The Olympics are heading back to Beijing.
Many of the same venues that saw some of the greatest performances in Olympic history will once again bear witness to the world's greatest competitors in action.
Australia is sending a strong team capable of adding to the 15 Winter Olympic medals it has achieved over the last few Games but, as is the case with all Olympics, there are plenty of other areas to focus our attention on.
Here are just a handful of the storylines you should look out for in Beijing.
Mikaela Shiffrin and the crushing weight of expectations
Let's not beat around the bush. Mikaela Shiffrin is one of the all-time great alpine skiers.
Owner of 116 FIS World Cup podiums, an incredible 73 of them as winner, with 10 coming this year alone, Shiffrin has been pushing the limits for years.
Beijing will be the 26-year-old's third Olympics, and she already has two golds and a silver.
And yet her relationship with the Games is fraught.
In an interview with the Washington Post in October, Shiffrin likened the pressure of the Olympics to the demonic antagonist of Stranger Things, the demigorgon.
"I'm kind of accepting and trying to prepare for basically the discomfort of the one situation that you hope would be this joyous, amazing event," she said.
"I felt a way in South Korea [at the PyeongChang Games of 2018] that I never, ever wanted to feel again in my skiing career."
It's a remarkable admission from the best active women's skier in the world, from a Games in which she came away with two medals, a gold and a silver.
There are inevitable echoes of the Tokyo Games and Simone Biles, a similarly hyped US star who had mountainous expectations thrust upon her on account of her brilliance.
Biles had the courage to say it was all too much, but her actions, and the words of Shiffrin, highlight the extraordinary pressure athletes feel to perform.
So what can we expect from the 26-year-old?
This will be the first Games since the sudden death of her father, an event that left Shiffrin racing as if in a fog throughout the 2020/21 season.
She still recorded a whopping 10 podiums, including three gold medals.
Shiffrin has been in form this season. She is ranked second in the World Cup standings for slalom, third for giant slalom, fifth in Super G and top of the pile in the combined, which is likely to be her best chance of a gold medal.
Eileen Gu flipping the script
Every Games needs a home hero, and in Eileen Gu, China has one of the most exciting talents in world sport.
The 18-year-old was born in San Francisco but has competed for China since she was 15 on the basis of her mother's heritage, giving her one of the most intriguing backstories of anyone at the Games.
With that logic, in Beijing she'll have the significant backing of the home support as she attempts a hat-trick of freestyle ski medals in the half-pipe, slopestyle and big air events.
She's every chance of doing it, too.
A two-time Youth Olympics gold medallist in the big air and half-pipe events in 2020 —she won silver in slopestyle — Gu made the leap into senior competition in a big way the following year.
The bilingual star became the first X Games rookie to win medals in three events on debut at Aspen 2021 (gold in the superpipe and slopestyle, bronze in the big air).
She then became the first freestyle skier in history to win multiple FIS world titles in a single year, claiming gold in the half-pipe and slopestyle events with another bronze in big air.
Gu, whose talents also extend into the world of academia — Olympics.com reported she had been offered a place at Stanford University next year — is shaping as the perfect person for home fans to pin their hopes on.
Suzanne Schulting looking to emulate the greats
When you think of Beijing in relation to the Olympics, your mind probably goes to Michael Phelps's golden achievements in the pool, where he won a unique sweep of eight gold medals.
Perhaps you think of Australia's own Steph Rice, who won three golds of her own in the Water Cube.
Britain's Chris Hoy and China's Zou Kai also won three gold medals, in cycling and gymnastics respectively, in Beijing's Summer Games 14 years ago.
Now, the achievements of those athletes could be emulated by Dutch short track star, Suzanne Schulting.
The Netherlands' first short track gold medallist in the 1,000 metres from PyeongYang, Schulting has gone from strength to strength between Games.
The 24-year-old has an unparalleled level of success over the last two years, in a sport where the only certainty is its unpredictability.
At the 2021 World Championships she entered the 500m, 1,000m, 1,500m and 3000m relay. She won gold in all four events.
Powering to the front of the field, Schulting takes control of the uncontrollables, keeping well clear of the carnage behind her.
Backed by a formidable group of Oranje-clad teammates who should wrap up the women's 3,000m relay event, Schulting could end up becoming the face of the Games.
Ireen Wüst, Sven Kramer going for one last, record-breaking hurrah
It's not just on the shorter track where the Dutch could claim multiple honours.
In speed skating, two Dutch legends will be looking to make history, with fellow five-time Olympians Ireen Wüst and Sven Kramer looking to further enhance their extraordinary legacies.
Wüst is arguably the greatest Olympian you've never heard of.
In Turin 2006, Wüst became the youngest ever Dutch winner of an Olympic gold medal, in the 3,000m.
In Vancouver she won gold in the 1,500m, adding to the bronze she won in the event four years earlier.
In Sochi, she exploded, winning two golds — in the 3,000m and team pursuit — plus three silvers in a stunning display of speed and power.
Adding another individual gold in PyeongChang in the 1,500m, plus silver in the 3,000m and team pursuit, gave her an extraordinary record of 11 Olympic medals, more than any other speed skater and the most ever by a Dutch athlete.
Now, the 35-year-old is on the verge of even greater heights if she can continue her extraordinary record in the Chinese capital.
The record Wüst is shooting for is an extraordinary example of longevity.
That's because Wüst has won an individual gold medal at four successive Games.
Nobody has ever won five individual events in five successive Games, Summer or Winter.
She will compete in the 1,500m and 1,000m, plus the team pursuit, in her historic bid.
Kramer, also 35, who is set to retire after this season, is going for his own record, looking to claim the 5,000m title for the fourth consecutive Games.
However, he has not won an individual race in a major championships since the 2018/19 season, and will have to best Swedish world record holder Nils van der Poel to go for an historic four-peat.
