USA TODAY International Edition
Miller may join Jackson, Zhou as 2022 big shots
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Five U.S. athletes to watch for in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Toby Miller
The 18-year-old snowboarder has been sponsored since he was 13 and getting on the podium on the developmental U.S. Revolution Tour. Miller finished second in the halfpipe in the FIS Junior World Championships in 2015, and he was fifth in his X Games debut this year.
He’s been targeting Beijing to make the U.S. team, and he has a mentor to show him the ropes in Shaun White.
“It was definitely a huge goal of mine to make the Olympic team, but the way I looked at it is I’m so young,” said Miller, who traveled to Pyeongchang with White this year. “My goals are really set on 2022. That’s the one that I’m dead set on making.”
Erin Jackson
Jackson came to the Olympics as a 25-year-old rookie and finished 24th in the women’s 500 meters. But there’s plenty of reason to expect more from the speedskater in Beijing.
Jackson switched over to long-track speedskating from inline skating only a year ago, and she had her sights set on 2022. But in the U.S. Speedskating trials in January, she was third in the event and recorded her first two times better than 40 seconds.
Alice Merryweather
The young Alpine skier was a late addition to the U.S. team after veteran Steven Nyman pulled out for Pyeongchang with an ankle injury.
Merryweather, 21, won the downhill in the FIS Junior World Ski Championships last season before getting her first top-20 World Cup finish in the downhill in Aspen, Colo.
In Pyeongchang, Merryweather finished 18th in the downhill.
“I think on the speed side, we definitely have a group of girls that are coming up,” Lindsey Vonn said.
“We do have a group of girls that is getting the experience and they’re on the rise and they will be ready in Beijing to medal.”
Justin Olsen
At 30 and as a three-time Olympian, Olsen is hardly a rookie. But in a sport such as bobsledding, where it can take a decade to develop as a pilot, it’s in Beijing where he can find success.
Olsen won a gold medal as part of Steven Holcomb’s “Night Train” crew in Vancouver, and he switched to the front of the sled after Sochi.
With Holcomb’s unexpected death in May, Olsen became one of the USA’s top pilots after just three years in that spot.
After an emergency appendectomy when he arrived here, Olsen finished 14th in the two-man competition and 20th in four-man.
With plenty more seat time before then, Olsen should develop into a medal contender by 2022.
Vincent Zhou
The 17-year-old figure skater finished sixth in his Olympic debut, setting himself up as a contender in Beijing.
Just one quad behind U.S. teammate Nathan Chen — Zhou does four while Chen typically does five — the teen will benefit from the head-to-head competition with him over the next four years.
Already, Zhou was the first one to land a clean quad Lutz in the Olympics.
“It’s pretty cool to have that title,” he said.
“The quad Lutz is the most difficult quad currently achievable in our sport.”