TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2014 SPORTS Sports at Olympics

KRASNAYA POLYANA: Russian biathlete Glazyrina Ekaterina trains at Laura Cross-country Ski & SOCHI: Jonathan Kuck of the US practices during a test race at Adler Arena Skating Center at the 2014 Center ahead of the . —AP Winter Olympics. —AP

ALPINE SKIING events, and its two biggest stars are Petter Northug STARS TO WATCH a bit lower at the Sochi Olympics. Steering is done by SKI JUMPING THE BASICS and Marit Bjoergen. Northug has struggled with illness Defending moguls champion Alex Bilodeau’s subtle shifts of the body, and the start is critical. Lugers THE BASICS After missing the first three Winter Olympics, Alpine this season, however, and his form is in question. toughest competition could come from Canadian wear gloves with tiny spikes attached to the finger Women will compete for the first time in a sport skiing joined the program in 1936. Ten gold medals will Bjoergen won three golds in in 2010 and teammate Mikael Kingsbury. Hannah Kearney of the pads, using them to dig into the ice to gain momen- the men have had to themselves since 1924. Four be awarded in Sochi, five for men and five for women - could well repeat that feat in Sochi if she again gets the United States is the defending women’s champion. tum, before settling into position for the ride. gold medals will be awarded overall, the large hill, downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom (usu- better of main rival Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland. Victor Oehling Norberg of is a consistent top- the normal hill and a team event for the men. The ally called super-G) and super combined. Three-time overall World Cup winner Dario Cologna 10 finisher in skicross but still looking for that first vic- STARS TO WATCH women will compete only on the normal hill. has only recently returned from an ankle injury but tory of the season. Germany, Germany, Germany. Felix Loch is the STARS TO WATCH should still be a contender. reigning Olympic champion and is favored to repeat in STARS TO WATCH With Lindsey Vonn out injured, the 18-year-old DID YOU KNOW? the men’s race, and teammate Natalie Geisenberger “Kid Ballerina” Sara Takahashi of Japan, who says American many call “The Next Lindsey Vonn,” Mikaela DID YOU KNOW? Freestyle skiing dates back more than 100 years has been nearly unbeatable on the World Cup circuit her ballet training helps her maintain balance during Shiffrin, will attract plenty of attention as the favorite to The most successful Winter Olympian of all time with records of skiers performing somersaults on skis to earn her Sochi-favorite status. The Germans also jumps, is the women’s favorite. Her biggest competi- win the slalom. Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, a dou- was a cross-country skier. Bjoern Daehlie of at the start of the 20th century in Norway, Italy and dominate in doubles luge. tors are American teenager Sarah Hendrickson, the ble gold medalist at the 2010 Vancouver Games, and won eight Olympic gold medals between 1992 and . The first professional competitions were in world champion who is coming off right knee sur- Lara Gut of Switzerland, who’ll be making her Olympic 1998, along with four silvers. He nearly won a ninth 1971, and it entered the Olympic program in 1992. DID YOU KNOW? gery in August, and Lindsey Van, the sport’s first debut, could dominate other races. gold, but surprisingly lost a sprint finish to Silvio Fauner The Olympic luge program is growing in Sochi with world champion and Hendrickson’s teammate. of Norway already enjoys rock-star status in Europe, of Italy in the men’s 4x10-kilometer relay at the 1994 MEN’S HOCKEY the addition of a team relay. One man, one woman and while 36-year-old Bode Miller, owner of five Olympic Lillehammer Games, stunning the home crowd. THE BASICS one doubles team will compose each nation’s team, DID YOU KNOW? medals, and Ted Ligety, who won three titles at last About 150 jetlagged NHL players join their and they’ll go one after another - with one slider slap- The International Olympic Committee fought for year’s world championships, will also be ones to watch CURLING European counterparts in a frenetic 12-team, 12-day ping a pad to trigger the clock and tell the next team- years to keep women from ski jumping at the from the US team. THE BASICS tournament for hockey supremacy. Nobody has time mate it’s time to start their run. Olympics, with suggestions their event wasn’t com- Two gold medals will be awarded, one for men and for practice or team-building with three quick open- petitive enough and that their bodies weren’t strong DID YOU KNOW? one for women. Ten teams are in both tournaments. ing-round games before the knockout portion begins, NORDIC COMBINED enough to take the strain of jumps, affecting their Austria has won a record 105 Alpine skiing medals They all play each other once in the round-robin stage, but Canada, , Sweden, Finland and the United THE BASICS ability to have children. at the Olympics, nearly twice as many as any other with four advancing to the semifinals. States all have their eyes on gold. With ski jumping and cross-country skiing, it’s the country. Switzerland ranks second with 56, followed by sole male-only sport left at the Winter Olympics. Three SNOWBOARDING with 43 and the United States with 39. STARS TO WATCH STARS TO WATCH gold medals will be awarded, off the normal and large THE BASICS Margaretha Sigfridsson of Sweden and Eve Reigning NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin and fellow stars hills with 10-kilometer ski races for each, and a team Five events: Halfpipe, snowboardcross, parallel BIATHLON Muirhead of Britain have been engaged in a battle for Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk are under extraordi- event from the large hill which includes a 4x5-kilome- giant slalom and two new ones - slopestyle and par- THE BASICS supremacy in women’s curling for the past 12 months. nary home-country pressure to lead the Russians to ter cross-country race. allel slalom. Slopestyle is a ride down a hill with Like several other sports, biathlon has military ori- Muirhead is the world champion and Sigfridsson the their first gold medals since the Unified Team’s 1992 steeply angled jumps, rails and little bumps called gins with the combination of cross-country skiing and European champion - and the Olympics can be viewed win in Albertville. Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby also is STARS TO WATCH “jibs.” Parallel slalom is racing - a shortened version of rifle shooting first becoming a common exercise for as the decider. Brad Jacobs is the star attraction in back for more Olympic magic after scoring the gold- of Germany comes into Sochi with a parallel giant slalom event that’s been on the pro- winter troops in northern countries during the second gram since snowboarding was introduced in 1998. half of the 19th century. That also helps explain why countries like Norway, Russia and Sweden are still STARS TO WATCH dominant. Biathlon has one of the busiest schedules A certain rider named Shaun White, who is going on the Olympic program, with four individual events for his third straight halfpipe gold and trying to win for both men and women, along with a relay. New for in slopestyle, as well. Another rider to watch will be this year is a mixed relay. Torah Bright of Australia, the defending Olympic halfpipe champion who will compete in halfpipe, STARS TO WATCH slopestyle and snowboardcross. of France has been the top men’s biathlete in the last two years, winning three world DID YOU KNOW? championship titles in 2012 and the overall World Cup Mark McMorris of Canada is largely considered last season, and he is expected to add his first Olympic White’s top challenger in slopestyle but he broke a gold in Sochi. of Norway could rib competing in the Winter X Games. He’s expected well add to his two golds from Vancouver, as well. On to be OK in time for Sochi. the women’s side, expect of Norway and of to grab at least a couple LONG TRACK SPEEDSKATING of medals each. THE BASICS All races are held in pairs using two lanes on the DID YOU KNOW? track. At the back straightaway, the skaters switch One of the all-time greats will be competing in the lanes, allowing them both to cover the same dis- biathlon events in Sochi as Ole Einar Bjoerndalen aims tance per lap. When both skaters emerge from the to cap his storied career by making Olympic history. corner at the same time, the skater in the inside lane The 40-year-old Norwegian has six Olympic golds from has to let the outer lane pass in front of them. The previous games and needs two more to equal the men and women each compete in five individual Winter Games record. While Bjoerndalen hasn’t won an events, and the team pursuit. individual World Cup race in two years, Norway is one of the favorites in both the men’s and mixed relay - STARS TO WATCH meaning he could well get there. SOCHI: Figure skater Patrick Chan of Canada in action during a training session prior to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at Shani Davis of the United States will try to Iceberg Skating Palace. —AFP become the first male skater to win the same event BOBSLED at three straight Olympics in the 1,000 meters. Sven THE BASICS men’s curling, although the spotlight is often stolen by winning overtime goal in Vancouver. big lead in the World Cup standings, having also won Kramer of the Netherlands is looking for redemption It looks simple, but it’s incredibly intricate to get a the Norwegian team, with its funky wardrobe. the Nordic Combined Triple in January, a new format in the 10,000, having lost a gold medal four years sled going and keep it upright for the ride down the DID YOU KNOW? that added the results of three competitions on one ago in Vancouver after being disqualified when his track. Everyone sprints while pushing the sled on ice, DID YOU KNOW? The NHL stars are back for their fifth consecutive weekend. The Americans have a strong team, with coach directed him to the wrong lane during the then hops inside, at which point the driver is typically Canada, the stronghold of world curling, has won a Olympics since Nagano, but this might be your last 2010 individual large hill gold medalist and team silver race. On the women’s side, Ireen Wust of the the only one with his or her head up for the rest of the medal in every men’s and women’s tournament since chance to see them on the podium for a while. NHL medalist Billy Demong back, and 37-year-old Todd Netherlands is a favorite to medal in the 1,500 and trip. One wrong move, and that sled could tumble on the sport returned to the Olympic program in 1998. owners are making serious noise about keeping the Lodwick competing in his sixth Olympics. 3,000. Claudia Pechstein of Germany will turn 42 dur- its side easily. league in session in 2018 during the Pyeongchang ing the Olympics, her sixth. She owns nine career FIGURE SKATING Olympics, citing the time difference to DID YOU KNOW? medals and will try for a 10th in the 5,000. STARS TO WATCH THE BASICS and lost revenue. The starting places in the cross-country race are Steven Holcomb of the United States was the top To the familiar medal events of men’s and determined by the finishes in the ski jump competi- DID YOU KNOW? driver on the men’s World Cup circuit this winter, while women’s singles, pairs and ice dance, the IOC is WOMEN’S HOCKEY tion, with generally a 10-point lead in jumping provid- The clap skate revolutionized the sport in the Kaillie Humphries of Canada took the women’s overall adding a team competition. Ten countries will take THE BASICS ing a one-minute start in the ski race. That format is mid-1990s, helping lower world records consider- title. Both won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games and part, combining the scores of their entries in the four In order to boost competition in a sport that has known as the Gundersen Method. ably. The skates are hinged to the front of the boot might again this year. The U.S. has two Olympic track disciplines. been dominated by Canada and the United States, the and detach from the heel, allowing a more natural athletes on the women’s team, with gold medalist Olympic women’s hockey format was changed this SKELETON range of movement. The blades are about 1 millime- Lauryn Williams and Lolo Jones qualifying as push ath- STARS TO WATCH year. The round-robin features a guaranteed grudge THE BASICS ter thick and come in lengths from 13 to 18 centime- letes. Yuna Kim of South Korea seeks to repeat - she’d be match between the North Americans, and a chance for Sometimes called “headfirst luge,” but it really has ters. only the third woman to win two straight gold them to earn a bye through to the semifinals. The pre- hardly anything in common with the feet-first racing DID YOU KNOW? medals. A foot injury forced her out of the Grand Prix liminary round will be played at the puck-shaped sport. The sleds are simple, with racers usually grab- SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING BMW doesn’t just make fast cars. Their sled-build- series, though. Three-time world champion Patrick Shayba Arena, and the medal round at the larger bing a handle with one arm as they take off running at THE BASICS ing business will be on full display in Sochi, with Chan is the favorite on the men’s side, but was upset Bolshoy Ice Dome. the start. They then flop onto the sled - it sort of looks Usually between four and six skaters compete on Germans, Americans and Canadians - all medal by Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan at the Grand Prix Final. like an oversized cookie sheet - and have their chin just an oval ice rink using a mass start. Men and women favorites - among the nations racing in their sleds. And STARS TO WATCH barely off the surface of the ice as they speed down the compete in the same events: 500 meters, 1,000, while those sleds bear the same logo, there’s some sig- DID YOU KNOW? Finland goalie Noora Raty was 41-0 at the chute. 1,500, and the relays (3,000 for women and 5,000 for nificant set-up and technological differences depend- Russian or Soviet skaters have won seven of the University of Minnesota, leading her team to a second men). It’s often called roller derby on ice and there ing on which nation’s flag is affixed. 10 gold medals in the event, but Canadian ice straight college championship. Hayley Wickenheiser of STARS TO WATCH are several rules that, if broken, result in disqualifica- dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will be on hand to Canada is going for her fourth gold medal, and she is Martins Dukurs of Latvia is a huge favorite to win tion. CROSS-COUNTRY defend their titles. already the leading scorer in Olympic women’s hockey the men’s title. In the women’s race, the gold-medal THE BASICS: history with 16 goals and 29 assists; she also won a sil- battle figures to come down to Noelle Pikus-Pace of STARS TO WATCH Cross-country skiing is one of the original Winter FREESTYLE SKIING ver medal when the Americans won the gold in the the United States and Lizzy Yarnold of Britain. Dukurs’ Viktor Ahn is a medal favorite in all three individ- Olympic sports, on the program since the 1924 THE BASICS sport’s inaugural Winter Games in 1998. top competition might be his own brother, Tomass. ual men’s events. Born Ahn Hyun-soo in South Korea, Chamonix Games. Only two men’s events were held There are the old-school events - moguls and aeri- Pikus-Pace was fourth in Vancouver, and Yarnold rents Ahn became a Russian citizen in 2011. Wang Meng, then, though; now it’s a total of 10 men’s and women’s als - and the newcomers - halfpipe and slopestyle. DID YOU KNOW? a flat nowadays from Amy Williams - who won skeleton China’s most decorated Winter Olympian, is out with races - ranging from the explosive individual sprint to There’s also skicross. Moguls are judged on a skier’s US forward Amanda Kessel is the sister of Toronto gold for Britain four years ago. a broken ankle on the women’s side. South Korea’s the grueling endurance test of the men’s 50-kilometer ability to get down the bumps quickly and smoothly, Maple Leafs star Phil Kessel, who will be in Sochi for the women’s team could dominate, led by Shim Suk-hee. race. Events are held in either the classical style or while also taking off for two jumps that each count American men’s team. DID YOU KNOW? freestyle depending on the format, with the skiathlon a for 12.5 percent of the score. Aerials skiers pack multi- The sport has roots in the 1800s and was in the DID YOU KNOW? combination of both. ple flips and twists into a jump that sends them soar- LUGE Olympic program in 1928, then again in 1948. But it The most common reason for disqualification is ing up to 50 feet off a steeply angled ramp. Ski half- THE BASICS wasn’t back as a medal sport until 2002, and now impeding, which involves pushing, blocking or STARS TO WATCH: pipe and slopestyle are new events, though they’ll Sliders race feet-first down the track, sometimes attracts sliders from nations that don’t even have home otherwise causing an impediment for another Norway usually dominates the cross-country skiing look very much like the snowboard version. going as fast as 90 mph, though the speeds should be tracks on which to train. skater. —AP