crazy and goes huge. She’s always pushed it.”
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What is ROC at the Winter Olympics?
Russia's involvement in a doping scandal is once again in the spotlight for the 2022 Beijing Olympics with its athletes unable to compete under their country's name for the third Olympics in a row.
RELATED: Team medals for figure skating delayed by Russian drug test
While Russia can't participate in the games, a loophole allows its athletes to as long as they adhere to certain rules, like not wearing the Russian flag or singing the Russian national anthem.
Athletes are able to compete under the umbrella of an organization called the ROC, which stands for Russian Olympic Committee. It effectively renders the Olympic ban against Russia for its doping program to a symbolic gesture by allowing its clean athletes to still participate.
-- Michelle Shen
Figure skating will stop calling women skaters 'ladies'
In 1924, figure skating became the first sport in the Winter Olympics to allow women to compete. But though the men competed under categories for “men,” women could onlycompete under “ladies.”
Figure skating is also the last winter sport to change that naming convention: The 2022 Winter Olympics is the first to let women compete as women, not ladies. It’s a subtle change — one that audiences may miss — but a meaningful one. For a century, figure skating has clung to rigid gender rules, about everything from costumes to who can compete as a pair, that have enforced specific expectations about how athletes should look or behave. Some skaters have even reported hiding their gender identity in order to conform.
This year, more out LGBTQ skaters, including the first out nonbinary Winter Olympian, will compete in the Games than ever before. This year there will be nine openly LGBTQ figure skaters in Beijing. There were three in 2018 and none in 2014.
-- Chabeli Carrazana, The 19th
Olympic ice a proving ground for future NHL stars
When the Olympic Athletes of Russia won the gold medal in the non-NHL 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, some prominent future NHL players were on the roster.
Forward Kirill Kaprizov, who scored the overtime winner in the gold medal game, would become NHL rookie of the year last season and an All-Star this season with the Minnesota Wild. Backup goalie Ilya Sorokin is establishing himself as the No. 1 goalie with the New York Islanders. Igor Shesterkin, the extra goalie in those Games, is a midseason favorite for the Vezina Trophy with the New York Rangers.
U.S. forward Troy Terry, meanwhile, made the NHL All-Star Game with the Anaheim Ducks during a breakout season.
The NHL won't have players at the Beijing Olympics. But with the men's hockey competition getting underway, we've identified six 2022 Olympians (three from Team USA) who could develop into key players in the NHL.
– Mike Brehm
Long road back to Olympics for cross-country skier Rosie Brennan
Rosie Brennan simply wasn’t feeling like herself at the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in 2018.
"I was just really exhausted all the time," said Brennan, who at age 29 had made her first U.S. Olympic team in cross country skiing, but finished 58th in the 15-kilometer skiathlon. "It was almost like an out-of-body experience."
Months later, Brennan found out she’d been suffering from mononucleosis. To add insult to illness, she was dropped by the U.S. national team for the second time due to her subpar results that season.
Brennan thought about calling it a career, but the perseverance that drives cross country skiers kept her on track.
Back for her second Winter Olympics, Brennan, 33, finishing 14th Saturday in the skiathlon. She hopes to compete in every women’s cross country event in Beijing. Start lists have not been announced.
– Karen Rosen
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