The biggest superstars and storylines to watch at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games

The Olympics are heading back to Beijing.

Many of the same venues that saw some of the greatest performances in Olympic history will once again bear witness to the world's greatest competitors in action.

Australia is sending a strong team capable of adding to the 15 Winter Olympic medals it has achieved over the last few Games but, as is the case with all Olympics, there are plenty of other areas to focus our attention on.

Here are just a handful of the storylines you should look out for in Beijing.

Let's not beat around the bush. Mikaela Shiffrin is one of the all-time great alpine skiers.

Owner of 116 FIS World Cup podiums, an incredible 73 of them as winner, with 10 coming this year alone, Shiffrin has been pushing the limits for years.

Beijing will be the 26-year-old's third Olympics, and she already has two golds and a silver.

And yet her relationship with the Games is fraught.

In an interview with the Washington Post in October, Shiffrin likened the pressure of the Olympics to the demonic antagonist of Stranger Things, the demigorgon.

«I'm kind of accepting and trying to prepare for basically the discomfort of the one situation that you hope would be this joyous, amazing event,» she said.

«Honestly, it's terrifying for the entire two weeks straight.

»I felt a way in South Korea [at the PyeongChang Games of 2018] that I never, ever wanted to feel again in my skiing career."

It's a remarkable admission from the best active women's skier in the world, from a Games in which she came away with two medals, a gold and a silver.

There are inevitable echoes of the Tokyo Games and Simone Biles, a similarly hyped US star who had mountainous expectations thrust upon her on account of her brilliance.

Simone Biles's shock exit from the