Day 2 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Alexander Bolshunov blew away the rest of the competition to win the men's skiathlon and claim the ROC's first gold at Beijing 2022.

The 25-year-old led from the start, finishing the 30km cross-country skiing event in one hour, 16 minutes and 9.8 seconds.

With a comfortable lead heading into the final corner, Bolshunov was able to be handed a ROC flag -- white, blue and red twisting flames above the Olympic rings -- from the crowd, carrying it aloft across the line before bellowing in celebration.

The 25-year-old Russian picked up three silvers and a bronze four years ago in Pyeongchang, but now finally has his hand on an Olympic gold medal.

Bolshunov's ROC teammate Denis Spitsov finished in second position, a minute and 11 seconds behind, while Finland's Iivo Niskanen takes bronze.

The men's downhill skiing event has been moved to Monday after being postponed on Sunday due to high winds.

The event will now take place at noon local time and in between Monday's scheduled women's giant slalom, which will be held in two stages.

China's California-born figure skater Zhu Yi is facing a firestorm of attack on Chinese social media after she came up short on her Olympic debut Sunday.

The hashtag “Zhu Yi has fallen” is a top trending topic on Weibo, gaining about 200 million views in just a few hours, with some users asking why an American-born skater was picked to represent China ahead of an athlete born in the country.

Zhu, 19, was the first to compete on the second day of the figure skating team event, gliding into the ice rink to loud cheers from the mostly Chinese crowd at Beijing's Capital Indoor Stadium.

But she fell flat on the ice after a failed jump in the opening combination, and missed another jump later in the program, finishing with the lowest score of the event.

China consequently fell from third place to the fifth in the standings — just enough to progress to the next round of competition.

In contrast to the online vitriol, the crowd in the stadium applauded Zhu as she bowed to the stands.

Pressure to perform: Chinese athletes face huge pressure to get results at the Olympics, with medal counts long touted by the Chinese government as a sign of national strength. In the past, many have faced a backlash for poor performances.

Zhu is among at least a dozen foreign-born athletes recruited by China in recent years in an attempt to bolster its medal count at the Winter Olympics. But the attack against her also highlights the pressure these naturalized athletes face to compete under the Chinese flag. 

Born in Los Angeles in 2002, she decided to compete for China in 2018 and gave up her American citizenship. She also changed her name from Beverly Zhu to Zhu Yi.

But she has faced criticism in China for not being able to speak fluent Chinese.

The attack on Zhu stands in stark contrast to the huge popularity of California-born Eileen Gu, a freeskiing prodigy who is also competing for China.

The 18-year-old has charmed the Chinese public with her fluent Mandarin and familiarity with Chinese culture, having grown up spending summer holidays in Beijing. She has become China’s unofficial face of the Winter Olympics, featuring heavily in state media coverage to promote winter sports, as well as advertisements for Chinese brands.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday morning, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Khan was among a small group of international dignitaries that attended the opening ceremony of the Games, with Western governments including the United States, Britain and Australia having declared a diplomatic boycott over China's human rights record.

Pakistan's neighbor India announced a last minute diplomatic boycott of the Games on Thursday, after a Chinese commander involved in border clashes between India and China appeared as a torchbearer in the Olympic torch relay.

On Saturday, Khan attended a banquet hosted by Xi and China’s First Lady Peng Li Yuan in the honor of foreign dignitaries, according to Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office. 

After multiple one-hour delays on Sunday, the men's downhill skiing has been postponed due to high winds.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach still plans to meet Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai in Beijing during the Games, an IOC spokesman said Sunday.

Peng, one of China's most recognizable athletes, accused former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of coercing her into sex, according to screenshots of a since-deleted social media post dated Nov. 2.

Concern about her safety and whereabouts grew after her allegations, with the Women's Tennis Association pulling out of China.

More than a month later in December, Peng denied making the allegations in an interview with Singapore-based Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao.

"I have never spoken or written about anyone sexually assaulting me," she said, adding she has "always been free" and that she has been living at her home in Beijing. 

Chinese social media is a sea of red on Sunday, flooded by posts celebrating China’s first gold medal at the Beijing Winter Games.

The hosts narrowly beat out second-place Italy last night to claim China’s first ever short track speed skating mixed relay gold.

On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, users erupted in joy, with a related hashtag viewed more than 500 million times.

The last leg of the relay was delivered by Wu Dajing, who scored China’s only gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games when he also broke men’s 500 meters world record.

Fans rushed to congratulate Wu Sunday on his Weibo account, which has more than 9 million followers.

“You’re truly awesome!” a top comment says.

The Beijing Olympic Committee on Sunday reported 10 new Games-related Covid-19 cases, the organizers said in a statement. 

Of the new cases, four were detected among new airport arrivals and six were found inside the “closed loop system" — a bubble cut off from the rest of the Chinese capital and its wider population.

Six of the 10 cases involve athletes or team officials, the statement said.

Beijing is taking stringent coronavirus measures at the Games, in line with China's zero-Covid policy.

Inside the bubble, anyone who tests positive is immediately removed from the Games. Those who are symptomatic are sent to a designated hospital for treatment, while asymptomatic cases are taken to an isolation facility. They aren't allowed to return to the bubble until all symptoms disappear and they test negative twice in a row.

"Smooth progress": Officials are hopeful the Games will continue to see a downward trend of new Covid-19 cases.

As of Sunday, a total of 814,376 Covid-19 tests have been administered inside the "closed loop" system since Jan. 23, and 12,555 people have arrived in Beijing, according to Games organizers.

New Zealand snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott made history on Sunday by claiming the country's first ever Winter Olympics gold medal in the women's slopestyle with an impressive final run that saw her finish with 92.88 points.

Julia Marino of the United States came second in the event, winning Team USA's first medal of Beijing 2022 with a score of 87.68. She was followed by Australia's Tess Coady, who took bronze with 84.15.

Marino and Coady embraced Synott after her landing.

Team USA's Jamie Anderson — a favorite to win — missed out on her third Olympic gold after she sat down on a landing and finished ninth.