Nathan Chen of Team USA says his goal is to “enjoy” the experience, reacting after setting the new personal best score in team men’s short.

“I’m happy with the way that it went today. And overall, my goal is just to enjoy this experience as much as I can. I already feel so honoured just to be able to be here at a second Olympics,” he said.

Uno Shoma of Japan who also set his personal best said he “wasn’t out to do anything extra special because it’s the Olympics”. I wanted to duplicate what I’ve been working on in practice, no more no less. I’m obviously happy to be here but I’m sticking to the plan – and I think I can build on this.

“These Games, I feel really at ease. I was calm before the skate so I’m pleased with my mindset.

“As I’ve said before, there aren’t too many competitions bigger than the [Japanese] nationals and this is one of them. The intense atmosphere, you can’t beat this.”

Nathan Chen of Team USA set a new personal record of 111.71 as he topped the chart in men’s single skating. He beat his 2019-20 Grand Prix final score of 110.38, while missing Japan’s Hanyu Yuzuru’s world record score by a tenth or so.

He was followed by Japan’s Shomu Uno, who scored 105.46 and Russian Olympic Committee’s Mark Kondratiuk securing third place with a distant 95.81 points.

So, the standings after one segment in the team event:

Team USA 10 points, Japan 9, ROC 8, Georgia 7, Italy 6, China 5, Czech Republic 4, Canada 3, Germany 2, Ukraine 0

Strong winds delayed the second downhill ski training session of men on Thursday. While the session had been scheduled to start at 11 am Beijing, the organizers will decide on when it can start in the afternoon.

The world’s best skiers only got the chance to see the Rock course up close for the first time on Thursday. There is a third training session scheduled for Saturday before the men’s downhill opens the Alpine competition the following day.

Fireworks were released over the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing on Sunday 30 January during a rehearsal for Friday’s opening ceremony.

The US, Britain, Australia, Canada and India are not sending the dignitaries to Beijing Winter Games as a part of a diplomatic boycott.

Elaborating on the reason behind the boycott, Canada’s Prime Minister said: “We are extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government.”

India has decided to stay away from the event following reports that a Chinese military commander who was involved in deadly clashes with Indian border forces in 2020 had been chosen as one of the Olympic torchbearers in Beijing.

Kosovo and Lithuania, whose relations with China have nosedived over their ties with Taiwan, are also taking part in the boycott.

Six German athletes tested positive on Thursday after arriving in Beijing on Thursday, taking the total Covid-19 cases in the team to seven.

”Three teams of Team D (Germany) are affected,” the Germany team said in a statement on Friday, without naming the people or sports teams affected.

“The team members are without symptoms and have been initially separated from the rest of the squad. There will be further PCR tests to confirm the results. The process from here on will be decided by the results.”

The other 78 athletes arriving on the same flight have tested negative.

Canada’s Rachel Homan and John Morris recorded a 7–5 win over Switzerland’s Jenny Perret and Martin Rios in the mixed doubles curling. The team began with a 4-1 lead against Switzerland with the latter bouncing back to reduce the winning margin but ultimately, the hat-tipped in the favour of the Canadians.

Italy continues with its winning streak on Friday scoring an 11-8 victory over Norway in the mixed doubles curling.

Sweden beat Australia by 7-6 in the mixed doubles curling event held at the National Aquatics Centre, with the latter falling to a 0-3 record at the Games.

The 2018 Winter Olympic Games were formally opened at PyeongChang Olympic Stadium on 9 February, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea.