Beijing 2022 preview for 15 February: Key events not to miss at the Olympic Winter Games (USA)

There are nine medal events today, including the prestigious women’s downhill in Alpine skiing (11:00*), women’s freeski slopestyle final (10:24) and the two finals in snowboard big air (09:30, 13:00) in which USA athletes are again expected to be prominent.

The men's play-offs in ice hockey also begin with the qualification round for the eight teams that either failed to win their group or did not finish as the best runner-up.

In men's curling, USA and Team Shuster take on Switzerland in the morning session in Beijing, then Italy in the night session. Here are just a couple of the events you should watch on 15 February:

Snowboard big air events made their Olympic Winter Games debut at PyeongChang 2018 when USA’s Jamie Anderson won the silver medal behind Austria’s Anna Gasser in the women's competition. Anderson won't defend her podium position, as she didn't qualify for the final. so Hailey Langland will be the only American competing for the medals.

In the men's event Kyle Anderson won a silver medal for the USA in PyeongChang, with Chris Corning fourth and a then-17-year-old Red Gerard, fifth. Four years later, Gerard is the best option to claim a medal. The rider from Ohio has qualified to the final with the third-best score, just behind the favourite Max Parrot of Canada and Japan's rising star Otsuka Takeru.

Such is the dominance by skaters representing the ROC in women's singles skating recently that it is hard to look past a likely podium sweep by the team's three representatives.

However, the short programme (18:08) does present an opportunity for some of the other skaters to stake an outside claim for a medal, especially as women singles skaters are not allowed to perform quadruple jumps during the short