SOCHI, RUSSIA – The first matches of the men’s hockey tournament will take place on Wednesday in Sochi with the Czech Republic, Sweden, Latvia and Switzerland all taking to the ice.
Six sets of medals are up for grabs in alpine skiing, speed skating, Nordic combined, luge, snowboard and figure skating.
One of the storylines of the Games, the Olympic ice hockey tournament, will unfold with the Czech Republic against Sweden and Latvia taking on Switzerland. Matches will begin at the same time with Czech Republic vs Sweden in the Bolshoy Ice Dome, and Sweden vs Latvia are in the Shayba Arena.
Lindsey Vonn’s absence from the Sochi Olympics due to injury has meant that the women’s alpine skiing competitions have gained particular excitement. The fight for the gold in the downhill will be led by Olympic champion Maria Höfl-Riesch of Germany, winner of two silver medals in Vancouver, Tina Maze of Slovenia, Julia Mancuso of America and Lara Gut of Switzerland.
In the speed skating at the Adler Arena we will find out who is fastest over 1000 meters. Amongst the favorites are American Shani Davis, who could become the first skater to win this race in three Olympics; Denis Kuzin from Kazakhstan and the Dutchman Michel Mulder. The latter, together with his twin brother Ronald and compatriot Jan Smeekens, left the 500-meter favorite Mo Tae-bum without a medal. The Korean is also amongst the medal contenders today.
Today, Nordic combined skiers will be fighting for Olympic medals in the individual championship awards in normal hill competitions. The favourites here are World Cup leader Eric Frenzel of Germany, Vancouver winner Jason Lamy-Chappuis of France, as well as Norway’s Håvard Klemetsen.
The first heats in the luge men’s doubles will take place at the Sanki Sliding Center. The tournament favorites are German world champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt who won six stages of the World Cup. Their competitors will be Austrian brothers and Turin and Vancouver champions, Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, as well as Latvian brothers and silver medal winners at the 2010 Games, Andris and Juris Šics.
Snowboarders will compete for more Olympic medals in the halfpipe discipline at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. 30-year-old American Kelly Clark, who won gold in Salt Lake City, Australian Torah Bright, who beat the American in Vancouver, as well as another USA representative, 17-year-old Arielle Gold are all vying for the podium.
The most beautiful event of the day promises to be the pairs figure skating free program. After the first day of competitions world champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov took the lead, setting a new world record. In second place are Germans Aljona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, and also fighting for a medal is another Russian pair, Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov who are currently in third place.
