XXIV Olympic Winter Games (2022) Quiz

Answer: Kazakhstan

With a population of about 2 million, Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, and lost out to Beijing by just 4 votes, 40 to 44. Kazakhstan is located mostly in Central Asia but partly in Eastern Europe.

Initially, six bids were made in 2012 for the 2022 Winter games, from Poland, Norway, Ukraine, Sweden, China, and Kazakhstan, but by the time the submission of the application file was due in March 2014, only three remained - Oslo, Almaty and Beijing. Later that year, Norway withdrew its candidacy due to lack of support by the country's parliament.

The opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics took place on February 4th at the Beijing National Stadium. Zhangjiakou was the site for both the Olympic Village and the Paralympic Village. The Yanqing Zone was the site of the National Sliding Centre, made to look like the tail of a dragon snaking away down the hill.

China's use of snow machines to create sufficient depth of snow was controversial. Apart from the Olympic venue in Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou, the other locations for the competition, have annual snow averages of roughly 20cm (8" snow cover), not enough for the scheduled events. Snow machines were employed to remedy this. Some competitors were unhappy with the use of 'fake' snow, as it packs down much more densely than regular snow.

In 2019 in Lausanne, Switzerland it was announced that the 2026 Winter Olympics games will be hosted by Milano Cortina, Italy.

This question was welcomed into the quiz by various officials including Phoenix Rising's VegemiteKid.

Answer: The Chinese character for "winter"

The emblem, entitled "Winter Dream", is based on the Chinese character for "winter". It was designed by artist Lin Cunzhen, who also co-designed the emblem for the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing. The top half of "Winter Dream" depicts a skater while the bottom half depicts a skier. The flowing ribbon between the two halves represents the country's mountains, where the Games were held. The emblem is coloured in blue, red and yellow hues. The blue symbolises dreams and the future, as well as the purity of ice and snow. The red and yellow, taken from the colours of China's flag, signify vitality, youth, and passion. The typeface is a nod to Chinese calligraphy.

This question was designed by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing, who had to look very hard to see the skater and skier in "Winter Dream".

Answer: The first day of spring

The opening ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was held on 4th of February 2022. In 2022, the 4th of February coincided with the first day of spring (Lichun) in the Chinese lunisolar calendar. In Chinese culture, Lichun signifies the end of winter and marks a fresh beginning. This is captured in the official motto for the 2022 Games, "Together for a Shared Future", which reflects the host nation's hope for sports to be the bridging medium that brings humankind together, and is especially meaningful in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This question was written by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing first thing in the morning... well, almost!

Answer: Halfpipe

Shaun White is a skateboarder and snowboarder of unparalleled skill and accomplishments. He won the gold in the halfpipe in 2006, 2010, and 2018 Winter Olympics. In both 2014 and 2022 he finished fourth in the event. He is also the first person to compete and win in the Summer and Winter X Games in two different sports.

In 2010, he had already won the gold with his score in the first run but he did a second run anyway as a victory lap. In it he performed a Double McTwist 1260 that he named the Tomahawk. The run improved his score to 48.4 out of 50 possible points, almost perfect.

This question was tomahawked into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Finland

The Russian contingent, designated Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in 2022, came in as defending champions having won the 2018 Pyeongchang games as Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR). Finland conceded first in the final against the ROC, then sealed victory with two goals. It was Finland's first ice hockey gold at the Olympics. Slovakia edged out Sweden in the bronze medal match-up. The team from Czech Republic had their worst showing in Winter Olympics history after failing to progress to the quarter finals. The NHL opted out of the 2022 games citing a large number of postponements in the regular season due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

On the women's side, Canada defeated the United States in the gold medal game, and Finland shut out Switzerland for bronze.

This question skated into the quiz by Phoenix Rising's JCSon.

Answer: Bobsleigh

The fourth mixed team event added was the Short Track Relay where a team consisted of two men and two women, as did the Ski Jumping. The aerials team was made up of three skiers, one man and one woman plus one of either gender, while the Snowboard Cross team was only two competitors - one woman and one man. This brought the number of mixed team events to nine, as five had already been added at previous Winter Games.

The other three new events were women's monobob and men's and women's freestyle skiing Big Air events.

lg549 slid this question into the quiz as a member of the mixed Phoenix Rising team.

Answer: United States

Nathan Chen is a six-time US national champion, three-time world champion, and now Olympic champion gold medalist for the United States. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to Chinese immigrant parents. He is the first skater to land five types of quadruple jumps in competition: the toe loop, Salchow, loop, flip, and lutz. He is also the first skater to land eight quadruple jumps in a single competition. He did this at the 2018 World Championships.

This question was quadruple jumped, in his dreams, into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Bobsleigh - Two-man

The two-man bobsleigh competition was dominated by Germany whose three teams claimed all three steps on the podium. The gold medal went to the co-defending champions Francesco Friedrich (the pilot) and Thorsten Margis (the brakeman). This was actually a slight improvement for the pair as they had tied for gold with a Canadian team back in 2018. The silver medal was claimed by Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer, while the bronze went to another German pair, Christoph Hafer and Matthias Sommer. In fact, Germany nearly swept the board in both men's bobsleigh competitions as they claimed gold, silver and fourth place in the four-man bob as well.

The three incorrect options are just a few of many examples where team-mates stood on two out of the three podium spots.

This question skidded into the quiz thanks to Phoenix Rising's Fifiona81.

Answer: Norway

In 2018, Norway tied Germany with 14 gold medals but won more overall medals with 39 to Germany's 31. In 2022, Norway won 16 gold and 37 medals overall with Germany finishing second again with 12 gold and 27 overall. Six golds and 14 medals overall came from the Biathlon for the Norwegians, an event they dominated. Their second highest gold total came in cross-country skiing where they won five but the Russians won more overall with 11 to Norway's eight.

This question was entered into the quiz via alchemy by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Great Britain

There were three curling competitions included in the 2022 Winter Olympics programme - the men's and women's team events and mixed doubles. Ten teams competed in a round robin format followed by semi-finals, a 3rd-place play-off match and the final to decide the gold medal.

The women's team final was between Great Britain and Japan, with the British team winning gold by a score line of 10-3. The bronze medal play-off was won by Sweden and Switzerland - the team who had topped the standings at the end of the round robin stage - missed out on a medal. Great Britain also featured in the final of the men's event, but were defeated 5-4 by Sweden after an extra end. The men's bronze medal went to Canada. The mixed doubles event was won by Italy who were the only competitors to end their Olympic campaign undefeated. Norway took the silver and Sweden claimed the bronze.

The two curling medals were Great Britain's only medals from Beijing - the other teams might not have been quite as successful in the curling, but all achieved much greater success across the other 14 sporting disciplines included in the calendar.

This question slid into its place in the quiz after copious sweeping by a broom-wielding Fifiona81 of Team Phoenix Rising.