Day 6 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Irene Schouten won her second Beijing 2022 gold medal in stunning fashion, breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record in the women's 5,000m speed skating event at the National Speed Skating Oval.

The 29-year-old's blistering 6:43.51 time smashed the record set by Germany's Claudia Pechstein at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002 and was just over four and a half seconds faster than Canada's Isabelle Weidemann, who won the silver.

Incredibly, Schouten's time was over three seconds quicker than Pechstein's original record of 6:46.91.

It's not only Schouten's second gold in Beijing but also her second new Olympic record of the Games, having set a new fastest time in the 3,000m event on Saturday.

Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic rounded out the podium places for bronze.

Team USA made history at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday, edging out China to win the first-ever mixed team aerials gold medal in freestyle skiing.

The Olympic gold medal is the first for the US in aerial freestyle skiing since 1998. 

Athletes from the host nation jumped out to the lead in the first run, behind a strong effort by Xu Mengtao’s 106.03 jump. Christopher Lillis, though, would answer with a back double full-full-double full to post a competition-high score of 135 to lead the United States to the title. 

After the competition, Lillis told reporters, "This has been a three-year process for us, for me getting ready for this Olympic Games and being able to throw those quintuple twisting triples. I was just happy to get the opportunity to throw one and to put it down."

China finished in second with a score 324.22 and Canada finished with the bronze with a score of 290.98.

Watching Michelle Kwan, five-time world champion and one of the most decorated figure skaters in US history, was "inspirational," Nathan Chen said after winning the men's singles event.

"Having athletes that look like you certainly gives you the hope that you can do the same," the 22-year-old said. "I'll never really reach Michelle Kwan stature but just to be able to have someone like that when I was growing up is really powerful. That goes back to the power of representation."

Speaking of the biathlon, it may be a sport that you are unaccustomed with.

A combination of skiing and shooting, it can be traced back to Scandinavia, where people would hunt using skis and have rifles draped over their shoulders.

At the Winter Olympics, skiing and shooting take the form of a race, where competitors ski along a trail and the distance is punctuated into shooting rounds. Penalties for missed shots vary with each event and take the form of either additional time, or distance, being added to a participant's total.

Before the biathlon was introduced at the 1960 Winter Games in California, an older version of the sport appeared in previous editions of the Olympics. The military patrol involved athletes competing in ski mountaineering, cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.

There are 33 medals up for grabs across 11 biathlon events: the women's 7.5km sprint, 15km individual, 10km pursuit, 12.5km mass start and 4x6km relay. In the men's draw, events include the 10km sprint, 20km individual, 12.5km pursuit, 15km mass start and 4x7.5km relay. A 4x6km mixed relay event is also scheduled to take place.

So far, Norway have won gold in the 4x6km mixed relay event, Germany's Denise Herrmann won gold in the women's 15km individual and Quentin Fillon Maillet of France finished first in the men's 20km individual.

Read more about the events at the Beijing Winter Games here.

Family connections are not unheard of at the Winter Olympics – Tuesday's men's 20km biathlon saw two Canadian brothers competing against each other – but perhaps no family has ever made their name in an event quite like the Slettemarks.

After Ukaleq Slettemark competed in the women's 15km individual biathlon on Monday, the family from Greenland have quite literally carried the biathlon hopes of the world's largest island on their shoulders.

The 20-year-old's father, Oystein, was Greenland's first Olympic biathlete. Her mother, Uiloq, is the president of the territory's biathlon federation.

It doesn't stop there – her two younger siblings join Ukaleq in being Greenland's only competitive biathletes.

"It is my family. There's really no one else," Ukaleq said.

Representing Denmark – whom Greenlandic athletes compete for at the Games – Ukaleq finished 53rd.

The 20-year-old finished 6:14.7 behind gold medal winning German Denise Herrmann, with France's Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet and Norway's Marte Olsbu Roeiseland completing the podium.

Slettemark's race suit featured tunniit markings as a nod to the Inuit roots of her Greenlandic heritage.

Her mother Uiloq, who represented Greenland at seven world championships according to the Olympic website, said the country is due a biathlon boom if facilities develop.

"I started hunting with my family when I was eight, shot my first reindeer when I was 10," Uiloq said.

"You are allowed to hunt from when you are 12 years old. It’s more of a daily life to handle a gun.

"Since we have snow, we already have cross-country skiers, as soon as we get a biathlon range, the interest will be much more than it is now.”

Until then, biathlon in Greenland belongs to the Slettemarks.

The ROC's Anastasiia Prytkova took to the air today in her practice run for the freestyle skiing mixed team aerials. Safe to say, she's ready to tag team towards medal contention.

For Donovan Carrillo, his journey to the Olympics has been nothing if not winding.

Born in football-mad Mexico, figure skating wasn't the go-to sport for kids. But even in the face of opposition, Carrillo chose to stick it out.

“As a kid, I got bullied in school for practicing figure skating because other kids say that this was a sport just for girls," the 22-year-old explained after finishing 22nd in the men’s free skating program on Thursday.

"Because we don’t have many boys practicing or competing; now, we have one. But before, it was something very unusual. But I always knew I liked it, so I decided to not listen to them and focus on my skating.”

As a 13-year-old, Carrillo chose to leave his family in Guadalajara because the rink closed.

Living in León, the only available place Carrillo train could was the local ice rink, and the venue wasn't shut off to regular patrons while he took to the ice. He had to practice his toeloops and jumps while others skated around him.

At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, Carrillo became the first Mexican male figure skating Olympian since Albertville 1992, when Riccardo Olavarrieta took to the ice in the short program.

But after entering the rink at the Capital Indoor Stadium on Thursday, Carrillo says competing at the Winter Olympics for Mexico is a "dream."

"Everything began with a dream. When we are kids, we always watch the Olympics on TV. As I was a lover of sports, I always wanted to represent my country in one of (the) Olympics. I made it with figure skating. So for me, the Olympics, it’s just a proof that dreams come true."

Carrillo continued: “Representing my country in the Winter Olympics with the best athletes all over the world in figure skating is something really inspiring for me and I think, not just for me, but for my whole country.

“Now, after my performance in the short program, I received a lot of messages from them to tell me they were super proud of me. I’m just grateful for that and also motivated to do my best and keep fighting for more dreams, more goals.

“I hope my performance here in Beijing can inspire more kids and (the) young to develop and practice winter sports. In my country, we don’t have ski, we don’t have snowboard. But, at least, we have figure skating and hockey, so I would like to invite them to try because maybe they can find their passion and also their self, just like I did with figure skating.”

Nathan Chen was quick to pay tribute to two of his heroes following his first Olympic gold medal: Michelle Kwan and his mom.

The 22-year-old ‘quad king’ delivered two masterful performances – breaking the short program world record on Tuesday – to carve his name into history as the eighth American gold medal in the discipline, according to the Olympic website.

To achieve that lifelong dream in Beijing – the city where his mother grew up and where his parents met before emigrating to the US – only sweetened the satisfaction.

"It means the world to be able to be here," Chen told CNN's Selina Wang.

"I know that they did everything that they could to give us – I'm the youngest of five – to give all of us... opportunities to pursue (our dreams), without having many resources themselves."

Chen reflected on his mother's selfless efforts to support his early training, accompanying him to rinks and helping to fund coaching despite money being tight.

"Certainly, that's not super conventional," Chen said of his mother's attendance at the rinks. "People wanted me to be with the coach and my parents somewhere else.

"She faced a lot and sheltered a lot from me, so I don't even know a lot of the details, but when I asked her, she always just gets very upset."

Having grown up in Salt Lake City – host of the 2002 Games – Chen was captivated by the Olympics from a young age, helped by the "inspirational" performances of Michelle Kwan.

A five-time world champion and one of the most decorated figure skaters in US history, Kwan won bronze at Nagano 1998 before adding silver at Salt Lake City four years later.

"Having a face like Michelle Kwan was really inspirational," Chen said.

"Having athletes that look like you certainly gives you the hope that you can do the same.

"I'll never really reach Michelle Kwan stature but just to be able to have someone like that when I was growing up is really powerful. That goes back to the power of representation."

Norway's Therese Johaug produced a stunning late comeback to clinch the gold medal in the women’s 10km cross-country classic at the Winter Olympics on Thursday. 

The 33-year-old had built up an early lead but was soon reeled in by the Finnish pair of Krista Parmakoski and Kerttu Niskanen.

Niskanen looked on course for gold after breaking away from the pack and at one stage held a lead of 11 seconds over her rivals.

But Johaug fought back to claim a dramatic gold – edging out Niskanen by just 0.4 seconds.

Parmakoski finished in the bronze medal position.

After the race, Johaug said: "I cannot find words for it. It's so good and it's so big for me. Today, it was a close race with the Finnish girls, but I was feeling really well at the end of the race and I had a lot of power in the last hill.

"It's so much more fun to stand at the top of the podium when you know that you have won a big fight out there, so I was giving my best and I'm so happy now."

It was Johaug's second individual gold at Beijing 2022 after she claimed top spot in the women's 7.5km + 7.5km skiathlon on Saturday.