The 2014 Figure Skating competition at the Olympics is on the schedule to start on TV before the actual opening date of the Sochi Russia games and the Winter Olympic competition will begin on February 6 with some preliminary events and it has the ladies, men's and team competitions starting up early before things pick up with the medal rounds at the venue in Iceberg Skating Palace.
The competition this year should be a fierce one and the United States team had some controversy coming in with the selection process, but now that the picks have been made, all the athletes can focus on the competition. The events will start up on February 6 and will run through until February 22 and the competition officially starts one day before the opening ceremony in Sochi and it is the first time, according to ESPN.com, that the figure skating will begin before the opening ceremony. The games will have five events for figure skating and includes singles, pairs and team events and this year names like Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner and Polina Edmunds from the USA ladies team will be some of the top competitors at the Olympics.
The United States comes into the event with the most medals of all-time in figure skating, with 46 overall and that includes the most gold medals as well. The US is ahead of the former Soviet Union and Russia all-time in meal counts with the next two at 29 and 22, while the gold medals are 14, 13 and 12 respectively. The United States has the most medals in each category, including gold, silver and bronze and this year they are looking to add to that total, while Russia is hoping they can sneak in some gold medal wins at home in Sochi.
The figure skating competition has some of the best athletes in Sochi and the events start up on January 6 with the men's team short program, pairs short program and the others will pick up the day after the ceremony with the team ice dancing short, ladies short program as well as the free skate for pairs and then the next day has the men's and ladies free skate before the team ice dancing free medal event.
The figure skating competition is usually one of the most followed and watched events of the games and they have been around for over 100 years and things will end with the Gala Exhibition at the end of the games and that will be on February 22. The ladies singles will be watched very closely, especially from the US and the short program will have some amazing athletes doing moves like the triple-axel jump, flying spin and other jumps as well.
The US skaters will be training in Austria for the games and they will be there before the games so they can prepare heading into the competition and this fits in line with what the USA team has previously done. According to ESPN.com, the team practiced in the main venue, like they will for Sochi, but before that they were outside of Utah for the Salt Laker games and that followed for the next two and now they are getting prepared to start up in Russia.
Check here for the NBC Olympics TV schedule and full events schedule for the Sochi games.