Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 Day Four – As It Happened: A Masterclass in Snow, Ice, and Sheer Willpower
Introduction: The Calm After the Opening Storm
As the sun rose over the Greater Beijing area on February 8, 2022, the dust from the spectacular—yet highly contained—Opening Ceremony had finally settled. The focus shifted entirely from pageantry to pure, unadulterated athletic prowess. Day Four of the Beijing Winter Olympics promised to be a pivotal turning point in the Games, setting the tone for the remaining two weeks.
The narrative arc of Day Four was undeniably cinematic. It was a day defined by the weight of expectations, the agony of devastating crashes, the shattering of world records, and the crowning of new global superstars. From the icy, fast tracks of the National Speed Skating Oval to the perilous, wind-swept slopes of Genting Snow Park, Day Four had it all.
If Day Three was about establishing early dominance, Day Four was about redemption and revolution. We witnessed a generational talent in figure skating exorcise the ghosts of PyeongChang, a teenage phenomenon cementing her legacy in freeskiiing, and a 36-year-old proving that age is merely a number in the snowboard parallel giant slalom.
Grab a warm beverage, settle in, and let’s take a detailed, chronological journey through Day Four of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, exactly as it unfolded across the snow and ice of China.
Morning Session: Dutch Dominance and Swedish Speed on the Ice
08:00 Local Time – National Speed Skating Oval: The Women’s 1500m
The morning session kicked off under the roof of the “Ice Ribbon,” the stunning National Speed Skating Oval. The Women’s 1500m is an event that requires a brutal blend of aerobic endurance and agonizing lactic-acid-inducing speed.
The anticipation was palpable: could anyone stop the Dutch juggernaut? The Netherlands has historically treated this event as their personal property. As the pairs took to the ice, the early benchmark was set by Japan’s Miho Takagi, the reigning world champion. Takagi skated a masterful race, crossing the line in 1:53.72, a time that looked untouchable for the first half of the event.
But the Dutch machinery was just warming up. Irene Schouten, who had already claimed gold in the 3000m earlier in the Games, stepped onto the ice. Schouten didn’t just beat Takagi’s time; she obliterated it. Gliding with impeccable technique and relentless power, Schouten stopped the clock at 1:53.28, securing her second gold medal of the Games and continuing the Netherlands’ absolute stranglehold on Olympic speed skating.
09:30 Local Time – National Speed Skating Oval: The Men’s 5000m
If the women’s race was about Dutch dominance, the men’s 5000m was about the arrival of a Swedish titan. Nils van der Poel entered the Games as the heavy favorite, having completely rewritten the record books in the lead-up to Beijing.
Skating in the penultimate pair against Patrick Roest of the Netherlands, van der Poel put on a clinic in pacing and pain management. His strokes were long, powerful, and metronomic. Roest, a brilliant skater in his own right, simply had no answer as van der Poel pulled away lap after lap.
As van der Poel crossed the finish line, the electronic scoreboard flashed a number that sent shockwaves through the speed skating world: 6:08.84. He had not just won gold; he had shattered his own world record by over two seconds—a lifetime in speed skating. It was a statement of intent that echoed far beyond the Ice Ribbon.
10:00 Local Time – Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre: The Relays
Out in the cold, snowy air of the Zhangjiakou cluster, the cross-country skiing relay events provided a grueling test of team endurance.
In the Women’s 4x5km Relay, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team put on a dominant display. Due to COVID-19 protocols and logistical issues, the heavily favored Norwegian women’s team was absent from the start list, leaving a vacuum at the top. The ROC team, anchored by a phenomenal final leg by Natalia Nepryaeva, seized the opportunity with both hands, pulling away from Germany and Sweden to claim gold.
The script was remarkably similar in the Men’s 4x10km Relay. The Norwegian men, present this time but lacking their usual invincibility, found themselves in a dogfight with the ROC. Alexander Bolshunov, the most decorated male cross-country skier of these Games, delivered a devastating final 2.5km leg, breaking the spirit of the Norwegian anchors to hand the ROC a historic double gold in the relay events.
Midday Drama: The German Luge Dynasty and an Alpine Fairytale
11:30 Local Time – Yanqing National Sliding Centre: Women’s Luge
Luge is a sport measured in thousandths of a second. It requires nerves of steel and an intimate, almost symbiotic relationship with the ice. At the Yanqing National Sliding Centre, the “Flying Dragon” track, the Women’s Singles event reached its climax.
The story here was the pursuit of history by Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger. Entering Beijing as the two-time defending Olympic champion and the most dominant female luger in the history of the sport, the pressure was immense—especially considering the tragic death of her teammate and training partner, Semen Pavlichenko’s relative, just weeks prior, an event that shook the German luge community to its core.
Geisenberger, however, is a machine of composure. Across four runs, she made zero mistakes. Her starts were explosive, and her lines through the notoriously difficult 16-curve track were flawless. She won her third consecutive Olympic gold, cementing her status as the undisputed Queen of Luge. The podium was a German sweep, with Anna Berreiter taking silver and Tatjana Huefner taking bronze, a testament to the terrifying depth of the German luge program.
13:00 Local Time – Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre: Men’s Alpine Combined
If luge was about predictable dominance, the Men’s Alpine Combined was a theater of the unexpected. The combined format consists of one downhill run (for raw speed) and one slalom run (for technical agility), with the lowest combined time taking gold.
The downhill segment was led by the powerhouse Austrian team, with Matthias Mayer and Stefan Brennsteiner setting a fierce pace. But the slalom run is where the magic—and the heartbreak—happens.
The heavy favorite was France’s Alexis Pinturault, the overall World Cup champion. Pinturault needed a blistering slalom run to make up his deficit from the downhill. Tragically, just a few gates from the finish, his ski caught an edge, and he slid out of the course, ending his medal hopes.
This opened the door for a man who wasn’t even supposed to be at the Games. Johannes Strolz of Austria entered the slalom in fifth place. Strolz’s story is one of unparalleled resilience. Just a few years prior, he had quit professional skiing to work as a ski instructor and a glassmaker because he couldn’t secure funding. He only returned to the elite circuit after a sudden influx of sponsorship money following a series of lower-level victories.
In the slalom, Strolz attacked the course with nothing to lose. He posted the fastest slalom time by a massive margin, catapulting himself from fifth to first. When he crossed the line, the realization of what he had achieved hit him. He broke down in tears. To add a cinematic cherry on top, Johannes Strolz is the son of Hubert Strolz, who won gold in the exact same event at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. It was a fairytale 34 years in the making.
Afternoon Action: Hockey Hostilities and Curling Calculations
14:00 Local Time – Wukesong Sports Centre: Women’s Ice Hockey
As the afternoon rolled in, the focus shifted to the fast-paced, hard-hitting world of Women’s Ice Hockey. The group stage was reaching a critical juncture, and the heavyweight clashes did not disappoint.
In Group A, the United States faced off against the ROC. The Americans, still carrying the sting of their shocking overtime loss to Canada in the 2022 World Championships, came out flying. They displayed their characteristic physical dominance and depth of scoring, ultimately dismantling the ROC team with a comprehensive 5-0 victory. Hilary Knight and Amanda Kessel were instrumental, reminding the tournament that the US is a force to be reckoned with as they build toward an inevitable collision with their North American rivals.
Across the ice in Group B, Canada continued their ruthless demolition of the opposition. Facing a plucky Swiss team, Canada’s offensive firepower was simply too much. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin, as she so often does, orchestrated the play with surgical precision, leading Canada to a comfortable victory. The gulf in class between the North American teams and the rest of the world was starkly evident, setting the stage for a USA-Canada gold medal game that promised to be explosive.
15:00 Local Time – National Aquatics Centre: Curling Round-Robins
Over at the “Ice Cube,” the transition from the Mixed Doubles tournament to the Men’s and Women’s Round-Robin tournaments was fully underway.
Curling, often baffling to casual viewers, is a game of chess on ice. Day Four saw the early establishment of pecking orders. The British men’s team, skipped by Bruce Mouat, continued their impressive form, utilizing precise weight control and sweeping to outmaneuver their opponents.
On the women’s side, Team Canada—a nation that practically treats curling as a religion—found themselves in an uncharacteristically tough battle early in the tournament. The Japanese women, skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa, showcased incredible touch around the four-foot ring, stealing crucial points in the later ends. Every draw, every takeout, and every sweep was met with intense scrutiny from the coaches hovering over the timing boards, highlighting the millimeter-perfect margins that define Olympic curling.
Prime Time: The Eileen Gu Show at Genting Snow Park
16:30 Local Time – Genting Snow Park: Women’s Freeski Slopestyle Final
If there was one event on Day Four that captured the imagination of the entire world, it was the Women’s Freeski Slopestyle. The reason was simple: Eileen Gu.
The 18-year-old, born in San Francisco but competing for her mother’s native China, had arrived in Beijing carrying the hopes of a nation on her young shoulders. She was already a superstar in the action sports world, but Olympic gold was the ultimate prize.
However, the conditions at Genting Snow Park were abysmal. A biting wind howled across the course, and thick fog rolled in, reducing visibility to a fraction of what is considered safe for a sport where athletes launch themselves 50 feet into the air off massive jumps. The start of the final was delayed multiple times. There were genuine fears that the event might be canceled entirely.
When the green light finally flashed, the wind was still a massive factor. In slopestyle, athletes get three runs, and the best score counts. The first run saw French sensation Tess Ledeux throw down an absolutely monstrous left-double cork 1080—a trick rarely seen in women’s competition. However, the wind caught her on the landing, causing her to stumble. She scored well but left the door wide open. Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud laid down a conservative, incredibly clean run to take the early lead.
Then came Eileen Gu’s first run. She looked nervous, uncharacteristically tentative. She struggled on the rails early on and opted not to go for her biggest tricks on the jumps, finishing well down the leaderboard. The pressure was suddenly immense. If she couldn’t put down a clean run in the second heat, her Olympic dreams could slip away.
In the second run, Gu pushed the envelope too far. Attempting a massive trick on the final jump, she got caught in the crosswind and crashed hard into the snow. She slid down the outrun, her face a mask of frustration. She was now in last place. She had one run left.
The atmosphere in the finish area was tense. The wind seemed to gust even harder as Gu dropped into the course for her third and final run. What happened next will go down in Winter Olympic history.
Gu attacked the rail section with newfound aggression, locking into every grind flawlessly. As she approached the first jump, she launched into a massive left double cork 1080. She landed it perfectly. She carried that momentum into the second jump, throwing a right double cork 900, stomping the landing with authority.
As she approached the final, massive jump—the one she had crashed on just minutes earlier—the entire venue held its breath. Gu didn’t hold back. She hit the lip, launched into the sky, and executed a stunning left double cork 1620—a trick that involves four-and-a-half rotations.
Time seemed to stand still as she descended. Her skis touched the snow, her knees absorbed the immense impact, and she rode out of the jump clean. The crowd erupted. Gu threw her hands to her head in disbelief before breaking into a massive grin.
When the score flashed—95.90—she had leapfrogged Gremaud and Ledeux to take the gold medal. It was a masterclass in mental fortitude. To crash under extreme pressure, to face the very real possibility of leaving with nothing, and to come back 15 minutes later and land the hardest trick of the competition was the stuff of legends. Eileen Gu wasn’t just a star anymore; she was an Olympic champion.
