The opening ceremony is set for 7 a.m. ET. Plus, senior tech and economic opportunity reporter Jessica Guynn talks about new laws pressing companies to reveal how much positions pay, national correspondent Marc Ramirez reports on the isolating effect of the pandemic on older Americans, new job numbers are bleak and a massive winter storm hits 100 million people. Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Friday, the 4th of February 2022. Today the Winter Olympics are here. Plus, new laws press companies to reveal how much job openings pay and more. Here are some of the top headlines. The Winter Olympics will officially begin today in Beijing with the opening ceremony.[People counting down in Chinese]That was the countdown yesterday to the final 24 hours before the games begin. The festivities are taking place at the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, the same venue that hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. This time around more than 150 US athletes are expected to participate in the opening ceremony, which includes the Parade of Nations, where athletes and officials march in with their country’s flag. Curler John Schuster and speed skater Brittany Bowe will be the flag bearers for Team USA, and you can tune in live at 7:00 AM Eastern time on NBC and Peacock. Meanwhile, some events have actually begun in Beijing. One of them is figure skating and USA star, Nathan Chen. They raced out to an early lead yesterday in the team competition. USA TODAY Sports’ Christine Brennan has more. Figure skating is always such an interesting story at a Winter Olympic games and the US figure skating team, again, will be full of stories. I would say the top five stories, it’s Nathan Chen, Nathan Chen, Nathan Chen, and then ice dance medal and team medal. But really the story is the men and Nathan Chen. He, of course in 2018, had a terrible short program, came back to win the long program and ever since he’s won everything but one competition over the last four years, including three world titles. Nathan Chen is a gold medal favorite. He is definitely the man to beat. When you think of figure skating, you really think of women’s skating, and certainly the US women have been dominant over the decades: Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Kristi Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski. Unfortunately these days are not like that. In 2018, four years ago, the US women finished ninth, 10th and 11th. Alyssa Lou could be in contention if there are a lot of falls. Mariah Bell, what a story. 25 years old, her first national title, a story of perseverance. And then Karen Chen has been fourth at two world championship. She’s back for another Olympic games after being on the US team in 2018. With US ice dance, a medal is almost a certainty and that’s something that you couldn’t say for decades.

All data is taken from the source: http://usatoday.com
Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/02/04/winter-olympics-begin-winter-storm-hits-100-million-5-things-podcast/6660751001/

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