The 2022 Olympic Alpine skiing program is set get underway Saturday night with the fastest and most harrowing event on the schedule: the men’s downhill.

Over 40 of the world’s most daring ski racers will attempt to conquer the brand-new Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center, nicknamed "The Rock," created with manmade snow specifically for the 2022 Winter Games. Each athlete will get one attempt down the two-mile long, half-mile tall course in order to set the fastest possible time.

Among those expected to vie for the gold medal are a pair of Swiss skiers in two-time Olympic medalist Beat Feuz, along with 24-year-old rising star Marco Odermatt. The prevailing favorite, though, is Norway’s top-ranked downhill specialist Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Kilde, whose girlfriend is American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, logged the best time across all three official training sessions at 1:43.72 (the third training session was cancelled after just three skiers due to unsafe wind conditions).

Three Americans, Bryce Bennett, Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Travis Ganong, all enter as dark horse podium hopefuls. Of the three, Bennett is arguably the most intriguing. The 6-foot-7 Californian picked up the first World Cup downhill win by an American in five years in December when he clocked the best time in Val Gardena, Italy.

Barring any delays, the first skier, Bennett, will take off down the mountain at the stroke of 11 a.m. Beijing time (10 p.m. ET). The full Alpine skiing schedule at the 2022 Winter Olympics can be found HERE.

The men’s downhill will feature prominently in NBC’s Primetime Coverage Saturday evening. NBC will carry the full first hour of the competition starting at 10 p.m. ET, during which the medals winners are likely to be determined. At 11 am. ET, coverage will transition to USA Network, which will carry the remainder of the session.

Users with cable or satellite subscriptions can authenticate via TV Everywhere to stream every Alpine skiing event in the NBC Sports app or on NBCOlympics.com. A simulcast of NBC Primetime/USA Network coverage is available, as well as a World Feed stream with OBS-provided commentary. 

For the first time, users can stream every event of the 2022 Winter Olympics LIVE on Peacock. World Feed coverage of the men’s downhill begins at 10 p.m. ET. Sign up HERE.