American freestyle skier David Wise can make history when the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics begin this week. A 31-year-old from Reno, Nev., Wise has won back-to-back gold medals in halfpipe freestyle skiing. If he successfully pulls off the three-peat at Beijing 2022, he will become the first U.S. man to win three consecutive gold medals in the same event at the Winter Games and only the sixth from any nation to do so in an individual event.

Wise is the most decorated member of the 32-person U.S. freestyle skiing team, which is expected to contribute to Team USA's gold medal haul in the Winter Olympics 2022. This year, the Over-Under for total gold medals won by Team USA is 8.5. Before locking in any Beijing Olympics 2022 picks or predictions, you need to see what SportsLine's Olympics expert Mike Tierney has to say.

A national sportswriter whose work appears in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Tierney has covered nine Olympic Games in person. At 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.

At 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). At last year's Tokyo Games, he correctly predicted the United States would go Over 111.5 total medals (-110).

Now, with the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 starting, Tierney has analyzed every sport and come up with a confident pick on the U.S. gold medal count total. You can visit SportsLine now to see his Beijing Olympics picks.

2022 Beijing Winter Olympics preview

One of the Americans who's expected to bring home gold is snowboarder Chloe Kim. Four years ago in Pyeongchang, she became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal when she won the women's snowboard halfpipe at 17. Her victory and bubbly personality helped make her one of the breakout stars of the 2018 Winter Olympics.

After a year at Princeton and 22 months away from snowboarding, Kim returned to the sport in January 2021. After a slow start to the season, she won the X Games and the World Championship. She enters Beijing as the overwhelming favorite to win gold.

Perhaps no American has a better chance of winning gold than figure skater Nathan Chen. In Pyeongchang, Chen, then 18, finished fifth in the men's competition. Since then, the 5-foot-6 jumping jack from Salt Lake City has dominated the world stage, winning the World Championships three straight times: 2018, 2019 and 2021.

His season, however, hasn't been perfect. At Skate America in October, he committed unexpected mistakes and finished third, ending a three-year undefeated streak. At the national championships in January, he fell twice in his free skate, but still captured his sixth consecutive national title. Despite the mishaps, he enters the men's competition as the skater to beat.

How to make Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 picks

Tierney has analyzed every sport and come up with his projected 2022 Olympics gold medal count for Team USA. He has identified several X-factors why this wager will cash. He's sharing that pick and his Olympics 2022 predictions only at SportsLine.

Will the U.S. go Over or Under 8.5 gold medals? Visit SportsLine now to get Mike Tierney's predictions for the Beijing Winter Olympics, all from the renowned sportswriter who's covered nine Olympics in person and cashed big in 2016, '18 and '21, and find out.