The 2022 Paralympic Winter Games will run from March 4-13, and each day, NBCOlympics.com will recap the biggest stories that happened overnight. Here's what you may have missed from the second day of Paralympic competition.
Oksana Masters earns 15km cross-country silver
Oksana Masters now has two medals — in two different sports — at these Paralympics after earning silver in cross-country skiing's long-distance sitting event.
Throughout the 15km race, Masters was chasing Chinese skier Yang Hongqiong. Masters actually passed Yang on the course, but because the event uses factored times, Yang remained in the lead and finished 32 seconds ahead of the Ukraine-born American.
Behind Yang and Masters, there was also a good race for the bronze medal between their compatriots as Yang's teammate Li Panpan held off Masters' teammate Kendall Gretsch for third place.
"This is the one race that I was really looking forward to, but I'm so proud of myself," Masters said. "I raced this 100% honest, clean and in the right space and I just did everything I could, and I am so happy to bring home a medal for Team USA."
Masters and Gretsch took gold and bronze in yesterday's biathlon event and will have several more medal opportunities in the Nordic sports throughout the next week.
In the men's 18km sitting event, China's Zheng Peng had a dominant performance to win gold. He nearly led a Chinese sweep of the podium, but Canada's Collin Cameron played spoiler by claiming the bronze medal and breaking up the sweep. The top American finisher was Dan Cnossen in sixth place.
Italian Giuseppe Romele placed fifth in his attempt to redeem an unfortunate finish at January's world championships, in which the 30-year-old led by a minute before skiing an extra lap after his watch broke.
China sits atop medal table
The Paralympic host nation has found success on the first two days of the Paralympic Games. After the second day of competition, China is atop the table in both gold medals (6) and total medals (16).
Only two sports — Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing — had medals on offer for Day 2, but Chinese athletes were on the podium in nearly every single event that was contested.
In cross-country skiing, Yang Hongqiong (women's 15km) and Zheng Peng (men's 18km) swept the long-distance sitting events, and Chinese skiers surprised the field by earning four of the six medals given out in total.
In Alpine skiing, China had never won a Paralympic gold medal entering the day but now has two after Zhang Mengqiu (women's standing) and Liang Jingyi (men's standing) won their super-G races. China earned four Alpine medals total on Day 2, putting an athlete on the podium in all but two of the six events.
Ukraine is second on the medal table in both categories with three golds and seven medals overall.
Hernandez, Huckaby top women's snowboard cross qualifying
Just a few weeks ago, Frenchwoman Cecile Hernandez and American Brenna Huckaby were in danger of not being able to compete at the Paralympics. Now they'll head into the snowboard cross finals as the fastest women in the field.
Hernandez and Huckaby typically compete in the LL1 classification, which features athletes with a higher degree of lower-limb impairment such as an above-the-knee amputation, but the classification was removed from the Paralympic program due to a lack of athletes. In what Huckaby called "a big win for disability inclusion," a January court ruling is allowing LL1 athletes to "compete up" at these Paralympics by racing in the LL2 classification.
Because LL2 athletes have a lower level of impairment, such as a below-the-knee-amputation, Hernandez and Huckaby are technically competing at a disadvantage in Beijing. That didn't matter in the qualifying round, as Hernandez (1:08.38) and Huckaby (1:11.13) set the two fastest times of the entire session.
The qualifying round will be used to seed athletes for the head-to-head races in the knockout rounds, which will take place on Day 3 (Monday in Beijing, Sunday night in the United States).
The men's side, which has three different classifications, also held qualifying. Mike Schultz (third in LL1), Noah Elliott (fifth in LL1), Garrett Geros (second in LL2) and Keith Gabel (fifth in LL2) had the top results among members of the U.S. team.
U.S. dominates South Korea, moves to sled hockey semifinals
The U.S. sled hockey team has secured a spot directly into the semifinals after a second straight dominant performance.
Following yesterday's 5-0 win over Canada, Team USA looked even stronger against South Korea. Thanks to a strong opening period which featured five U.S. goals and a hat trick from Jack Wallace, the Americans set the tone early and never looked back en route to a commanding 9-1 victory.
The U.S. outshot South Korea 39-3 as five different players netted goals for the Americans. Wallace led the team with three goals, while Malik Jones and Declan Farmer added two apiece. Farmer also tallied three assists on the night. Captain Josh Pauls appeared in a U.S.-record 17th game.
Because they both lost to the U.S., the upcoming game between Canada and South Korea will determine which of those teams joins the Americans in the semifinals as the No. 2 seed. The loser can still reach the semis but will need to win a play-in game first.
Curling: U.S. gets 1st win, Canada stays unbeaten, Sweden beats China
Following a pair of losses on Day 1, the U.S. wheelchair curling team got its first win of the tournament, but it didn't come easy against Estonia.
The Americans looked like they might be able to pull away after scoring four points in the fifth end and taking a 7-3 lead. But things got tense after Estonia scored one in the sixth and then stole two in the seventh to cut the lead down to 7-6 with one end left to play. It wasn't until Estonia's final stone missed its target that the U.S. team was finally able to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
With its record now sitting at 1-2, it was a much-needed win for the U.S. However, things won't get any easier on Day 3 as the Americans will face two of the strongest teams in the tournament, Canada and Norway, in a pair of games.
Canada, world runner-up in 2020, defeated Latvia 10-3 to improve to 3-0 in round-robin play, while Sweden bested reigning champion China 5-1 in a rematch of the 2021 World Wheelchair Curling Championship, stealing three during the fifth and sixth ends. China bounced back later in the day with a 9-3 victory over Estonia, its first of the tournament.
Brothers win super-G, Great Britain's first-ever men's title on snow
Neil Simpson, guided by his brother Andrew, won the super-G vision impaired in Alpine skiing to earn Great Britain its first-ever gold in a men's snow event at the Olympic or Paralympic Games. Simpson has been guided by his older brother for the last five years.
Sixteen-year-old Johannes Aigner of Austria, the victor in Saturday's downhill event, grabbed bronze with guide Matteo Fleischmann for his second medal of the Games. Another 16-year-old, Slovak Alexandra Rexova, clinched gold in the women's event in her first major international competition.
Downhill sitting champion Momoka Muraoka of Japan won her second title of the 2022 Games with gold in super-G sitting. The 25-year-old competed on home turf six months ago in Summer Paralympic track and field, placing sixth in the 100m T54.