Soaring success for Slovenia

It's been a great first day at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics for team Slovenia with two of their female athletes grabbing gold and bronze medals at the ski jumping individual normal hill on Saturday evening.

Slovenia's Ursa Bogataj won the gold medal after sailing 100 meters through the air at the National Ski Jumping Center in Zhangjiakou, earning 121 points on her final jump. Her teammate Nika Kriznar took bronze.

Bogataj was surprised to win gold at Beijing 2022. "I didn't expect it. The last Olympic Games were a little bit of a nightmare for me but today I couldn't believe how well it went," she said. "It was two good jumps and it was enough. Maybe today I was lucky, pressure was high. I still can't believe it. I had injuries in the past and a little bit of hard times, and maybe the hard work paid off."

She expressed her relief at completing an impressive jump of 108 meters on her first attempt.

Meanwhile, spectators of Saturday's competition enjoyed the flying performances, producing audible gasps of amazement and sighs of relief watching the athletes fly through the air and land successfully. For many, it was their first time seeing ski jumpers live in action because the venue is China's first-ever ski jumping center.

Splitting the two Slovenians, Katharina Althaus of Germany won silver for the second straight Olympics. "I am very happy about winning the silver medal. I don't consider it as a loss. It's so great for me. I'm very happy about my silver medal. I made very good jumps,"Althaus said.

There were high hopes for Sara Takanashi of Japan, a four-time World Cup champion who finished fourth at Sochi 2014 and third at Pyeongchang 2018. However, she only managed to finished fourth on Saturday. Takanashi, who has won a record 61 World Cup events, was in tears after completing her final jump. She finished with 224.1 points－14.9 points behind Bogataj.

With several high-profile absences and form slumps affecting some of the sport's biggest stars, ski jumping at the Beijing 2022 is shaping up to be a wide-open competition.

In the women's event, the gold medal is up for grabs in the absence of Pyeongchang 2018 gold medalist and two-time world champion Maren Lundby of Norway who is sitting out this season, and World Cup leader Marita Kramer of Austria who tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the Games.