Winter Olympics Day 2 preview & best bets – February 5, 2022

After a light day of action on Friday’s opening day, the Olympics schedule picks up in a hurry with a handful of events including gold medal races in the Women’s Cross Country 2 x 7.5km Skiathlon and Women’s 3000m Speed Skating. We’ve selected plays in these two events as well as a futures winner in the Women’s 500m Short Track Speed Skating in Saturday’s 2022 Winter Olympics best bets.

Cross-Country Skiing: Women’s 2 x 7.5km Skiathlon

Norway’s Therese Johaug has won gold at each of the last three World Championships in 2015, 2019 and 2021 in the 15km skiathlon and the 30km mass start. Johaug is the clear-cut favourite to win this event and there isn’t much value on betting on her to do so. Instead, we turn our attention to an intriguing head-to-head matchup between two talented young Swedish stars.

Ebba Andersson (24 years old) has earned one win and 28 top-three finishes in cross-country events at the World Cup and Stage World Cup. Frida Karlsson (22 years old) has three wins and eight top-three finishes at the World Cup and Stage World Cup in her young career. Karlsson may be the more talented cross-country skier between the two and is more likely to win Olympic gold one day, but her odds at -350 to finish ahead of Andersson in this event are a bit too slim. Andersson’s experience and consistency make her a solid underdog play to finish ahead of Karlsson in this event.

Speed Skating: Women’s 3000m

Everyone loves rooting for underdogs during the Olympic Games. Bettors looking to do so in the Women’s 3000m Speed Skating gold medal race should target Netherlands’ Antoinette de Jong (+650) or Czechia’s Martina Sablikova (+900) as they may be the only ones with a realistic shot at upsetting Netherlands’ Irene Schouten.

Irene Schouten (-300) is a long-distance speed skating specialist. In 2020-21, she won gold in the 3000m event at the Dutch Championships and the European Championships. She defended her 3000m gold in the Dutch Championships this year and won all three events (the 3000m, mass start and team pursuit) she participated in at the European Championships. She’s the best in the world at this distance and enters the Olympics in great form; no reason to overthink this one.

Short Track Speed Skating: Women’s 500m

The gold medal race for the Women’s Short Track Speed Skating 500m event won’t take place until early in the morning AEDT on Monday, February 14. But Saturday’s Olympics action includes eight heats in this event and will give sports fans the chance to see all of the contenders in action.

The top spot on the betting board is hotly contested between Italy’s Arianna Fontana (+200 to win gold) and Canada’s Kim Boutin (+250). Netherlands’ Suzanne Schulting (+400), Poland’s Natalia Maliszewska (+700) and China’s Fan Kexin (+1400) could also be in medal contention.

Fontana won this event in 2018 and is tied for the most short track medals in Olympics history with eight. But the value in this race is on Schulting, who won gold in the 1000m event in 2018 and in 2021 edged out Fontana for gold in the 500m race at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships. She’s worth a shot to top the favourites at these odds.