The United States is officially on the medal board in Beijing and it came from an unlikely hero.
After a quiet first day of competition in which the U.S. was kept off the podium, Julia Marino won silver to bring home the first medal of the 2022 Olympics for Team USA.
By the end of Day 2, 21 medals have been awarded. The U.S. is one of 16 countries to win a medal, with Norway, Slovenia, Italy, Canada and the Russian Olympic Committee all having two medals to their name.
The 24-year-old from Westport, Conn., scored 87.68 on her second run.
She nearly held on to win gold but on the final run of the day, gold-medal favorite Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand bested her with a score of 92.88.
Two-time gold medalist and fellow American Jamie Anderson entered the final round in fourth place, but finished ninth.
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
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This is the second straight Winter Olympics that the U.S. has been shut out of Day 1 on the podium.
At the 2018 PyeongChang Games, the United States didn’t win a medal on the first day of competition. On Day 2, American luger Chris Mazder won silver -- the first ever for Team USA in this event -- and snowboarder Red Gerard took gold in the men’s slopestyle.
At the 2014 Sochi Olympics, American skier Hannah Kearney won gold in the freestyle event on the first day medals were awarded. American snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg followed with a gold medal in the men’s slopestyle, the first for that Games.
The U.S. is currently second all-time in both overall medals and gold medals at the Winter Olympics with 305 and 105, respectively. Norway leads them comfortably in both categories.
At the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, the U.S. came in fourth in total medals behind Norway, Germany and Canada, in that order.
