Joe Champion
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Chloe Kim dominated the women’s snowboard halfpipe final to win her second Olympic gold on Wednesday night and more US glory came in Beijing via figure skater Nathan Chen, as the two heavy favorites justified their pre-event hype.
Kim, a gold medallist in Pyeongchang 2018, laid down the gauntlet with a 94.00 score in her first run of the final — an effort which never looked like being topped — while Chen delivered a near-perfect free skate, becoming the seventh US man to claim figure skating gold.
All eyes will turn to Shaun White on Thursday evening as the halfpipe legend — who is retiring after the games — bids to become a four-time Olympic champion in the men’s event.
2022 Winter Olympics men’s Snowboard Halfpipe best bets: Ayumu Hirano (+125)
While he may be the defending champion and the dominant force in snowboarding over the last two decades, the odds suggest that White might not be able to end his glittering career on a high and he is +1200 for a fifth Olympic title.
Those odds contrast sharply with Pyeongchang, where White was the favorite ahead of Ayumu Hirano — this time it’s the Japanese boarder who heads the list of potential gold medallists in an event in which both men have pushed the limits of what is possible.
Hirano, who is +125 to take the title, laid down an impressive score of 93.25 with his second qualifying run while White fell when attempting his signature Tomahawk in his first attempt, before advancing with a safe 86.25 run.
Hirano has finished ahead of White in three FIS World Cup events in 2022, two of which he won in Mammoth and Laax, and he looks ready to deliver gold having claimed silver behind the American in Pyeongchang.
Australia’s Scotty James, the current X Games superpipe champion (+250), won bronze in 2018 and is the biggest threat to the Japanese along with his compatriots Ruka Hirano (no relation) and Yuto Totsuka.
The men’s snowboard halfpipe final starts at 8:30 pm ET with the last run at 9:25 pm.
Women’s Super-G Skiing best bets: Lara Gut-Behrami (+250)
Mikaela Shiffrin is back in action in the women’s Super-G following her slalom disqualification but, like White, the odds indicate that the American has a difficult task on her hands in one of her least favorite disciplines.
Shiffrin has not won a World Cup race in Super G since 2020 and nothing about her 2021-22 form — two third-place finishes from five events — suggests she will claim more Olympic gold. Instead, this could be a straight fight between the top two in the market, with Italy’s Federica Brignone going head-to-head with Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami.
Brignone has been the form woman in the World Cup this season, claiming three Super-G races, but Gut-Behrami dominated the discipline last season, winning four World Cup races and the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, and bronze in the giant slalom earlier in the week points to her peaking at the right time.
Look out too for Ester Ledecka; the Czech is chasing a unique double-double in the super-G and the snowboard parallel giant slalom — she claimed both events in Pyeongchang and won the giant slalom on Tuesday.
The Women’s Super-G starts at 10:00 pm ET.
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