Kelly Sildaru of Team Estonia performs a trick during the Women’s Freeski Halfpipe during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on February 15th, 2022.
The 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games were the most gender-balanced ever with 45 percent being women and 55 percent being men.
Iivo Niskanen of Team Finland reacts after winning the gold medal during the Men’s Cross-Country Skiing 15km Classic during the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 11th, 2022.
It was Niskanen third Olympic gold as he also won a gold medal in 2018 in the 50km classical and a gold in the team sprint in 2014.
Marion Thenault of Canada performs a trick during a training run prior to the start of the Women’s aerial qualification round that would be eventually rescheduled due to snowy conditions during the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 13th, 2022.
Thenault, a former gymnast began her career as an aerialist after being identified via an RBC Training Ground event held in Montreal in 2017.
Dominik Peter of Team Switzerland competes during the Men’s Large Hill Individual Qualification round during the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 12th, 2022.
Peter jumped 126m and when landing was travelling at an estimated 96kph.Medical staff watch the results board as Chinese athlete Qi Yin completes her final lap in the Women’s 1500m Long Track Speed Skating event during the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 7th, 2022.
During the games 1.8 million Covid-19 tests were administered resulting in 437 positive test with 98 of them being athletes.
Nils van der Poel of Sweden celebrates with his coach while holding a camera he took from a photographer after setting an Olympic record in the Men’s 5,000-metre race during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on Thursday, February 6th, 2022.
After finishing 14th in the 5,000-meter at the 2018 Olympics, van der Poel served a year in the Swedish army, ran 20 ultra marathons, did 1,000 skydives and biked the whole of Sweden before returning to training in 2020. Van der Poel said. “I would like to point out the importance of chasing your own dreams. You must live with whoever you become, and those around you have to live with that. It’s important to be who you want to be, and not what others want you to be.”
Miha Fontaine of Team Canada performs a trick during the Men’s Freestyle Skiing Aerials Final at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 15th, 2022.
Miha who won a bronze medal earlier in the week in the mixed team event choose to wear the same pair of yellow and white gloves his three time Olympian father Nicolas Fontaine wore at the 1998 Games in Nagano.
Sofie Krehl is embraced at the finish line following the 4 x 5km team relay where she skied a fantastic anchor leg earning Germany an unexpected silver medal keeping ahead of cross country superpowers Sweden and Finland during the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 12th, 2022.
Following the race head coach Peter Schlickenrieder fell to his knees and said: “I have to take a break from talking, I could cry the entire day, I can’t do anything about it.” Krehl added: “It’s a lot of emotion – I need some time and then I can recognize what we have done.”
Cassie Sharpe of Team Canada reacts after the first run of the Women’s Freestyle Halfpipe would be enough to earn her the silver medal during the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 18th, 2022.
Cassie whose brother Darcy also competed for Canada at the Beijing games placed 23rd in Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle and 12th in the Men’s Snowboard Big Air.
Ben Barkley of New Zealand completes a training run prior to the start of the Men’s Freeski Slopestyle event at the Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park during the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 16th, 2022.
To ensure the quality of competition remained high Olympic organizers decided artificial snow would be used in all its competition zones.
Ben Harrington of Team New Zealand crashes heavily onto the lip of the halfpipe during the second run of the Men’s Freeski Halfpipe Qualification during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on February 17th, 2022.
Harrington, finished 13th, just 1.5 points out of the top 12 that would have advanced him onto the final. “I’m OK, just bummed, I really wanted to be in the final. That last run was going great and I just fell at the end.” Harrington said.
Ben Harrington of Team New Zealand leans into the arms of a member of a medical staff member following a crash during his second run of the Men’s Freeski Halfpipe Qualification during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on February 17th, 2022.
When asked what went wrong on his second run, Harrington said: “No idea, I’ve got no clue. Everything was feeling good. I guess that’s how the ball rolls sometimes.”Marielle Thompson of Team Canada puts back on her mask after receiving her silver medal during the Women’s Ski Cross flower ceremony at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on February 17th, 2022.
Olympic Covid-19 protocols stated that all athletes, team members and media must wear masks at all times throughout the games except when competing, eating, or when receiving medals.Athletes compete during biathlon men’s 15km mass start of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at National Biathlon Centre during the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing on February 18th, 2022.
The temperatures during the Beijing Olympics were at times so cold that biathletes struggled to reload their guns and found it challenging to keep their trigger fingers from freezing.In -21 celsius a photographer prepares his camera for the finish of the men’s 15km biathlon mass start during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games on February 18th, 2022.
During the games temperatures reached as low as -34C making it the coldest Games since Lillehammer in 1994.
