Mikaela Shiffrin
Country: United States.
Sport: Alpine skiing.
Age: 26.
The oil: Let’s start with the biggest of the big guns. Shiffrin is alpine royalty, a ridiculously dominant skier who will be expected to shine in Beijing. Shiffrin won gold in the slalom aged 18 at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and gold in giant slalom in Pyeongchang four years later.
She is a six-time world champion and has 73 world cup wins. She became the first athlete to win all six alpine disciplines at world cup level. She’s just ... incredible.
Obviously, it helps to be born in Vail to a skiing family, but Shiffrin deserves all her accolades.
Yuzuru Hanyu
Country: Japan.
Sport: Ice figure skating.
Age: 27.
The oil: The best Winter Olympian you (possibly) have heard little about. Yuzuru is the back-to-back reigning Olympic champion in men’s singles figure skating, and a two-time world champion. A superstar on his home country, Yuzuru has broken 19 world records and is considered by some to be the greatest male figure skater in the sport’s history.
You don’t need to know your triple axels from your camel spins to watch the ‘‘Ice Prince’’ in action and realise he is something special. He has said he wants to become the first skater to land a quadruple axel — four and a-half rotations in the air — in Olympic competition, and only a fool would bet against him.
Canada
Country: The one with the maple leaf.
Sport: Ice hockey (they just call it hockey).
Age: Mostly in their 20s.
The oil: Well, of course you need to watch the Canadians in their national sport. The down side is you won’t be seeing any stars from the NHL — no Sid the Kid, no Connor McDavid.
But the men’s team will still be loaded with talent, including the legendary Eric Staal and rising star Owen Power, and will be desperate to win a 10th Olympic gold medal after the ‘‘shame’’ of bronze four years ago.
The Canadian women had their streak of four gold medals broken by the United States in Pyeongchang and will out for revenge
Keep an eye on inspirational captain Marie-Philip Poulin, a scorer in three consecutive Olympic finals.
Natalie Geisenberger
Country: Germany.
Sport: Luge.
Age: Turns 34 the day the Winter Olympics start.
The oil: A remarkable woman who won double gold (singles and team relay) at both Sochi and Pyeongchang, and is a nine-time world champion.
And, what is more, she took the entire 2019-20 season off to have her first child. Has nothing more to prove but would love one last sweet ride.
Chloe Kim
Country: United States.
Sport: Snowboarding.
Age: 21.
The oil: Still only 21! Seems like Kim has been around for a LOT longer. She was merely 17 when she won gold in the halfpipe at Pyeongchang.
The six-time X Games champion has become something of a cultural icon — there is a Barbie modelled after her, she appeared on The Masked Singer, and she was on a special edition of a cornflakes box that, believe it or not, was the fastest selling in Kellogg’s history.
Took some time off to study at Princeton — as you do — but has basically been unbeatable since returning to the mountain.
Mikael Kingsbury
Country: Canada.
Sport: Freeskiing.
Age: 29.
The oil: It feels like the world of freeskiing now belongs to US (as in, New Zealand, not the United States), given the success of Kiwis in recent times.
But Kingsbury is a rock star to rival Nico Porteous, and is basically untouchable in the moguls discipline.
Holds every title and record worth holding and it will take something special to beat him in Beijing. Nico, fancy a switch to moguls?
Ireen Wust
Country: The Netherlands.
Sport: Speed skating.
Age: 35.
The oil: Did you know the Dutch basically rule the ice? And the Queen is Wust, a five-time Olympic gold medallist to go with five silvers and a bronze. She was named sportswoman of the year by Reuters in 2014, and while her sport does not get much attention outside an Olympic year, she deserves plenty of focus in Beijing.
