Editor’s note: Each and every day of the 2022 Winter Games, NBCOlympics.com will break down the biggest overnight stories from across the competition landscape that you might have missed. A separate daily article will also detail what not to miss over the next day of competition.
Saturday action at the 2022 Winter Olympics featured medals doled out in Moguls, Cross-Country Skiing, Short Track, Speed Skating, Ski Jumping, and Biathlon, including competitions within the sports of Snowboarding, Luge, Curling, and Hockey. Here’s a look at what you may have missed…
Snowboarding
The stage is set for a compelling showdown in the women’s slopestyle final after all the event’s heavy hitters successfully advanced out of the qualifying round.
Jamie Anderson, the two-time reigning gold medalist, is chasing history as she attempts to become the first snowboarder to win three consecutive Olympic titles in the same event. But in recent years, her slopestyle dominance has come under attack from New Zealand’s young star Zoi Sadowski-Synnott. The two women have been trading victories at major contests and the next chapter of this rivalry will come at the Winter Games.
Sadowski-Synnott enters as a slight favorite after beating Anderson for X Games gold just a few weeks ago. The 20-year-old Kiwi backed that status up by posting the top score in qualifying after landing a strong second run that included a pair of 900s, one of which was spun switch backside for added difficulty.
Anderson also advanced to the final after her first run of the day held up for fifth place. She upped the ante during her second run but fell on a cab double cork 900 attempt off the final kicker and couldn’t improve her score. Joining her in the final will be two other Americans, Hailey Langland and Julia Marino, who both came up clutch with their second runs and finished inside the top 12.
Other notable names in the final are Japan’s Kokomo Murase, Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi, Austria’s Anna Gasser and Canada’s Laurie Blouin. The final is set for Sunday morning local time and can be seen Saturday evening at 8:30 p.m. ET in the United States.
SEE MORE: Jamie Anderson through to slopestyle final as 5th-best qualifier
Moguls
Sweden’s Walter Wallberg spoiled the title defense bid of Canadian moguls legend Mikael Kingsbury in a stunning result.
Wallberg beat Kingsbury in the second round, then produced the top score (83.23) in the super-final, earning Sweden its first medal in moguls. Kingsbury claimed his second Olympic silver, while Japan’s Ikuma Horishima hung on for bronze.
Nick Page, 19, finished an impressive fifth.
Results: Men’s Moguls
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