Olympic Stars Skydiver from America, ski queen from Norway and death-threatening skier from Canada – Superstars chasing their first Olympic gold

Olympic gold is one of the highlights of a career for an athlete. In competitions held every four years, opportunities rarely open up, and winning is exhausted from the prize locker of many sports stars.

HS presents seven stars aspiring to Beijing for the first personal Olympic gold of their career.

Therese Johaug, 33, cross country

Norwegian Therese Johaug has dominated the cross-country ski trails in recent years. At the World Championships in Oberstdorf last winter, Johaug cleared the table: four ski trips and four gold medals. Only the sprint and sprint message remained for the other skiers when Johaug did not go on trips.

Johaug has won ten personal world championships in his career, but the Olympic gold has only become a message. Four years ago, a 32-year-old skier suffered his doping collar while battling for Olympic medals in Pyeongchang.

Johaug skipped the Tour de Skin, after which the World Cup competitions in the program were canceled. The combination race, which will be held on the first day of the Olympics, will see the condition of Johaug’s arrival in Beijing during his race break. The trail is open to be the most successful athlete in the competition, but the gap with the following is narrowing: Sweden Frida Karlsson was able to cover Johaugz twice in the early World Cups.

Nathan Chen, 22, figure skating

Two the previous olympics in figure skating men’s solo skating ended in japanese Yuzuru Hanyun to the party. At World Cup level, the sport has since been dominated by an American Nathan Chen. Chen, 22, has won three World Cup golds in a row and is the number one favorite in one of the most watched sports of the Winter Games.

The table had been set for Chen four years ago. Already at the 2017 U.S. Championships, he became the first figure skater to jump five successful quadruple jumps in the same program. Media attention before the race was huge, but in the short program, Chen failed and was only ranked 17th after that. Chen responded to the failure by jumping six successful quadruple jumps in his freestyle program, but it wasn’t enough for medals. Chen returned home only with a team competition medal with him.

In Beijing, Chen gets another chance for personal gold.

Aleksandr Bolshunov, 25, cross-country skiing

Russian the ski star grabbed four medals at Pyeongchang four years ago, but the gold didn’t fit into the ranks yet. In the final distance of 50 kilometers, Bolshunov bowed To Iivo Niskanen and commented bitterly after the race that Niskanen breathed as if he were dying.

At the World Championships, a gold account opened at last winter’s World Championships in Oberstdorf when Bolshunov won the cross-country skiing. The 50-mile gold opportunity went into a crash Johannes Høsflot Klæbon with: the Norwegian was abandoned and the Russian who broke his rod was second when Emil Iversen got over.

On the Tour de Sk, Bolshunov finished second in the overall race, but without any race wins. In Beijing, golden dreams are challenged at least by Niskanen and strong Norwegians.

Ryōyū Kobayashi, 25, ski jumping

Kobayashi joined the Japanese team already in Pyeongchang. In both individual competitions, Kobayashi was among the top ten, but the breakthrough came only in the World Cup season that began in the fall after the last Olympics. Kobayashi won the World Cup by more than 700 points, but the season did not bring a championship victory in the World Cup.

At the turn of the year, Kobayashi dominated Hill Week and won the first three races.

In Beijing, the goal is to restore Japan’s ski jump to the gold standard of the Olympics. The previous gold medals – two out of three in the country – came from the home race in Nagano, when Kazuyoshi Funaki won the Grand Hill and the Japanese men’s team team hill.

Marte Olsbu Røiseland, 31, biathlon

Norwegian Røiseland will go to the Olympics as World Cup leader. The 31-year-old biathlete has two Olympic silver medals in the prize cabinet. The Antholz-Anterselva World Championships in 2020 were the jackpot when Røiseland returned home with five gold and two bronzes.

There are only six trips to the Olympics, and Røiseland is a medalist in all of them. In a sensitive sport, jackpots are rare. By succeeding in the main event of the season, Røiseland can be the most medal-winning athlete in the entire race.

Jarl Magnus Riiber, 24, combined

The weekend before the Olympics in Seelfeld saw almost startling combined competitions by recent standards: Norway Jarl Magnus Riiber was involved but was left without a win for two days.

Riiber has dominated the combined World Cup in recent times to some degree. Before Seefeld, Riiber had lost the last time he got on the track in Lahti in January last year. Talks about the most talented combined athlete of all time have been covered.

At the time of Pyeongchang, winners of the sport were even more regularly found in the then 20-year-old Norwegian: the ranking was fourth in both individual competitions. After Beijing, Riiber is likely to have joined the long list of Norwegian Olympic winners. The biggest threat to a man’s gold medal aspirations is a fresh coronavirus infection that leaves at least the opening distance uncompetitive.

Mark McMorris, 28, snowboarding

Canadian the snowboarder has won six gold in the slopest and four gold in the big air at the X Games. Dimmer medals including McMorris have amassed 21 medals to catch, three less than Shaun White. But where White goes to Beijing to pursue his third consecutive gold in the halfpipe, McMorris could win his third consecutive bronze in the slopest.

McMorris has come to both Sochi and Pyeongchang after serious injuries. Sochi was preceded by a rib fracture 11 days before the race.

Less than 11 months before Pyeongchang, McMorris collided with a tree after a jump failed. In the rush, McMorris ruptured his spleen and broke several bones on various parts of his body, such as his jawbone.

A snowboarder rushed to emergency surgery has said he feared he would die. However, the cuts caused him a medal attack the following winter.

Now McMorris is fine under the Olympics. The sixth slopestyle X Games win came in late January.

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