Winter Olympics: 5 things to watch on Day 12 as China goes for gold in speedskating and freestyle aerials

As the Games moved closer towards a crescendo, Day 11 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics provided plenty more drama.

Fan-favourite Eileen Gu secured her second medal on Tuesday, with a silver in the women’s freeski slopestyle final, while Su Yiming soared to gold in the snowboard big air.

Their compatriot Rong Ge also made a breakthrough, finishing fifth in the women’s snowboard big air with a combined 160.00 points.

Later in the day, embattled Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva finished first in the women’s singles figure skating short programme, putting her in pole position for another gold, while China’s Zhu Yi found redemption on the ice, despite not making it through to the free skate segment.

Day 12 of the Olympics has more action in store, as Hong Kong makes another appearance and China goes for gold in multiple events.

Adrian Yung returns

Hong Kong’s Adrian Yung Hau-tsuen makes his second appearance in a 12.10pm slalom qualifier. The 17-year-old struggled in Sunday’s giant slalom run, amid poor weather as real snow fell on the artificial Beijing slopes.

Yung anticipates a “better” performance, as he tries to “control my nerves”.

Representing China are Xu Mingfu and Zhang Yangming, though neither athlete has put up a stellar performance so far.

They will go up against some of the world’s best. Norway’s Lucas Braathen, ranked No 1 in slalom, is the man to beat, while Sebastien Foss-Solevaag came first in the 2021 world championship.

Biathlon

A sport dominated by the Norwegians, who have won nine medals in it since the start of the Games, biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting into one race.

In today’s team relay, starting at 3.45pm, China is sending Chu Yuanmeng, Meng Fanqi, Tang Jialin and Ding Yuhuan, who respectively finished in 35th, 47th, 59th and 81st in the 15km individual race earlier in Beijing.

Curling

China’s women’s curling team will face off with Great Britain at 9.05am, and Canada at 8:05pm.

Hopes are high for the Chinese team after their dramatic 6-5 win against South Korea on Sunday.

The Chinese men’s team, meanwhile, will be facing Switzerland in a 2.05pm match.

Short-track speedskating

China is set for back-to-back short-track speedskating evening events at the Capital Indoor Stadium, with the men’s 5,000 metre relay finals and the women’s 1,500m competition.

The men’s team have a good shot of medalling in the relay, having won silver at the 2018 Games. The team will feature Beijing 2022 medallists Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei, and Li Wenlong. They are joined by Sun Long, who has yet to win a medal in Beijing.

China’s women’s skaters will be up for a fight in the 1,500m quarter-finals against the likes of defending champion Choi Min-Jeong from South Korea, highly decorated Italian Arianna Fontanna, and Dutch powerhouse Suzanne Schulting.

The quarter-finals will start at 7.30pm, followed by the semi-finals and finals. The men’s finals will begin at 8.32pm.

Aerials

The men’s freestyle skiing aerials finals provide the hosts with a real chance of another medal.

Veteran skier Qi Guangpu soared through the qualifiers with a score of 127.88, which landed him at the top of the leader board. The three-time Olympian already has a silver medal in Beijing from the inaugural mixed-team aerials event, which he won with teammates Jia Zongyang and Xu Mengtao.

Qi will be joined in the finals on Wednesday by Jia, who has previously won a bronze and a silver medal in the event. He came second in the qualifiers with a score of 125.67.

They will face stiff competition from Ukraine’s Oleksandr Abramenko, the defending champion. He came in fifth during Tuesday’s qualifiers.

The aerials finals will begin at 7.00pm.