Day 10 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

There’s a familiar country atop the medal count in the Winter Olympics: Norway. This might surprise some given that Norway has only a little more than five million residents — not even in the top 100 most populated countries. 

So what’s the secret to Norway’s historical and current success? Two big factors really. 

The first is, perhaps obviously, the weather. It’s the Winter Olympics after all. Norway ranks in the bottom five in World Bank data for average temperature during the year at about 36 degrees Fahrenheit (two degrees Celsius) — brrr 🥶. 

When you take a look at a medal count and temperature chart (as in this Economist article), you’ll see a clear correlation between the two. 

But it’s more than temperature — it is also money.

Think about how hard it is to train for the Olympics. Gear is often expensive. Children often need fortunate enough parents to get them to events. There also needs to be infrastructure in place to train for the Olympics. 

Norway is a fairly wealthy country: its GDP is in the top 35 worldwide and the GDP per capita is in the top 10. 

GDP though doesn’t capture all types of wealth. That’s what the United Nations Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is for; it takes into account other variables such as education, life expectancy and inequality. 

A country where knowledge can be transferred and where more of the country has access to the funds necessary to compete would in theory supply a broader array of athletes. This was something that was noted originally in "Soccernomics" by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. 

You know where Norway is on the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index? Number one. 

It shouldn’t be too surprising, therefore, that a wealthy country — where it is cold — dominates the Winter Games. 

Team USA, the reigning Olympic women's ice hockey champion, has advanced to the gold medal game after defeating Finland 4-1 on Monday.

Cayla Barnes, Hilary Knight, Hayley Scamurra and Abby Roque scored for the Americans.

The United States will face Canada, who beat Switzerland 10-3 earlier Monday, in the final on Thursday.

This is the sixth time in the last seven Olympic finals that both North American teams will face each other for a chance at gold. In 2018, the US beat Canada 3-2 in a shootout. 

After the semifinal, Scamurra talked to reporters about the feeling on the team to come up against Canada once again.

"We are just so excited. This is what we have been playing for. It is us against Canada and it is what we love to do and why we are here. We are really excited," she said.

"I think it is the best rivalry in sports. You can feel it when you are watching it and when you are doing it, it is that much more. It is so much fun. I love it."

All six Winter Games gold medals have gone to the two teams. Canada won in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, and the US earned gold in 1998 and 2018.

Finland and Switzerland are set to face off for the bronze on Wednesday.

Monday saw a mixed set of podium finishes at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Take a look at the winners and how the competition is shaking out so far:

Here's where the official Olympic medal count stands.

While the Olympics is the peak of athletic preparation and performance, sometimes, it just doesn't go to plan.

China's Kong Fanyu — who won bronze at PyeongChang 2018 — found this out the hard way during the women's freestyle skiing aerials final on Monday.

While she placed last in the event after crashing, she was fortunately OK.

Austria won the gold medal in the men's team ski jumping competition, with a total score of 942.7, after trailing Slovenia following the first round of the final.

Stefan Kraft, Daniel Huber, Jan Hörl and Manuel Fettner finished the final strongly to earn the gold for Austria.

"It's unbelievable. I'd say it's one of the best days in my life," said Kraft, "It's a team with friends, and for the whole team and for Austria, it was great."

"It's just an amazing event here at the Olympics. It's mentally so tough, but we did the best jump we could do today and it feels amazing," added Huber.

Slovenia finished with the silver medal on 934.4 points, while Germany earned the bronze with 922.9 points.

The win is Austria's third in the event, tying the record for most golds with Germany.

It took four Olympic Games but China's Xu Mengtao finally captured her elusive gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in the women's aerials event.

Xu finished sixth at Vancouver 2010, won the silver at Sochi 2014 and finished ninth in PyeongChang 2018. She also won a silver in Beijing as part of China's mixed team.

After the final, Xu bursted with emotion, telling the press about her immense joy: "I'm just super excited. This is the first gold medal by China in women's aerials and it's just super cool.

"I just wanted to do the best tricks I can do and I did it and that was all."

At the aerials event, 2018 gold medalist Hanna Huskova had set the marker with a big jump that earned her a score of 107.95, but Xu scored a 108.61 after landing a Back Full-Full-Full. Team USA's Megan Nick, in her first Olympic Games, won bronze.

Two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu didn't fully close the door on returning for a fourth Games after a disappointing outing in Beijing.

Hanyu skated on a sprained right ankle injury suffered in training just days before the free skate section of the men's singles event.

In his first press conference since finishing fourth and failing to win his third successive gold medal in the event, the 27-year-old explained that the injury was "worse than I initially thought."

"Any other competition and I would have definitely pulled out," Hanyu said during a press conference which was televised live nationally in Japan. "The doctor told me I need to rest it for 10 days. It's that bad. It hurt so badly during morning practice the day of competition that I even thought about pulling out.

"I was given a painkilling shot about 10 minutes before warm-up and decided to compete."

Hanyu hasn't made his mind up on whether or not he will be competing in the gala event on Sunday — it will be depending on how his ankle feels before it starts.

But the two-time gold medal winner held open the door to making a fourth Games appearance at the Winter Olympics at Cortina in 2026.

"The honest answer is I don't know. I came to the Olympic Games and I felt once again that the Olympics are so special," he said.

"I have an injury, but still I managed to get back on my feet and take on this challenge. The Olympic Games are the only stage for a figure skater to be able to do something like that. I felt really happy. So, of course, feeling wise, I would love to be able to skate at an Olympic Games once again."

South Korean figure skating icon Kim Yuna spoke out against the ongoing Kamila Valieva doping controversy in an Instagram post on Monday, saying an "athlete who violates doping cannot compete in the game (sic)."

The 2010 women's singles gold medalist went on to say, "This principle must be observed without exception. All players' efforts and dreams are equally precious."

The Instagram post is the latest reaction against the Court of Arbitration for Sport's (CAS) decision on Monday to allow Valieva to compete for the remainder of Beijing 2022, despite testing positive for a prohibited substance in December ahead of the Games.

In a statement, CAS said it had decided Valieva, 15, should be allowed to compete due to "exceptional circumstances," including specific provisions linked to her status as a "protected person" under the WADA code, because she is a minor.

The head of the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Travis Tygart said Russia has "hijacked the competition" and "stolen the moment from clean athletes" for the "sixth consecutive Olympic Games."

While Tygart acknowledged the that decision should be respected, he said that it was "a rushed one."

"Only time will tell if [Valieva] should be competing in these Games and whether or not all of her results will be disqualified," he said.

However, if it is found that Valieva should not have competed, Tygart said that the verdict will "reveal what a farce the handling of the Russia state-sponsored doping system by the IOC has been over the last eight years."

"If Russia had followed the rules, we would know for certain the outcome of the Figure Skating Team Event and those athletes who gave it their all could have their podium moment during these Games as they rightfully deserve with the world in celebration with them."

Read more about the reaction to the Valieva decision here.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday he hoped Kamila Valieva along with the other members of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) figure skating team would receive their gold medals “soon” after Valieva was cleared to continue competing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The medal ceremony for the figure skating team event was due to take place last week but was postponed after a positive drug test — now known to be that of Valieva — that was returned by a member of the ROC figure skating team.

Remember: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced earlier Monday that it would “not be appropriate” for the medal ceremony to take place at the Beijing Games until Valieva’s case had concluded.

Valieva is now scheduled to take part in the women’s individual competition which begins on Tuesday. She has no plans to withdraw from the event, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday.

When asked specifically about the IOC’s decision not to hold a medal ceremony should Valieva finish in the top three of the competition, Peskov said: “Let's not interfere the work with our comments.”

“We are talking about the serious work of both lawyers and representatives of our Russian Olympic Committee, WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), RUSADA and so on. The work continues,” he added.

Peskov also stated that he hoped Russia would be able to compete at the next Olympics as “a normal full-fledged national participation regime.”

“We believe that Russia is fulfilling all obligations. We perform without a flag, an anthem,” said Peskov. “Russia has always been a very responsible member of the Olympic family and remains fully committed to the ideas of Olympism.”

Russian athletes are unable to compete at a third consecutive Olympics under their country's name, flag and national anthem due to sanctions from the IOC and WADA as a result of the country's "systemic manipulation" of anti-doping rules during the 2014 Sochi Games.