Olympics viewing guide: All the must-see events from Beijing

The Beijing Winter Olympics feature 15 disciplines and 109 medal events over 20 days of competition, so there's no shame in feeling a little overwhelmed if you're looking to get into the Games.

In the interest of helping you figure out where to start (and finish), ABC News has compiled some of the can't-miss events of the 24th Winter Olympics, and the names to watch when it comes to each podium.

Events (organized by date):

Men's downhill – Feb. 5, 10 p.m. ET
One of the marquee events of each Winter Olympics comes on the first weekend of competition. Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde has won three downhill races on the world cup circuit this season and is looking to become the second straight Norwegian to win the downhill. Pyeongchang gold medalist Aksel Lund Svindal retired after the 2019 world championships, so Kilde will be the nation's best hope. Beat Feuz, from Switzerland, has won the downhill world cup standings the last four seasons, though, and may be the favorite in Beijing after taking bronze in 2018.

Women's giant slalom – Feb. 7, 12:45 a.m. ET
The giant slalom will be American Mikaela Shiffrin's first chance to win gold in Beijing -- the same event where she won her only gold in Pyeongchang. Shiffrin has been positioned as the star of the Games for the U.S., a role that has been dominated in recent Olympics by Lindsey Vonn. Shiffrin (two golds and one silver) has already been more successful in her Olympic career than Vonn, and could challenge Croatian legend Janica Kostelic for the most golds by a female Alpine skier (four) or overall medals by a female Alpine skier (six -- a tie between Kostelic and Sweden's Anja Parson). Shiffrin will compete in all five Alpine events, but the giant slalom is one of her strengths. She has two wins in five world cup races this season. Her top competition, Swede Sara Hector, has three world cup giant slalom wins in six tries.

Men's singles ice skating – Feb. 7, 8:15 p.m. ET (short program), Feb. 9, 8:30 p.m. ET (free skate)
The men's individual competition is supposed to be a coronation for American Nathan Chen. The 22-year-old, already a prodigy in 2018, struggled badly in the short program in Pyeongchang and buried himself in 17th ahead of the free skate. He led the scores on the second night, but it was only enough to put him in fifth overall. The past four years have been all about redemption. He's won the world championship in each of the three years it's been held since Pyeongchang and looked like a man on a mission. If Chen does shockingly struggle again, Japanese rivals Yuma Kagiyama and Yuzuru Hanyu, the two-time defending gold medalist, will be looking to capitalize.

Women's ice hockey, Canada vs. USA – Feb. 7, 11:10 p.m. ET
There's only one rivalry in women's hockey that matters, and it's the United States vs. Canada. There's a good chance these two teams will meet in the gold medal final (Feb. 16, 11:10 p.m. ET), but this preliminary round game will set the stage. Canada and the U.S. are the only teams to ever win gold in the Olympics since women's hockey debuted in 1998. The U.S. won the first tournament and in Pyeongchang; Canada won the four times in between. And only once (2006) did the U.S. and Canada not face off in the gold medal game. Buckle up the chin strap as Canada looks for revenge from 2018.

Women's cross-country skiing sprint free – Feb. 8, 6:47 a.m. ET
Cross-country skiing is the track equivalent of the Winter Olympics. But unlike the solid surface, cross-country skiing had never treated Americans well. Until Jessie Diggins came along. The Minnesota native -- along with teammate Kikkan Randall -- won America's first cross-country gold in the team sprint relay in Pyeongchang in the most dramatic fashion possible, chasing down Sweden's Stina Nilsson -- the individual gold medalist in the sprint -- on the final straightaway to win by 0.19 seconds. Diggins has been great on the world cup tour the past two season, winning the overall standings in 2020-21. She'll have a shot at gold here in her first event of the Games.

Men's freestyle skiing big air – Feb. 8, 10 p.m. ET
How quickly can you add multiples of 360? The men's and women's big air (one night earlier) are making their debuts at the Beijing Games, but they've long been a staple of events such as the X Games. The sport is pretty simple: Put a big jump at the bottom of a hill, and do the craziest tricks you can think of. Expect to hear the phrase "triple cork" -- three off-axis rotations -- and a lot of big spins. The men are now progressing up to six full spins -- that's a 2160 for those who know their geometry. The U.S. has a very strong team, led by Alex Hall, who claimed the crown at the X Games last month, and Mac Forehand, who took silver in the same event.

Women's halfpipe snowboarding – Feb. 9, 8:30 p.m. ET
It's Chloe Kim's time to shine. The Southern California native is a huge favorite in this event after winning gold in 2018 and in her only world cup competition this season (last month in Switzerland). Kim hasn't competed much since Pyeongchang. In fact, she sat out competition entirely for almost two years as she went to Princeton University. But when she did compete, she won, including the X Games in 2019 and 2021 and the world championships in 2021. She's poised to dominate the competition again in Beijing, but snowboarding can be fluky. You only have three chances to put down a clean run, and sometimes that's just not in the cards. Fellow American Maddie Mastro will bring a double-cork to the Olympics, a trick even Kim doesn't do, but she struggled to land it at last month's X Games and eventually pulled out of the final due to injury. Japan's Sena Tomita won that event as Kim sat out.

Men's halfpipe snowboarding – Feb. 10, 8:30 p.m. ET
Of course Shaun White will be the biggest name in this event, but he's unlikely to be the gold medalist unless he has a secret hidden up his winter coat in his fifth and final Games. White won gold in 2018 but has rarely competed in the past four years. In the meantime, Australia's Scotty James and a slew of Japanese riders -- Ayumu Hirano, his little brother Kaishu Hirano and the unrelated Ruka Hirano -- have dominated the pipe. Ayumu Hirano, the two-time defending silver medalist, will be the favorite due to his bag of tricks, but big tricks means bigger crash-and-burn potential -- especially if he tries to land the triple cork. Ayumu Hirano was edged out at last month's X Games by James, who is the defending bronze medalist in the event.

Women's monobob – Feb. 13, 10 p.m. ET
The one-person bobsled competition was added to the Olympic program in Beijing, and the U.S. happens to have the top two contenders for gold: Elana Meyers Taylor, this year's world cup winner, and Kaillie Humphries, last year's world championship winner. A wrench has been thrown into the competition, however, with Meyers Taylor testing positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Beijing. She says she's asymptomatic and hopes to test negative before competition. The first two runs of the competition will come the night of Feb. 12, while the final two runs come on Feb. 13. There's a good chance the times will be so close that the winner between Taylor and Humphries may come down to fractions of a second on the fourth and final run.

Women's singles ice skating – Feb. 15, 5 a.m. ET (short program), Feb. 17, 5 a.m. ET (free skate)
From 1956 to 2002, the U.S. won the gold medal in women's single figure skating seven times in 13 Games. But in the 12 total medals handed out since Salt Lake City, they've only claimed one (Sasha Cohen's silver in 2006). The U.S. drought is unlikely to change in Beijing. Russian competitors swept the podium at the 2021 world championships, and they're expected to dominate in Beijing as well. Russia's Kamila Valieva, who is just 15 years old and was not one of those on the podium last year, is the favorite in an event that Russia (competing as the ROC) could sweep again. Valieva, who smashed records at the European championships last month, wasn't even alive when the U.S. last won a medal in women's singles figure skating.

Women's Alpine combined – Feb. 17, 1 a.m. ET
If Shiffrin is threatening any of the Alpine skiing records, this will likely be her last chance to win gold. But it also comes in her strongest event. The combination of a downhill run and slalom run -- the two most disparate events on the mountain -- is perfect for an all-around skier like Shiffrin. She took silver in the combined in 2018 and will be a medal favorite again in 2022. Look for her to make up time in the slalom, her strongest of the two events, which comes after the downhill portion hours earlier (Feb. 16 at 9:30 p.m. ET).

Women's 1000-meter speedskating – Feb. 17, 3 a.m. ET
In an event once dominated by Bonnie Blair, a fellow American with the same initials is on top of the long-track speedskating world: Brittany Bowe. Bowe missed a medal by a mere 0.38 seconds in this event in 2018, but in the time between Pyeongchang and Beijing, Bowe claimed the world record and won gold at the 2019 and 2021 world championships. She just needs a gold in Beijing to close out a dominating four years in the 1,000 meters. The Florida native -- who came from the world of inline skating -- will face familiar foes Nao Kodaira and Miho Takagi, the Japanese pair that took silver and bronze at the last Olympics.

Women's ski halfpipe – Feb. 17, 8:30 p.m. ET
Shaun White or Chloe Kim may be the most popular athlete born in America on this side of the Pacific, but the most popular athlete born in America in China is Eileen Gu. The 18-year-old, born in San Francisco, decided to compete for China to honor her mother's birthplace. Gu has 1.3 million followers on Weibo, China's version of Twitter; signed a modeling deal with IMG and will go to Stanford in the fall. But first, she's expected to win three medals -- maybe three golds -- in Beijing. The halfpipe is her third of three competitions -- first comes big air (Feb. 7, 9 p.m.) and then slopestyle (Feb. 13, 8:30 p.m.) -- so she could enter with two golds already under her belt. The halfpipe is the centerpiece of the sport though, and Gu is almost a lock as the reigning world champion. She's also the world champ in slopestyle and finished third in big air. Bottomline, she's a superstar.

Men's biathlon 15km mass start – Feb. 18, 4 a.m. ET
If you don't get excited for the biathlon every four years, then you're not a true Winter Olympics fan. Don't worry too much about why cross-country skiers are asked to stop and shoot targets midrace, just enjoy the drama. The rules are pretty simple: ski a loop on the course, stop to shoot targets and, if you miss, ski a short penalty lap for each error, then back out for another loop of the course. Big leads on the course can evaporate before a skiers' eyes -- literally -- if they struggle at the shooting range. Sadly, Americans haven't gotten in on the fun, but the French and Norwegians wage a war in the sport. Frenchman Martin Fourcade, who won two golds in biathlon in 2018, retired from the sport, so his countrymen Quentin Fillon Maillet and Emilien Jacquelin -- the current top two on the world cup tour -- will carry the French mantle. Norwegian brothers Tarjei Boe (one gold, one silver) and Johannes Thingnes Boe (one gold, two silvers) are legends in the sport as well.