The 2022 Winter Olympics have been underway in Beijing for the majority of February, and it is likely that you have seen glimpses of the incredible athletic feats being made by the world’s most talented. This year, many of those star athletes are women! Making up 45% of athletes at this year’s games, the Beijing Winter Olympics are the most gender-balanced yet.
At the first Winter Olympics in 1924, only 11 women competed out of 258 total athletes. And it was not until 1936 that women were allowed to compete in sports other than figure skating. This year, however, the Olympic Games feature the most women’s events in history, including two new additions: women’s monobob (bobsleigh) and women’s freestyle skiing big air. Needless to say, women’s presence and power at the Winter Olympics has come a long way, and it seems only fitting to highlight female athletes’ outstanding moments so far in the 2022 Games.
- Chloe Kim secured the gold medal in the women’s snowboarding halfpipe with a score of 94.00 for the United States. This win makes the 21-year-old the first woman to take back-to-back Olympic gold medals in this event.
- Kamila Valieva from the Russian Olympic Committee became the fourth woman in Olympic history to land a triple axel in the games and the first to land a quad jump. At just 15-years-old, Valieva is also the youngest athlete competing in the Beijing games.
- Sarah Escobar, Kiana Kryeziu, and Aruwin Salehhuddin become the first ever female Winter Olympic athletes from their countries of Ecuador, Kosovo, and Malaysia, respectively.
- Winning bronze in the freestyle sprint, Jessie Diggins became the first U.S. woman to win an individual medal in cross-country skiing.
- Irene Schouten of the Netherlands clinched her second gold medal of the 2022 games, setting the Olympic record for the 5000m speed skating competition at 6:43.51.
- The United States, with women in 108 of the 222 spots on the Olympic team, has the most women competing for any nation in the history of the Winter Olympics.
- Claudia Pechstein became the oldest female Winter Olympian in the history of the games when she competed in the speed skating 3000m event just a few weeks shy of her 50th birthday. Beginning her Olympic career at the 1992 games in Albertville, France, Pechstein is the first woman to participate in eight Winter Olympics.
- Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis won the U.S. its first gold medal of the 2022 games in the women’s snowboard cross event. At 36-years-old her win makes her the oldest American woman to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
- Earning silver in women’s slopestyle snowboarding, Julia Marino netted the United States its first medal of the Beijing games.
Of course, the Games are not over yet! Events like monobob, curling, ice hockey, skeleton, biathlon, and others are still under way, and we are likely to see even more incredible women make history.