BEIJING – Personal bests, Olympics debuts, and hammer-time for the United States went down Saturday morning (Feb. 5) as Bow Valley athletes competed at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Biathlon: Canada finished 14th (3+17) in the 4X6 kilometre relay in biathlon's first race of the 2022 Olympics.
Canada's four-person team consisted of Sarah Beaudry, Emma Lunder, Christian Gow and Scott Gow finishing 4:26.8 behind gold medal team, Norway.
France took silver, and Russian athletes took the last podium spot.
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On social media, Scott Gow wrote: "Hard racing in the wind and cold but feeling proud to be participating in these games. Got the bugs out and ready to compete with the best next week."
Next up, the women's individual is Monday (Feb. 7) at 2 a.m. MST.
Cross-country skiing: A trio of Canadians flew into the top 30 in women's 15 km skiathlon at the opening cross-country event.
Cendrine Browne finished an Olympic-best 20th, Katherine Stewart-Jones finished 23rd in her Olympic debut, and Dahria Beatty finished an individual Olympic-best 28th spot.
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Making her Olympic debut, Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt finished 44th.
On social media, Beatty posted: "Really happy to come away with a 28th place finish in the Skiathlon today, a race I have historically struggled with. Looking forward to carrying this momentum into the rest of the Games."
The men's 30-km skiathlon is Sunday (Feb. 6) at 12 a.m. MST.
Curling: Canada improved to 4-2 after smashing through the United States 7-2 in mixed doubles curling.
The victory is John Morris and Rachel Homan's most convincing of the round robin and places Canada into a third place tie with Great Britain.
"We had to really grind to get that win tonight against the U.S., but it was a great way to end Curling Day in Canada, even though we were on the other side of the world in Beijing," said Morris in a Curling Canada blog post.
RELATED: John Morris: Bow Valley's Beijing Bound Athletes
Canada has three games remaining against Czech Republic on Feb. 5 at 11 p.m.; Australia on Feb. 6 at 5 a.m.; and Italy on Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. All times MST.
A few hours before knocking off the U.S., Canada lost 6-2 to Sweden, which is currently in second.
The top four teams advance to the semifinals on Monday (Feb. 7) at 5 a.m. MST.
Italy, at 6-0, is so far the only team to qualify for the semis.
