Day 2 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Ryoyu Kobayashi won the gold medal in the men's normal hill ski jumping on Sunday.

Having put in a disappointing performance in PyeongChang in 2018 by his standards -- he finished seventh -- the 25-year-old Japanese star finished with a combined score of 275 points, five points ahead of Austria's Manuel Fettner in silver and Poland's Dawid Kubacki bronze.

He currently leads the World Cup standings and now has his first Olympic medal to his name.

Kobayashi becomes Japan's first ski jumper to win gold since Kazuyoshi Funaki, who did so on at Nagano in 1998.

Four years after narrowly missing out on a medal in Pyeongchang, Australia's Jakara Anthony bounced back in superb fashion.

At the Winter Olympics in 2018, Anthony finished about two points away from claiming a first Olympic medal.

And in Beijing, while others struggled with the bumps and jumps, the 23-year-old from Cairns, Queensland, was excellent throughout, finishing with a score of 83.09 to win gold.

American Jaelin Kauf finished with a silver medal having been the fastest skier on the day, while Anastasiia Smirnova of the ROC claimed bronze.

Justine Dufour-Lapointe, the 2014 Winter Olympic champion in the women's moguls, crashed out in the finals stage on Sunday.

Dufour-Lapointe, who won gold in Sochi in 2014 as a 19-year-old and silver in 2018 in PyeongChang, completed her first jump without any issues.

But she then clipped a mogul at the wrong angle after landing, causing her to fall in the finals stage.

After regathering a lost pole, she managed to complete her run but was not scored.

Dufour-Lapointe looked emotional after finishing, and was comforted by her sister Chloe, who successfully progressed to the next stage.

Nils van der Poel was left feeling completely drained after winning gold in the 5000m speed skating event on Sunday after the Swede delivered a blistering performance.

Van der Poel dramatically snatched gold away from Patrick Roest with a rapid final lap.

But after standing atop the podium holding his gold medal and the Swedish flag, the 25-year-old revealed how much his performance at the National Speed Skating Oval had taken out of him.

“Right now I am quite empty and tired, I’ll try to come up with something to say," said Van der Poel. "A few seconds ago I was emotional.

“I cannot imagine performing like this in such a race. We knew nothing at the ice and Patrick (Roest) had a tough story, he had nothing to go on. I am really happy with how it turned out.”

When asked for his thoughts on the race afterwards, Van der Poel admitted he couldn't remember much about it.

“I think it will be a poor description as I don’t remember too much about it. It was a solid start, how I wanted it. I was keeping it steady and feeling confident halfway through the race.

“But then when the second 9.3 came up I thought ‘s**t I’ve got to go now.' I was launching for it and it was the Olympic race, that was all I had.”

There aren't many Olympic greats quite like Sven Kramer.

The Dutch speed skater won the Olympic 5000m gold medal in 2010, 2014 and 2018, as well as other medals in the team pursuits and the 10000m.

The 35-year-old Kramer competed in the 5000m final on Sunday -- the last time he will compete in the event at a Winter Olympics.

However, the race didn't go quite to plan for the speed skater, who finished ninth as his Olympic record was broken twice in Sunday's event.

Afterwards, the Dutchman was frank in his assessment of his performance, saying he tried "everything but it wasn’t enough."

“After a 6:17.04, I would have thought I could have walked a bit faster through this all (the mixed zone), but that didn’t work out," Kramer said with a laugh.

"I think I can take that as a compliment. Not for today’s (result), but for the past 15 years. The moral of the story is just that this was my last 5000m. 

“To be honest, I haven’t really thought about that up until now. I just wanted to race a very good 5000m.

"That didn’t work out the way I wanted. I tried to go for all or nothing and I knew that I had to skate around 6:10 for a podium. I could have skated safely around 6:12, 6:13, but that won’t give you anything.

“Of course it’s s**t, I would have loved to skate around 6:10. But yeah, it just wasn’t there today."

The Winter Olympics see speed skaters zoom round and figure skaters perform elegant routines all on perfectly maintained ice.

That is mainly down to the fleet of Zamboni ice resurfacing machines which meticulously comb over the rinks when they're not in use.

You've likely seen them before; the squadrons of large, hulking machines moving around the ice in unison to smooth over the bumps and lumps left by competitors.

The Zamboni machines have been in use at Winter Olympics since they made made their debut at the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley, California, according to the US company's website.

The company was founded in 1949 by Frank J. Zamboni in California and six ice resurfacing machines were used at the 1960 Games.

The ice resurfacing machines have been present at almost every Winter Olympics, including at Beijing 2022.

According to the Zamboni website, not only do the machines provide a smooth surface of ice, workers can maintain the surface to suit the preferences of certain sports and athletes.

"Hockey players seem to prefer 'harder; ice and figure skaters prefer their ice a bit 'softer,' so that they can use their skate blades and toe picks to their advantage," the website says.

Correction: A previous version of this post included a photo provided by Getty Images of an ice resurfacing machine not manufactured by the Zamboni Company. This post has been updated with a photo of a Zamboni manufactured machine.

Wow, what a breathless finish to the men's 5000m speed skating final!

In a star-studded line-up, Patrick Roest set a new Olympic Record early on, clocking a time of six minutes and 9.31 seconds to give himself the lead.

And it looked like the Dutch skater had the gold medal wrapped up until the final pairings took to the ice.

Sweden's Nils van der Poel looked steady for his opening few laps, trailing Roest by just a couple of seconds.

Heading into the final lap, Van der Poel was 0.99 seconds off Roest's time.

Then the Swede turned on the burners, creeping ahead of Roest's time, with the Dutch skater only able to sit and watch agonizingly on the sidelines.

And at the finish line, Van der Poel stuck his toe out to stretch over the line, setting a new Olympic record of 6:08.84 and snatch the gold medal away from Roest.

Roest had to settle for silver while Hallgeir Engebraaten of Norway took the bronze.

Almost 12 years ago to the day, Saba Kumaritashvili's cousin died in a luge crash before the start of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled during a training run just hours before the 2010 Winter Games' opening ceremony.

Saba says he thinks about Nodar all the time, adding that his cousin's death provided extra motivation to participate in the Winter Olympics.

“I wasn’t afraid. I wanted to be in the Olympics to race,” said Saba. "Everyone in my family is in luge. After Nodar, I didn’t want luge to die in Georgia. I wanted to keep it going.” 

Kumaritashvili completed his first two runs in men’s singles at the National Sliding Centre on Saturday, ahead of the final two runs to come on Sunday, though he's not a medal contender.

The man who won gold in the men's singles at the 2010 Vancouver Games, Felix Loch, paid tribute to Nodar at the time, melting his medal into two disks, then etched the Georgian's portrait and the years of his birth and death on one before presenting it to the Kumaritashvili family. 

Chasing what would be his third gold medal in the men's singles event, Loch says he's "happy" Saba has made it to Beijing.

“It’s emotional. I walked there in Georgia and I felt really welcome there," Loch said. "I think it was the right thing to do, to go there. It takes a lot of courage for Saba to be here. He likes the sport, like his cousin. It’s great to see him sliding for the whole luge family. 

“It’s a great sign for the sport. It shows you what sport can do.”

The Kumaritashvili family has been a driving force for the sport of luge since the 1970s. Saba’s great-grandfather Aleko helped build Georgia’s first luge track, also serving as the country’s coach and running the national luge federation. 

“My parents didn’t object to me going into luge. I think they wanted it more than me,” Saba said with a smile. 

“Nodar is one of the reasons I’m in luge. We have 10 years’ age difference, so I don’t remember much of him, only moments.”

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.