Beijing 2022 Ones to Watch

Beijing 2022 12 Oct 21

With less than four months until the opening ceremony of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, the clock is ticking for the biggest names to finetune their preparations.

Four years ago in South Korea it was Lizzy Yarnold’s second successive gold that headlined Team GB’s PyeongChang return and now some familiar faces, and some new ones, will be looking to follow in Yarnold’s footsteps.

Gus Kenworthy

A RuPaul’s Drag Race guest judge, an ESPN’s Body Issue centerfold appearance, star of season nine of American Horror Story...and an Olympic silver medal.

Freestyle skiing star Gus Kenworthy’s CV is impressive but there is one thing missing: representing TeamGB at the Winter Olympics.

Having previously represented the USA, Chelmsford-born Kenworthy began representing the country of his birth in 2019.

Kenworthy won slopestyle silver in Sochi in 2014 and is a five-time X Games medallist, making him one of Team GB’s most decorated athletes heading into Beijing.

Having made an impact on and off the slope, he will hope for another starring role this winter having won World Cup gold under the British flag in Calgary in 2020.

Laura Deas

Four years after becoming the first Welsh woman to win a Winter Olympic medal, Laura Deas will hope to create further history in Beijing.

The 33-year-old won skeleton bronze in PyeongChang, an achievement that would have likely been celebrated more had Lizzie Yarnold not won a second consecutive gold medal.

Deas is a natural at sports, having captained Wales at international tetrathlon competitions as well as playing netball and captaining North Wales at hockey.

It was through the Girls4Gold programme that she first tried skeleton in 2009, and alongside her Olympic medal she has been a regular at World Championships and World Cups in recent years.

Now heading into a second Olympics, Deas has the experience and belief to shine once again.

Katie Ormerod

Katie Ormerod is set to finally take to the Olympic start line as the snowboarding star targets glory in Beijing.

Ormerod narrowly missed out on qualification for Sochi when she was just 16 and then withdrew from PyeongChang after breaking her heel in two places.

The 24-year-old was a genuine medal contender heading into PyeongChang and will be backed by many to medal once again.

She was the Crystal Globe winner in 2020, having reached the podium in five World Cup events that season, and is an 11-time World Cup medallist and has also medalled at the X Games.

Ormerod is undoubtedly one of the best in the world and will be hard to beat when she takes to the slopes this winter.

Dave Ryding

Britain isn’t a nation you would usually associate with world-class skiers, but Dave Ryding is well and truly flying the flag for his country in alpine skiing.

The 34-year-old made his Olympic debut in Vancouver in 2010 where he finished 27th in the slalom, before improving his finishing position by ten places in Sochi four years later.

And in PyeongChang in 2018 he cracked the top ten, finishing in ninth place and securing Britain’s best result in an alpine skiing event for 30 years.

Ryding’s fine form has continued recently, reaching his third World Cup podium at the beginning of 2021 in Adelboden and finishing 12th in the overall standings.

With a fourth Olympic appearance looming, Ryding will hope for another consistent season leading up to Beijing.

Bruce Mouat

After a successful 2021, curling star Bruce Mouat will be targeting two Olympic medals at the end of a new winter season.

The captain of the nation’s best men’s team, Mouat anchored Scotland to a silver medal in the Men’s Curling World Championships in Calgary this April.

And he and Jen Dodds went one better in the Mixed Championships in Aberdeen this May, beating the Norwegian pairing to win the title.

Mouat will likely be selected for both events in Beijing, with the men’s team looking to match the silver medal won in 2014 and the mixed event making its Olympic debut.

Curling captivates the nation at every Winter Olympics, and Mouat could be at the centre of that public fascination come Beijing.

Sportsbeat 2021

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