Skiers Finally Discover Unknown Beijing Olympic Downhill

BEIJING (AP) — Stefan Rogentin of Switzerland posted the fastest time of 1 minute, 44.0 seconds in the opening downhill training session of the Beijing Olympics.

Adur Etzezarreta of Spain was 0.08 seconds behind in second and Christof Innerhofer of Italy was 0.26 behind in third.

Stefan Rogentin of Team Switzerland works out the kinks during a training run for the Men's Downhill ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 3rd in Yanqing, China 📷: @haffeyphoto #Beijing2022 #WinterOlympics #skiing pic.twitter.com/1tIkRwi4IC

— Getty Images Sport (@GettySport) February 3, 2022

But times and placings were mostly irrelevant on a day when skiers were discovering the racing line for the first time.

More training sessions will be held Friday and Saturday before the men’s downhill opens the Alpine competition on Sunday.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Just a year after Japan’s summer Olympics, the Games are back for a winter show in Beijing, China. The unusually short gap between Games is due to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Strict precautions and enforced virus prevention protocol are in place to help keep athletes, coaches and personnel safe. 

Beijing is the capital of China, with a population of more than 20 million people and the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Olympic games. It is one of the largest cities in the world and 15 hours ahead of Mountain Time. There are 13 different venues in and around Beijing that will be used for the Winter Olympics. A total of 109 events will be held in 15 different sports, and there will be a lot of Utah locals competing for medals. Keep up to date with them at our Olympic headquarters.

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