Winter Olympics day 2 schedule: ‘Ice Goddess’ Zhu Yi takes centre stage, medals up for grabs in luge, alpine skiing
- Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi get Sunday’s competition under way when China face Great Britain in curling mixed doubles
- China’s ‘Ice Goddess’ Zhu Yi will make her Olympic debut in women’s figure skating
A thrilling start to day 1 of the Olympics saw Canada’s female ice hockey team wipe out Finland 11-1.
The United States and China were also caught in a gripping curling round robin, which ended with team USA winning 5-7. China also won its first gold at the short-track speedskating mixed relay.
On this packed Sunday of competition, here’s a quick guide on what to watch on day 2, February 6.
1. Medal up for grabs in luge men’s single
This event has traditionally been dominated by Germany, and track record holder Johannes Ludwig and triple gold medal winner Felix Loch did not disappoint after ranking first and second respectively in the training runs.
Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods and Dominik Fishcnaller from Italy are also strong contenders for a podium finish after showing strong performance in training runs, as will Pyeongchang 2018 gold medal winner David Gleirscher from Austria who finished 13, a close 0.776 seconds behind first rank.
2. Women’s ice hockey: United States v Switzerland
Expect another fierce competition between world No 1 USA and world No 5 Switzerland starting at 8.10pm.
Since women’s ice hockey was introduced in the Olympic programme six Winter Games ago, three silver medals and two gold medals. They’ve had a promising start to the Games after defeating Finland 2-5 on Thursday. Switzerland on the other hand endured an embarrassing defeat to Canada on the same day, losing 12-1.
3. Curling mixed doubles: China v Great Britain
Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi in China’s mixed curling team will be up against Great Britain.
The China pair have impressed crowds winning their first two round robin matches against Switzerland and Australia across the first two days only to lose to Canada and the USA on Friday and Saturday.
Great Britain has been performing well across its first five matches with four wins against Sweden, Canada, Czech Republic and Australia, and one loss to Switzerland.
4. Figure Skating – Women’s short programme
China’s “Ice Goddess” Zhu Yi will compete in the women’s short programme at 9.30am.
Zhu was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. At 16 she won the women’s singles rookie category at the National Figure Skating Championships, in 2018. This will be the now 19-year-old’s Olympic debut.
She will be up against favourites Kamila Valieva, Anna Scherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, who are all from the Russian Olympic Committee.
5. Medal up for grabs in freestyle skiing women’s moguls
Moguls is the fast-paced event where competitors speed down a course full of bumps and turns with two aerial tricks on the way.
Sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe are the favourites. The two stood side by side on the podium at Sochi 2014, with Justine taking gold and Chloe silver. Justine also picked up silver at Pyeongchang 2018.
The qualification round will begin at 6pm with the finals set to start at 8.40pm.
