Opinion

Winter Olympics 2022: Ireen Wust, aka the GOAT, and 'totally crazy' ski jump fiasco – Best of Beijing

Updated 29/03/2022 at 12:49 GMT

A head-spinning day at Beijing 2022 saw Ireen Wust create a slice of Olympic history, a team ski jumping competition that saw the officials vilified for a spate of disqualifications and drama on the slopes in the land of Alpine skiing. Plus a huge Tuesday is almost upon us with our first taste of Yuzuru Hanyu v Nathan Chen, while Eileen Gu, Ester Ledecka and Alexander Aamodt Kilde all feature.

'What a way to bow out' - Wust breaks Olympic record and wins gold in 1500m

BEST MOMENTS OF DAY 3

The GOAT

Sure, Michael Phelps has a thousand Olympic gold medals but if they did every sport forwards, backwards, side-to-side and deliberately slower then we would probably all have one by now. A true test of greatness isn’t the amount of Olympic gold medals in your cabinet but across how many Olympics your dominance spans.

Beijing 2022

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Which is why we’re happy to officially declare Ireen Wust as the Olympic GOAT. The Dutch speed skater became the first summer or winter Olympian to win an individual gold medal at a fifth separate Games – moving clear of icons like Phelps and Carl Lewis.

It's possible Sir Steve Redgrave will write in and complain, but he needed other people alongside him to move the boat win his five in a row. Nope, this is about individual titles and Wust is clear of them all.

Her epic run began at Turin 2006, continuing at Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 before her triumph in Beijing. I don’t know what it is,” she said. I just see the rings and something magical happens.” It does indeed.

(P.S. Sorry Michael, we think you’re great really.)

'What a way to perform' - Emotional Wust celebrates gold and Olympic record

Ski jumping mayhem

Own up, who’s had a stinker in the ski jumping?

There was huge drama in the mixed team competition as a spate of disqualifications over suit violations sparked mayhem. Japan, Austria and Norway all had jumpers disqualified in the final, while Germany – who had soared to the last four world titles – didn't even make it out of qualification after irking the officials.

We won't pretend to understand what irked the officials – something to do with ski jumping's confusing rule that links skis and suits to an athlete's bodyweight – but we do know that someone has had a shocker. It's just whether it's the suit designers or the officials.

The decisions were branded "totally crazy” by Germany coach Stefan Horngacher, while his Norwegian counterpart called it a "sad day for our sport”. To add extra spice into the mix, it was revealed that Katharina Althaus was disqualified for Germany despite apparently wearing the same suit that propelled her to individual silver just two days earlier.

Spare a thought also for Japan's Sara Takanashi, who not only saw her first jump in the final chalked off, but was then forced onto the runway to do her second jump in floods of tears, all in the knowledge her earlier DQ had cost Japan a medal.

And in another twist, Norwegian ski jumper Silje Opseth claimed that the judges didn't follow the normal procedure when measuring the suits.

“I don’t quite know what to say," she told Norwegian newspaper VG. "They measured (the suits) in a completely different way and used a new procedure. We were told to stand in a different way than we have ever done before.”

Expect this one to rumble on...

'She can't keep the tears away' - Heartbreak for Takanashi after ski jumping drama

Alpine madness

A chaotic day in the land of Alpine skiing saw Beat Feuz roar to the men's downhill title as Daniel Hemetsberger face-planted a gate, while Sara Hector won the women’s giant slalom after favourite Mikaela Shiffrin had bowed out earlier and fellow American Nina O’Brien was caught up in a horror crash.

On O'Brien, Shiffrin said: “Today was one of the most turbulent days I have ever experienced.

“We’re so heartbroken for Nina O’Brien… she showed so much heart and fire in her skiing today, and it all got shredded to pieces on the final turn. This sport… this sport is so damn hard.

“It’s brutal, and it hurts – far more often that it ever feels good. [Fellow American skier] Paula Moltzan kept saying in the finish – ‘it’s not fair. That can’t have just happened. It’s not fair.’ And she’s right. It’s just so not even close to fair.

“The warrior that she is, she will get back stronger and speedier than ever, with the same upbeat and kind attitude that is trademark Nina. But tonight we’re all just sad and crossing our fingers for the best possible news.”

‘It's gone, it's over! A nightmare!’ – Shiffrin crashes on first run of giant slalom

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Figure skating: Men’s singles (from 01:15 GMT)

This could be really special. Get ready for one of the battles of the Games, as Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu - considered the greatest of all time - takes on the USA’s triple world champion Nathan Chen.

Day one is the short programme, but over the next few days we will see Hanyu attempt to pull off the sport’s first clean quadruple axel in competition. If he does, a third Olympic gold is surely on the way.

Alpine skiing: Men’s super-G (from 03:00 GMT)

Having watched his girlfriend, Mikaela Shiffrin, crash out on her first run of the super-G, Alexander Aamodt Kilde will be hoping to avoid a similar outcome. The Norwegian is top of the World Cup standings, having won three events this season.

Double Olympic champion Matthias Mayer is likely to be his main challenger, and he will be full of confidence after securing bronze in the downhill, while Marco Odermatt is also likely to challenge.

Freestyle skiing: Women’s big air final (from 02:00 GMT)

Eileen Gu is the face of the Games, a superstar who was born in the USA but competing for China. The snowboarder and model is just 18 but she is already a double world champion in slopestyle and halfpipe. Big air is not her strongest event, even though she is a world bronze medallist.

Gu was fifth after three qualifying runs, with the talented Tess Ledoux of France second in the standings behind Canada’s Megan Oldham.

Snowboard women’s parallel giant slalom final (from 06:30 GMT)

Ester Ledecka became the first Winter Olympian to win gold in two sports at a single Games when she stunned the world by winning snowboard parallel giant slalom gold and Alpine skiing’s Super-G at Pyeongchang 2018.

The Czech is back to try and do it all again, but is targeting skiing’s downhill too. Ledecka is the overwhelming favourite for her favoured snowboard event today.

Brit watch

Kirsty Muir is Great Britain’s youngest athlete at the Winter Olympics, but the freestyle skier is arguably the team’s best chance for a medal so far when she goes in the final of the Big Air, an event the 17-year-old achieved a second placed finish in at a World Cup event just 11 months ago (from 02:00 GMT).

If Muir has not already got Team GB on the medal table, Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds will attempt to do that when they take on Sweden in the curling mixed doubles bronze medal match (06:05 GMT).

Having watched his partner, Ellia Smeding, become Britain’s first female long-track speed skater to compete at the Winter Olympics in 42 years, Cornelius Kersten will be Team GB’s first man in 30 years to take part in a Games when he goes in the 1500m (from 10:30 GMT)..

Cross-country skier Andrew Young begins his fourth Games in the individual sprint, in which James Clugnet will make his Olympic debut (from 08:50 GMT, final at 12:00 GMT).

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