Meet the Youth Olympic Games stars set to shine at Beijing 2022
From Chloe Kim to Eileen Gu, here are some of the top Winter Sport athletes who have taken part in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and are set to star at Beijing 2022 in February
With the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 starting in February, we take a look at some of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) graduates tipped to light up the Chinese capital.
Chloe Kim (USA, snowboard)
Chloe Kim had been tipped for greatness from the moment she burst onto the global snowboarding scene as a 14-year-old at the 2015 Winter X Games, when she became the event’s youngest ever gold medallist by triumphing over the legendary Kelly Clark in the superpipe.
Kim went on to win two gold medals at the Winter YOG Lillehammer 2016 and then rose to superstardom at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, capturing Olympic halfpipe gold with a near-perfect third run that scored an incredible 98.25 points. Still only 21, Kim won her sixth X Games title in January 2021 and followed that up with her second world title the following month, despite having taken a near two-year break from the sport due to injury and her studies at Princeton.
She will now be looking to defend her halfpipe title in Beijing, where she can underline her status as the greatest female snowboarder of all time.
Petra Vlhová (SVK, Alpine skiing)
Petra Vlhová demonstrated her immense potential at the Winter YOG Innsbruck 2012, when she stormed to an impressive 1.49-second victory in the women’s slalom and narrowly missed medals in the giant slalom and super combined.
Since then, she has more than lived up to that early promise, having climbed to the pinnacle of ski racing last season by becoming the first Slovak to win an overall World Cup title. The 26-year-old’s grueling schedule saw her compete in all 31 races, amassing six victories and ten podiums to finish ahead of former World Cup champion Lara Gut-Behrami by 160 points and three-time defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin by 341.
She already has two slalom victories under her belt this season, and her battles with Shiffrin in Beijing should be must-watch sporting theatre.
Birk Ruud (NOR, freestyle skiing)
Birk Ruud clinched slopestyle gold on home snow at the Winter YOG Lillehammer 2016 and has since become one of the world’s leading freestyle skiers. The 21-year-old has excelled in big air, which will make its debut in Beijing, winning two season-long World Cup crowns and becoming only the second skier to win consecutive X Games big air titles when he triumphed in Norway in 2018 and Aspen in 2019.
Ruud also topped the World Cup podium for slopestyle in Stubai in November – and won silver in the same event at the 2019 world championships – proving that he could contend in multiple disciplines when he makes his Olympic debut in Beijing in February.
Eileen Gu (CHN, freestyle skiing)
At the start of 2021, freestyle skiing phenom Eileen Gu made one of the most impressive debuts in X Games history, as she became the first rookie to win a medal in all three events that she competed in. Her golds in superpipe and slopestyle were the first for a Chinese athlete at the X Games, while she also won world titles the following month in both halfpipe and slopestyle, underlining Gu’s burgeoning status as a genuine trailblazer for China as the country seeks to engage 300 million people in winter sports as part of its plans for the Olympic Winter Games.
Less than two years ago, Gu was competing at the Winter YOG Lausanne 2020 – winning gold in both halfpipe and big air, as well as a silver in slopestyle – and she now looks set to be one of the biggest stars of Beijing 2022.
Kagiyama Yūma (JPN, figure skating)
While many eyes will be on Hanyū Yuzuru’s bid to become the first man to win three successive Olympic titles since Gillis Grafström (SWE) in 1928, the Japanese figure skater’s men's singles team-mate Kagiyama Yūma could be one of the surprise stars of Beijing 2022.
Aged just 18, Yuma finished ahead of his celebrated compatriot at the 2021 World Championships, claiming silver behind Nathan Chen of the USA as Hanyu settled for bronze, and has already tasted Olympic success, having won the Youth Olympic Games title at Lausanne 2020 after landing two triple Axels and two quadruple toe-loops in his free skate.
Kelly Sildaru (EST, freestyle skiing)
Kelly Sildaru is still not even 20 years old and already has five X Games gold medals to her name, plus a world title, while she also beat Eileen Gu to gold in slopestyle at the Winter YOG Lausanne 2020.
The Estonian won her first X Games title in 2016 at the age of 13 and was expected to star at the last Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang before a torn knee ligament ruled her out of the event and the entire 2018 season. Sildaru withdrew from this year’s X Games after injuring that same knee in a practice run, but that setback is not expected to derail her renewed bid for Olympic glory, and a potential showdown with Gu in Beijing could be one of the highlights of the Games.
Suzanne Schulting (NED, short track speed skating)
Since winning the Netherlands’ first-ever Olympic gold medal in short-track speed skating at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Suzanne Schulting has become one of the stars of the sport.
The 24-year-old – who also competed at the Winter YOG Innsbruck 2012 – won all five events at the 2021 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, with her domination in Dordrecht making her just the second woman and fourth skater ever to sweep the board at the championships. Now, she will be looking to make even more history in Beijing.
