After nine days of thrilling competition, the 2022 Winter Paralympics have come to a close. The Beijing Games were filled with bold performances, record-breaking runs and compelling wins.

We break down the top five moments below:

1. Ukraine sweeps the biathlon podium

Ukraine completed a podium sweep in the women’s standing 10km race, with Iryna Bui beating out fellow countrywoman Oleksandra Kononova by 13 seconds for gold and Liudmyla Liashenko finishing just behind Kononova for bronze.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was top of mind for Ukraine’s Paralympians, and Bui addressed those conflicting emotions after the race.

“We would like to dedicate our results and medals to each and every Ukrainian and all the soldiers in the Ukrainian army who protect us,” said Bui, per Japan’s Kyodo News. “With our performance, we represent the whole country, and this is our battle, here.”

Kononova and Bui also topped the podium in women’s middle distance standing. Kononova clinched gold by a winning margin of 28.5 seconds, while Bui took home bronze.

You have to give everything and more to win a #Gold at the #WinterParalympics

Iryna Bui did just that! Well done! 🥇 #Beijing2022 #ParaNordic pic.twitter.com/wXJCwZsfe6

— Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) March 8, 2022

2. Oksana Masters breaks records

Oksana Masters broke the Team USA record for the most medals at a single Paralympics, medaling in seven events in Beijing. The 32-year-old leaves the Winter Games with one gold and three silvers in para cross-country skiing and two golds and one silver in para biathlon, bringing her career total to a U.S. Paralympic-record 14 medals.

HISTORY FOR OKSANA MASTERS!

🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉🥉@TeamUSA x #WinterParalympics pic.twitter.com/uIiDuFbI2J

— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) March 13, 2022

3. Brenna Huckaby brings home the hardware

Brenna Huckaby won bronze in snowboard cross and gold in banked slalom in Beijing, adding to her two medals from the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympics. With the first-place finish, Huckaby tied Dutch snowboarder Bibian Mentel-Spee’s record for the most gold medals by a Paralympic snowboarder.

Prior to the Winter Paralympics, Huckaby petitioned to compete in the Games when SB-LL1 banked slalom and snowboard cross were removed from the lineup due to limited participation. Huckaby’s initial request was denied, but the American gold medalist pursued an injunction that led to the ruling being overturned, allowing her to compete in Beijing.

Brenna Huckaby's run for gold! 🥇

With her victory in snowboard women's banked slalom SB-LL2 at the 2022 #WinterParalympics, @bren_hucks now owns four career Paralympic medals. pic.twitter.com/AbP6lfxLJP

— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) March 11, 2022

4. China dominates the medal count

Team China ran away with the lead in the the medal count at the 2022 Games. Mengqiu Zhang won gold in the Super-G standing, China’s first individual para-alpine gold, as well as the giant slalom standing events, adding to her three silver medals for a haul of five medals.

Para-cross country athlete Hongqiong Yang clinched gold in the long-distance sitting, middle-distance sitting and sprint sitting events. Yujie Guo topped the podium as well, winning Beijing’s para biathlon sprint standing competition. China closed out the Paralympics with a total of 61 medals, including 18 gold.

It's a historic #Gold medal thanks to a great run by Mengqiu Zhang! #Beijing2022 #WinterParalympics #ParaAlpine pic.twitter.com/J5XBB2XopS

— Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) March 6, 2022

5. Canada wins big

Team Canada had an impressive Paralympic outing, placing third in the final medal count. Mollie Jepsen added two medals to her country’s haul, winning gold in the women’s downhill standing and silver in the women’s giant slalom standing. The dominant Winter Paralympics performance earned Jespen a spot as Canada’s flag bearer for the closing ceremony.

Para cross county star Natalie Wilkie also came up big for Canada, securing three medals in Beijing. Wilkie took home gold in the long distance standing and spring standing events and silver in the standing middle distance race. The 21-year-old now has six career Paralympic medals.

What’s better than one Beijing 2022 Paralympic gold? TWO PARALYMPIC GOLDS! Natalie Wilkie takes the women’s standing sprint 🥇 @NordiqCanada pic.twitter.com/H4dRzLPhDg

— Canadian Paralympic Committee (@CDNParalympics) March 9, 2022

U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday that the USWNT will play their last home game on July 16th in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The 2024 Send-Off Match against Costa Rica will take place at Washington, DC’s Audi Field — home to both the Washington Spirit and DC United — at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 16th. The friendly rounds out a four-game Olympic run-up campaign under incoming head coach Emma Hayes’ side, with the last two set to feature the finalized 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team roster.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Hayes will appear on the USWNT sideline for the first time this June, helming the team as they embark on a two-game series against Korea Republic hosted by Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on June 1st followed by Allianz Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 4th. 

The team is then scheduled to meet a talented Mexico squad on July 13th at Gotham FC’s Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, where the Olympic-bound lineup will attempt to rewrite February’s shocking 2-0 loss to El Tri Femenil in the group stages of this year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup. And while clear roster favorites have emerged from both of this year’s Gold Cup and SheBelives Cup rosters, a spate of recent and recurring injuries means making it to the Olympics is still largely anyone’s game.

Broadcast and streaming channels for the USWNT's final July 16th friendly at Audi Field include TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, and Peacock.

The USA Basketball Women's National Team is still considering Caitlin Clark for a spot on the Paris Olympics squad, says selection committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti. 

On Monday, Rizzotti told the AP that the committee will be evaluating the college phenom’s Olympic prospects by keeping a close eye on her first few weeks of WNBA play with Indiana.

The move is somewhat unconventional. While Clark was invited to participate in the 14-player national team training camp held earlier this month — the last camp before Team USA’s roster drops — she was unable to attend due to it coinciding with Iowa’s trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Judging by the immense talent spread throughout the league in what might be their most hyped season to date, competition for a piece of the Olympic pie could be fiercer than ever before.

"You always want to introduce new players into the pool whether it's for now or the future," said Rizzotti. "We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It's got to be a combination of an entire body of work. It's still not going to be fair to some people."

Of course, Clark isn’t the first rookie the committee has made exceptions for. Coming off an exceptional college season that saw her averaging 19.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4 assists per game for UConn, Breanna Stewart was tapped to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil less than two weeks after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Seattle Storm. Eight years prior, fellow No. 1 pick Candace Parker punched her ticket to the 2008 Games in Beijing just two weeks after making her first appearance for the L.A. Sparks.

In the lead-up to Paris’ Opening Ceremony on July 26th, USA Basketball Women’s National Team is scheduled to play a pair of exhibition games. They'll first go up against the WNBA's finest at the July 20th WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix before facing Germany in London on July 23rd.

While an official roster announcement date hasn’t yet been issued, players won’t find out if they’ve made this year’s Olympic cut until at least June 1st.

For the first time in history, three different WNBA teams have completely sold out of season ticket plans well before the league's May 14th kick-off.

Call it the Caitlin Clark effect, attribute it to this year’s tenacious rookie class, or look to the skyrocketing visibility of veteran players across the board. But no matter the cause, facts are facts: Tickets to the 2024 WNBA season are selling like never before. 

On Monday, the Dallas Wings became the third team to sell out of season ticket memberships in the league’s 27-year history. The announcement from Arlington came shortly after the Atlanta Dream issued their own season ticket sell-out statement, also on Monday, and almost seven weeks after the back-to-back WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces made headlines by becoming the first-ever WNBA team to sell out their season ticket allotment.   

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by espnW (@espnw)

According to the Wings, season ticket memberships will fill nearly 40% of the 6,251 seats inside their home arena, College Park Center. The club also said that their overall ticket revenue has ballooned to the tune of 220% this year, spanning not just season tickets but also a 1,200% increase in single ticket sales. There’s currently a waitlist to become a Dallas season ticket holder, a status that comes with extra incentives like playoff presale access and discounts on additional single-game tickets. 

In Atlanta, season tickets aren't the only thing flying off the shelves. The Dream also announced that they broke their own record for single-game ticket sales during a recent limited presale campaign. Sunday was reportedly their most lucrative day, with five different games totally selling out Gateway Center Arena. Individual tickets for all upcoming matchups will hit the market this Thursday at 8 a.m., while a waitlist for season ticket memberships will open up next Tuesday at 10 a.m.

"Excitement around women's sports, particularly basketball, is at an all-time high and nowhere is that felt more than here in Atlanta," Dream president and COO Morgan Shaw Parker said in the team’s statement. "We’ve continued a record-setting growth trajectory over the past three years under new ownership — both on and off the court — and 2024 is shaping up to be our best season yet."

As of Tuesday, season ticket sales revenue for Caitlin Clark’s hotly anticipated Indiana Fever debut haven’t yet been announced by the club. But if these numbers are any indication — not to mention the explosive demand for Fever away games felt by teams around the country — it won’t be long before we see some scale-tipping figures coming out of Indianapolis.

25-year-old American pro golfer Nelly Korda secured her spot in LPGA history on Sunday, notching her fifth-straight title at this weekend's Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as just the third LPGA player to rack up five consecutive tour wins. She is also the third No. 1-ranked player to capture The Chevron Championship victory since the rankings debuted in 2006, accompanied by Lorena Ochoa and Lydia Ko.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by LPGA Tour (@lpga_tour)

The Florida native shot three-under 69 in Sunday's final, besting Sweden's Maja Stark despite Stark's valiant come-from-behind attempt in the 18th. Korda finished with a four-day total of 13-under 275, celebrating her two-stroke win by cannonballing into Poppie's Pond, much to the crowd's delight. She left The Club at Carlton Woods with $1.2 million from an overall purse of $7.9 million.

It wasn't long ago that the two-time major champion's current winning streak seemed unimaginable. After maintaining her No. 1 position for 29 weeks, Korda underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm in 2022. She returned to the course not long after, but failed to win a single tournament in 2023 before seeing a surge in form during the first four months of 2024. As of today, she hasn't lost a tournament since January.

Korda will attempt a record sixth-straight win at next week's JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, where she'll vie for a cut of the $3.75 million purse.