The Sochi Opening Ceremonies are already finished up in Russia for the Winter Olympics and on Friday night the US will get the event on the TV schedule with a tape delay starting up at 7:30 pm ET on the main NBC channel and that will be the official start of the Olympics before a number of events go down on Saturday.
The event started up at 11 am ET in Russia and within 10 minutes there was a malfunction, as the five Olympic rings that were lowered as part of the ceremony had only four changed their shape, leaving one as a snowflake for the event and the media quickly jumped on that. The problems are symbolic of everything that is going on in Sochi, including the terrible hotel conditions, bad water, spying, killing of stray dogs and the suppression of homosexuals and this was just the latest display of why the $50 billion dollars spent on the event was mostly wasted, as it ended up in the pockets of Vladimir Putin's friends.
The event was held at Fisht Olympic Stadium and introduced the delegations for the nations participating and was a grand spectacle that celebrated the games and Russian culture. There are over 2,500 athletes in the games and there are over 200 from just the USA and after the first run of events, Shaun White has already pulled out of the slopestyle and one of the top skiers is out of action after Heidi Kloser tore her ACL and now she is done before she even got the chance to compete in moguls and that is now the second high profile name to be out for the US, after Lindsey Vonn was forced to pull out weeks ago after suffering a knee injury.
Shaun White ruffled some feathers with his decision, as he pulled out of the slopestyle event after sustaining a wrist injury so that he could concentrate on the halfpipe. The slopestyle for the men and women is one of the new events at the games and there have been 12 added since Vancouver and that is one reason why the games have started up early. The snowboarding, figure skating and skiing all got started up on Thursday and Friday's main event was the opening ceremony before a full day of events on Saturday.
The first medals will start getting handed out on Saturday and Mark McMorris could be one of them in the slopestyle finals, especially with White out of it. White already is dealing with shoulder and ankle injuries and he felt it was the best decision to focus on the halfpipe, which he is predicted to win after taking the last two gold medals at Vancouver and in Turin. The snowboarding gets started up at 12:30 am ET from Russia for the semis for the slopestyle and a few hours later the groups will compete in the finals and that will be the first medal handed out for the men's slopestyle.
Check here for the full schedule of the event or for more on the Olympics coverage.
