The Tomato in winter, and other international Olympic stars to watch

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.

Over the past few months, we've spent most of our time in this newsletter tracking Canada's top winter Olympic athletes on their road to Beijing. But there are a lot of interesting international stars as well. Here's a (by no means exhaustive) list of some worth following:

Figure skating: Nathan Chen, Kamila Valieva

Chen is the undisputed king of men's figure skating right now. With his unmatched athleticism and jumping ability, the 22-year-old American has dominated the event throughout this Olympic cycle. He captured the last three world titles, the last three Grand Prix Finals and won an incredible 14 consecutive competitions before the streak finally ended back in the fall. There's one big hole in his resumé, though. Chen's Olympic debut in 2018 quickly turned into a nightmare when he stumbled to a shocking 17th-place showing in the short program before rebounding with a brilliant free skate to finish fifth. Now he's a massive favourite to win gold in Beijing. But Chen needs to prove he can deliver on the sport's ultimate stage in order to take the title away from back-to-back champ Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan.

Valieva is an even bigger favourite to win the women's event. The 15-year-old Russian won all five of her competitions this season, including the European championships a couple of weeks ago. She could become the third consecutive Russian teenager to capture the Olympic women's title, and could lead a Russian sweep of the podium with Alexandra Trusova and Anna Stanislavovna.

Bobsleigh: Kaillie Humphries, Francesco Friedrich

Humphries is the greatest bobsleigh pilot in