VIDEO.

Biathlete Leif Nordgren witnessed the birth of his first child via video the day before his first race on Tuesday.

The delivery date was originally scheduled for the day of the opening ceremony.

"It was actually very hard, to be honest," he said after his 87th place in the individual.

"While warming up, I was just thinking about my family and got a few tears in my eyes."

The American has not seen his wife since mid-November due to health restrictions to go to Beijing and he is now "looking forward to finishing the Games and returning" home.

(AFP)

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.

Maltese Jenise Spiteri spent sleepless nights responding to her fans and promoting winter sports in her country.

The only representative of the Mediterranean island, she stays awake "until four or five in the morning almost every night" to tell her Olympic adventure.

"Maltese from all over the world told me that it was really cool to see a Maltese compete in snowboarding", underlines the one who finished 21st out of 22 during the qualifications of the women's halfpipe on Wednesday, with 25.25 points, far behind the 87.75 points from defending champion Chloe Kim.

(AFP)

Malta's flag bearer Jenise Spiteri leads her country's delegation during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics at the "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing on February 4, 2022 Manan VATSYAYANA AFP

SKRICKET.

Irishman Jack Gower, 27, is taking part in his first Olympic Games in alpine skiing.

After finishing 31st in the downhill, he must start the combined on Thursday.

The name of the skier, an Englishman from Chichester, whose grandmother is Irish, will be familiar to cricket fans.

His father's cousin is David Gower, a sports legend, ex-England captain and now star consultant for Sky Sport.

(AFP)

Irishman Jack Gower during the Beijing Olympics downhill on February 7, 2022 at the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing Dimitar DILKOFF AFP

FAMILY AFFAIR.

Among the Birkners, taking part in the Winter Olympics in alpine skiing is a tradition.

Tomás Birkner de Miguel, who will compete in the slalom and giant in Beijing, will be the ninth member of the Argentinian family to line up at the Games since Sarajevo in 1984. Although he did not learn to ski in his father's family , whose last name he inherited, but with his mother.

His goal, a "difficult but possible" Top 15.

And the athletic skills don't stop there with the Birkners.

“I also have other cousins ​​who were Olympians in windsurfing. One of them won a gold medal at the Youth Olympics,” adds Tomás.

(AFP)

Argentinian Tomas Birkner De Miguel, during the 1st round of the St Moritz giant, counting for the World Cup, February 17, 2017 Dimitar DILKOFF AFP / Archives

BARTER.

Romane Pinturault, press officer for the France team, was finally able to recover some official masks from the Olympic Games, prettier than an ordinary white FFP2.

All with a member of the organization in exchange for... pins (an Olympic tradition)!

Greedy, the man negotiated the masks against two pins from the France team.

(AFP)

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