2022 Beijing Winter Games odds, picks: Best bets for skiing and speed skating from veteran Olympics expert

The 2022 Beijing Winter Games keep rolling Tuesday and Wednesday with the men's freestyle and alpine skiing events, along with women's short-track speed skating.  

Before locking in any Beijing Olympics 2022 picks or predictions, you need to see what SportsLine's Olympics expert, Mike Tierney, has to say. (Head over to SportsLine's 2022 Olympics page for more analysis and updates.)

A national sportswriter whose work appears in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Tierney has covered nine Olympic Games in person. For Rio in 2016, Tierney profited big-time. He told readers to bet Over on Team USA's gold medal count (41.5) and Over on Team USA's overall medal count (102.5). The result? 46 golds, 121 medals and two easy cashes.

For the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Tierney hit two of his three predictions: Germany (+200) to win the most gold medals and the United States winning Under 10.5 gold medals (+110). And at last year's Tokyo Games, he correctly predicted the United States would go Over 111.5 total medals (-110).

Now, Tierney has analyzed Tuesday's and Wednesday's events and locked in confident picks for them.. We can tell you one of these picks is a longshot who Tierney says could thrive "in a wide-open event." You ABSOLUTELY need to see what he has to say before locking in your picks. 

Who wins gold in the men's freestyle and alpine skiing, and women's short-track speed skating? And what long shot is worth a flyer? Join SportsLine right now to find out whom you should back, all from the expert who has crushed his Olympic picks!

Here are Tierney's picks and analysis: 

Freestyle skiing, men's aerial (6 a.m. ET Tuesday): Sun Jiaxu, China (+1,200) 

China sends out so many contenders that the betting public cannot determine whom to favor. Of the top choices on the board, half hail from the host nation. Let's go with Sun, who ranks second in the World Cup standings but carries the fourth-lowest odds. The Russian Maxim Burov is an overwhelming favorite at -140, but we have seen how pressure can weigh on the elite skiers. 

Alpine skiing, men's slalom (9:15 p.m.ET) Lucas Braathen, Norway (+1,000)

Perhaps Braathen's age (21) explains why the young points leader in the World Cup slalom stands fifth on the oddsboard.  He has not fared as well as his peers in other alpine events, but the slalom shapes up as his specialty. Four competitors are bunched at odds of +400 and +650, which speaks to a wide-open event. Norway's anthem could play if Braathen is beaten; countryman Sebastian Foss-Solevaag is at +650.  

Short-track speedskating, women's 1,500 meters (6 a.m. ET Wednesday): Lee Yu-Bin (+400)

Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands is a deserving favorite at -137 after taking gold in record time in the 1,000, but South Koreans Lee or Choi Min-jeong (+450) skated sharply in a silver-medal effort in the 3,000-meter relay Sunday. Schulting's dominance at last year's Worlds is misleading because COVID-19 kept several nations from sending athletes. Choi finished second in the 1,000 by a slim margin, in Beijing but Lee gets the nod after bettering Schulting at a World Cup race in late November. 

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