Winter Olympics Day 11 predictions & best bets – February 15

A pair of young Chinese stars will go for Olympic gold on Tuesday as Eileen Gu competes in the Women’s Freestyle Skiing Slopestyle and Yiming Su contests the Men’s Snowboarding Big Air event. We’ll look into those two events as well as a Women’s Curling matchup between Great Britain and Japan in Tuesday’s Winter Olympics best bets.

Freestyle Skiing: Women’s Slopestyle

When Eileen Gu (+135) competed in the Big Air as the favorite to win that event, we recommended France’s Tess Ledeux over Gu as we thought the pressure of being one of the biggest names at these Olympic Games might have a negative effect on the favorite. Ledeux performed admirably to win silver, but it was Gu that dazzled with a 93.75 on her first run and a 94.50 on her third run in the final to score gold.

We aren’t betting against Gu this time. She’s as good as advertised and is clearly ready for the spotlight, as she showed in her clutch third-run performance in the Big Air. Gu took gold in the slopestyle events in the 2021 World Championships in Aspen and the 2021 Winter X Games in Aspen. Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru (+200) and Tess Ledeux (+550) will push her, but we expect the Chinese star to rise to the challenge again.

Snowboarding: Men’s Big Air

The judging in snowboarding events has been a hot topic throughout the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. The art of judging is never perfect in any sport, but this year’s snowboarding judges have been particularly inconsistent and controversial. Yiming Su had an outstanding run that many observers believed was good enough for gold in the Men’s Slopestyle, but he had to settle for silver as Canada’s Max Parrot was awarded gold. This controversy was compounded by the fact that the judges missed a glaring error that Parrot made during his gold-winning run.

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The 17-year-old Su is sensational and fairly priced as the favorite to win gold in the Big Air at +275. This event is wide open with plenty of legitimate contenders including Perrot (+350), Canada’s Mark McMorris (+550), Japan’s Takeru Otsuka (+650), Norway’s Marcus Kleveland (+700) and the United States’ Redmond Gerard (+700). Bettors looking for a better payout should consider a play on Kleveland, but we think Su gets redemption with gold here.

Women’s Curling: Great Britain (-165) vs Japan (+125)

Japan’s Women’s Curling team is no stranger to success with veteran skip Satsuki Fujisawa at the helm. Fujisawa led Japan to a bronze medal in the 2018 Olympic Games and has her team off to a 4-2 start in 2022. Great Britain came into these Olympics as the co-favorite alongside Canada to win gold, but Eve Muirhead’s squad currently sits in the bottom half of the standings with a 3-3 record.

That 3-3 record isn’t as bad as it looks at first glance, though. Great Britain has three blowout wins and two razor-thin losses to South Korea and Switzerland. The team’s only loss by more than two points came against Canada. Muirhead’s group still has draws ahead against China and Russia, the two worst teams in the round robin. Japan has a shot at an upset here, but this price doesn’t fairly represent Great Britain’s chances at a win. Look for the favorites to win their last three draws in round-robin play, starting with a victory over Japan.