Fun Facts About the 2022 Winter Olympics, by the Numbers
Wang Xin/VCG via Getty Beijing Winter Olympics
After four years, the wait is almost over!
While we're counting down the days until the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, the United States Olympic Committee counted up facts by the numbers that make up this year's event — from the amount of Team USA athletes on the roster to the total sum of countries competing.
Curious to know how many sports are played during the Winter Olympics? Wondering how many gold medalists are returning to represent Team USA? Thanks to the USOC who provided the calculations, we have those answers.
Keep scrolling for fun facts about the quadrennial, multi-sport competition ahead of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, Feb. 4 on NBC.
1 Host City
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The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIV Olympic Winter Games, are being held in Beijing, China. Although Beijing is the host city, events will be held at neighboring venues near Yanqing and Chongli.
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This is the first year the Winter Olympics are taking place in China, and the third consecutive Olympics held in East Asia, following the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Beijing will also make history as the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics!
2 Team USA Athletes with Olympic Seasonal Names
Roy Rochlin/Getty; Marianna Massey/Getty
Out of four seasons, the Olympics only take place during the summer and winter, and this year there are two athletes representing Team USA with those seasons in their names: Summer Britcher and Winter Vinecki.
Britcher is a 27-year-old luger who's competing in her third Olympics, preceded by the 2014 and 2018 Games. Vinecki is a 23-year old aerial skier competing on the freestyle team and is the first person named Winter to compete in the Winter Olympics.
4 Five-Time Olympians on Team USA Returning
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Out of 92 Olympians returning to Team USA, four of those athletes will be competing in their fifth Winter Olympics.
Shaun White and Lindsey Jacobellis will compete in snowboarding, Katie Uhlaender in skeleton, and John Shuster in curling. Each of them has previously participated in the 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 Games.
RELATED: 12 Outstanding, History-Making Black Winter Olympians
6 Individual Gold Medalists Returning to Team USA
Tom Pennington/Getty Images Chloe Kim
While 39 returning athletes have received medals for Team USA, including 24 who have won gold, there are six athletes who individually won gold at the 2018 Olympics who will return this year. This marks the first time since 1968 that every individual gold medalist from the previous Olympics will return for a consecutive year.
Those athletes include halfpipe skier David Wise, alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, and snowboarders Jamie Anderson, Chloe Kim, Red Gerard, and White.
7 Total Winter Sports
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The Beijing Olympics will feature 109 events across 15 disciplines in seven winter sports. The sports include biathlon, bobsledding (bobsleigh and skeleton), curling, ice hockey, luge, skating (figure skating, short track speed skating, and speed skating), and skiing (alpine, cross-country, freestyle, nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboarding).
In addition, seven new Winter Olympic events have been added: women's monobob, freestyle skiing big air (men's and women's), mixed team events in short track speed skating team relay, ski jumping, freestyle skiing aerials, and snowboard cross.
16 Years Old Is the Youngest Team USA Athlete
Joosep Martinson - International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty
At age 16, Alysa Liu is the youngest female athlete representing Team USA and will compete in figure skating. She also made history as the youngest skater to land a triple Axel in an international competition at age 12 and was the third U.S. woman to do so.
At age 17, Jordan Stolz is the youngest male athlete representing Team USA and will compete in speedskating. Training in the sport since he was five years old, Stolz is slated to be a medal threat in the 1000m.
RELATED: 1 in 3 Americans Say They Feel 'Very Patriotic' During the Olympics, Survey Finds
31 States Represented on Team USA
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Out of 50 states, 31 are represented by athletes competing on Team USA this year, with the largest contingents coming from California (29), Colorado (23), and Minnesota (23). Not far behind are Utah (16), Illinois (13), and Wisconsin (12).
Park City and Salt Lake City in Utah are the cities with the most qualifying athletes, with nine and six total, respectively.
40 Years Old Is the Oldest Team USA Athlete
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At age 40, Nick Baumgartner is the oldest athlete to represent Team USA and will compete in snowboarding. The 2022 Beijing Games mark his fourth Winter Olympics.
At age 37, Uhlaender is the oldest female athlete to represent Team USA and will compete in skeleton. This year's Games also mark her fourth Winter Olympics.
91 Competing Countries
Team Jamaica Twitter Jamaica's bobsled team
A total of 91 countries are set to compete in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, with Haiti and Saudi Arabia making their Winter Olympics debut. Additionally, Jamaica is sending its four-man bobsled team to compete for the first time since the 1998 Games in Japan.
Norway holds the record for the country with the most medals in Winter Olympic history, totaling 368 overall, with 132 gold, 125 silver, and 111 bronze.
RELATED: Gus Kenworthy Says Competing in Final Winter Olympics Will 'Honor' His Mom: She's 'So Supportive'
109 Female Athletes Representing Team USA
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The total number of women on this year's roster ties the largest female contingent for Team USA at an Olympic Winter Games. The 2022 Team USA roster in Beijing is made up of 109 women, the same as their 2018 female roster for PyeongChang.
Winter Olympic history will be made this year with 45 percent of overall athletes being women, an increase from the 41 percent four years ago in 2018. "While the gender gap is closing, men still have more events on the Olympic Winter Games program (51), compared to 46 for women," according to NBC Sports.
225 Total Team USA Athletes
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While 109 women make up Team USA, the roster also includes 115 men and one non-binary athlete. Figure skater Timothy LeDuc is set to become the first openly non-binary athlete to compete at a Winter Games, as reported by NBC Sports.
"My hope is that when people see my story, it isn't focused on me and saying, 'Oh, Timothy is the first out non-binary person to achieve this level of success in sport.' My hope is that the narrative shifts more to, 'Queer people can be open and successful in sports.' We've always been here, we've always been a part of sports. We just haven't always been able to be open," they said during a press conference.
2,800+ Hours of Coverage
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NBCUniversal will present a Winter Olympic record of over 2,800 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports app.
Similar to its coverage of the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, NBCU will provide unprecedented full-day coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday. Feb. 4, on NBC and Peacock.
