BEIJING, China — The 2022 Winter Olympics are only a few days away and this year the highest percentage of women athletes ever will be participating in the games.
According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will be the most gender-balanced Games yet, with 45% of athletes being women – a record high.
In addition to a record amount of women in the Olympics, the U.S. Olympic Team has the most female athletes in Winter Games history representing a single nation. Out of the 222 American athletes competing, 108 are women.
It's a big year for women athletes, and here's six you should look out for:
Kamila Valieva
Sport: Figure Skating
Country Russia
The Russian athlete is the youngest competing in the 2022 Games. She is also the youngest on Russia's 2022 Women's Olympic Figure Skating Team. Valieva is a strong favorite for the Olympic Gold. Last year she set two new world records when she broke her own free skate and total score records at the Rostelecom Cup in Sochi. She now holds the highest women’s free skate score ever seen (185.29), the highest women’s combined total score (272.71), and the highest short program score (90.45).
Alysa Liu
Sport: Figure Skating
Country: USA
The second-youngest athlete going to the Games is American and also a figure skater. Alysa Liu is part of the U.S. Women's Olympic Figure Skating Team and it's the California native's first year representing the U.S. internationally. The 16-year-old was named one of the 10 Athletes to Watch at the Winter Olympics by Team USA and already has two national championships under her belt as she enters the Games. Liu won two U.S. Figure Skating National gold medals in 2019 and 2020. The 16-year-old is best known for her ' otherworldly jumping ability ' and might be Team USA's best bet in taking home a medal in women's figure skating, something that has not been done since 2006.
Mikaela Shiffrin
Sport: Alpine Skiing
Country: USA
Mikaela Shiffrin is no stranger to the Olympic Games. The Colorado native is a two-time Olympian and a three-time Olympic medalist (two gold and one silver). Shiffrin has also broken the record for most World Cup slalom wins in 2019 and, in 2021, tied the record for most World Cup wins in a single discipline. At age 18, she became the youngest ever to win an Olympic gold medal in slalom. If Shiffrin can win three medals at the 2022 Games then she could become the most decorated American alpine skier in history, a record currently held by Bode Miller.
Eileen Gu
Sport: Freestyle Skier
Country: China
The 18-year-old U.S.-born and raised freestyle skier will be representing China at the 2022 Olympics. Although raised in San Francisco Gu announced in 2019 that she would be representing China “to unite people, promote common understanding [and] create communication.”
She currently holds the title for world’s top female freestyle skier, the world champion in the halfpipe and slopestyle, third in big air. Apart from being an athlete, Gu is a model and has also been accepted into Stanford University.
Erin Jackson
Sport: Long-track speed skating
Country: USA
Erin Jackson has a history of making history. After only four months of training on the ice, the 30-year-old Florida native became the first Black woman to qualify for a U.S. Olympic long-track speed skating team in 2018. In 2020, Jackson broke another record when she became the first Black American woman to win a race on the World Cup, the sport’s highest level. This season, Jackson has won four 500m World Cup wins in the first five races of the season. No U.S. woman has won an Olympic 500m medal since Bonnie Blair won the last of three consecutive Olympic titles in 1994.
Elana Meyers Taylor
Sport: Bobsled
Country: USA
Georgia's own Elana Meyers Taylor will be competing in the 2022 Winter Games and this will be her fourth Olympic Games as a bobsledder. Taylor is representing Team USA in the women's monobob event and is a three-times Olympic medalist and two-time world champ in bobsled.