It would be sad, though understandable, if Kamila Valieva’s tears are the defining image of the 2022 Winter Olympics, though Eileen Gu is one of a number of unsung stars determined to ensure that there will be a sporting legacy to these Games as well.
When the 18-year-old American-born freestyle skier changed sporting nationalities three years ago to represent China, she said she hoped she could go on to inspire millions of young Chinese people to realise their dreams.
And she has certainly realised her own in Beijing. She captured the hearts of every nation, never mind just China’s, when she won gold in the big air, followed that up by claiming silver in the slopestyle and then became the first freestyle skier to win Olympic medals in three different events by capturing gold in the halfpipe.
No Stopping the Boe Show
Gu’s feats have been real highlights of these games, though in terms of numbers alone she’ll have to play second fiddle to Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe.
18 Feb – Day1⃣4⃣ #Biathlon – Men's 15km Mass Start
#Gold JOHANNES THINGNES BOE-NOR
Congratulations!
#Beijing2022 #Olympics #BingDwenDwen#TogetherForASharedFuture
GettyImages pic.twitter.com/05Dmiral7K
— Beijing 2022 (@Beijing2022) February 18, 2022
The 28-year-old winter ironman has turned the men’s biathlon programme into a personal medal-fest, by completing a golden four-timer in the sprint.
Boe, already triumphant with his Norwegian compatriots in the team relay, also prevailed in the men’s relay and the sprint, before completing the set in the mass start, storming to victory by an astonishing margin of 40 seconds.
Bruce A Bonus for Underperforming Brits
Team GB’s quest for a medal has had to wait until the final weekend with Bruce Mouat and his men’s curling team hoping to go one better than David Murdoch – now the national coach – whose four won silver in Sochi in 2014.
Mouat and his men have barely put a stone wrong over the last week, topping the league table with eight wins and just one loss, before having way too much guile for the Americans in their semi-final.
That has set up their final showdown with Sweden, with the Brits a 4/5 chance, Sweden 10/11.
GB won the round-robin game 8-2 though it was Sweden, skipped by Niklas Edin, who beat Mouat’s Scotland 10-5 in last year’s world championships final.
Ice Hockey Climax a European Affair
For the second successive Olympics, the final of the men’s ice hockey will feature neither Canada or the United States, both of whom exited at the quarter-final stage.
The cross country programme is completed by both mass start marathons while the climax of the alpine skiing is the team slalom where the dominant Swiss will be seeking to clinch a sixth gold of the Games on the slopes.
And having managed an incredible clean sweep of the medals in the two-man bobsleigh, can Germany do the same in the four-man event, a thrilling way to bring the curtain down on a Games which will never be forgotten – but not for all the right reasons.
*All odds correct at time of writing.