The Sochi Olympic snowboarding schedule for 2014 starts up early and the starting time for the NBC coverage that includes Team USA ate the Russia Winter Games comes on February 6 before the opening ceremony and will have qualifying for a number of events and Shaun White and Mark McMorris will be looking to strike gold in competition for their teams this time around after competing in Vancouver back in 2010.
The United States comes into the Olympics with the most medals of all-time in the snowboarding events and that includes seven gold medals along with five silvers and seven bronze and comes after White won gold last time around. Switzerland and France are next all-time for the young sport and this time around in Sochi there will be new events in snowboarding, including the snowboard slopestyle and snowboard parallel slalom and all the events will be live on NBC and the NBCOlympics website with streaming coverage.
The NBC Sports Network will have hundreds of hours of live coverage and other channels like CNBC, USA Network, MSNBC and NBC will have a number of events throughout the two weeks, including snowboarding. White skipped the X Games in Aspen to prepare for the Olympics and he is ready for competition this time around and he comes in with a bit of an injury and it comes after he injured his wrist while working out on some training runs in Russia. White said that the injury was minor according to ESPN.com and comes with his competition starting up on Thursday.
White fell and landed on his left wrist while working a training run in the Russian mountains where the competition will be held and another rider in Torstein Horgmo already broke his collarbone while riding on Monday. Tuesday had White's injury as well as one from Marika Enne, who ended up with a concussion after a fall and now all the riders are getting ready for the slopestyle competition and that is one that starts early on Thursday before the opening ceremonies.
White comes in decorated already and he will be looking to win two gold medals at the games and he will be looking forward to the halfpipe competition as well, as he could win his third straight title. The Sochi weather and snow has been an issues and that is why so many have been getting hurt and the Russian games have already been the most expensive and corrupt ever and the symbolic nature of it all can be described in the fact that Sochi is a resort town and the Olympic committee or group from Russia has planned on harvesting snow and now they may need it.
Check here for the snowboarding schedule or for more information on the Sochi Olympics, figure skating and hockey schedule.
McMorris and White come in as the favorites on the men's side and he is banged up as well after participating in the X Games and he said that he will be fine after breaking a rib in Aspen. McMorris is considered to be one of the best riders and he was cleared to participate despite dealing with some soreness on his body. McMorris hit a rail and fell last week and now he is resting to try and get things healed up before the snowboarding starts up and that should be one of the most popular events and competitions to watch, especially for young fans that have grown up with White, who became a sensation and Olympics hero last time out.