Beijing 2022: Snowboard halfpipe preview

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One of the most highly-anticipated events of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games is set to hit the Genting Snow Park this week, with Olympic halfpipe competitions slated to drop in beginning on Wednesday with women’s and men’s qualifications (women at 9:30 local time, men at 12:30), followed by women’s finals on Thursday beginning at 9:30, and men’s finals on Friday, also starting at 9:30.
This will be snowboard halfpipe’s seventh turn at the Olympic Winter Games, and throughout it’s Olympic history halfpipe competition has produced some of the O-show’s most compelling, and thrilling storylines. This week, it’s looking like the Beijing 2022 contest is shaping up to be perhaps the most compelling of them all.
THE VENUE
The pipe in Genting Snow Park is a beast – 190m long, 21m across, an incline of 18.2 degrees and the standard 7.1m/22ft in height. In test events leading up to the Games it was heralded by many riders as being the best they had ever dropped in on and, as one would expect, it’s currently in the best shape it has ever been in preparation for competition this week.
One thing that stands out about the Beijing 2022 halfpipe venue is the massive wind fence stretching along the entire length of the pipe on lookers left, acting as a buffer for the persistent Genting Snow Park breezes.
So far the wind hasn’t been an overwhelming factor at Beijing 2022 snowboard competition, and the weather forecast for at least Tuesday’s qualification runs looks more than manageable. Hopes are high for that trend to continue throughout the three days of competition.
THE RIDERS – WOMEN
PyeongChang 2018 women’s podium:
GOLD – Chloe Kim (USA)
SILVER – Liu Jaiyu (CHN)
BRONZE – Arielle Gold (USA)
Pretty much anyway you look at it, the gold medal result on the women’s side of things seems like a foregone conclusion, as Chloe Kim is, bar none, the most dominant rider in any of the competitions slated to go down over the course of the Games at Genting Snow Park.
Kim comes into Beijing 2022 on a win streak of six in a row since she broke her nearly two-year sabbatical and returned to competition at the beginning of 2020/21, and her wins in that time have including Aspen 2021 World Championships gold, the 2021 X Games gold, this year’s Dew Tour win, and two Laax Open triumphs.
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