The Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony has already happened in Sochi and that means the United States gets the chance to watch it live on TV and streaming online on Friday night starting at 7:30 pm ET and it will be on NBC and on the NBCOlympics website where it will be going for the full event along with extra coverage from the network during the telecast.
Bob Costas will interview President Obama during the broadcast and the opening comes after a number of events at the games have started and on Saturday and a bunch more will kick off now that the games have officially began in Russia. The opening ceremony was held at Fisht Olympic Stadium and in perfect Sochi fashion, there was a malfunction within the first 10 minutes, as the Olympics rings did not pop like they were supposed to and only four came together when it should have been five and now the games will officially start up on Saturday after the event is televised in the States on NBC and that is expected to last from 8 pm ET to 11:30 pm ET.
The Olympics has already had a number of injuries to athletes and heading into Saturday, Shaun White will be missing from the slopestyle event and that comes after qualifying went down on Thursday before the ceremonies. Mark McMorris missed getting a guaranteed spot after falling in his first run and he can still qualify in the semis on Saturday and that will come early with a 12:30 am ET start for the first runs and the finals will be on the same day and that is another reason why White pulled out.
White suffered a wrist injury while practicing on the course and while some have come out to criticize him, he called the course intimidating and after someone broke a collarbone and he sustained a wrist injury, he felt it was better to concentrate on his best event in the halfpipe rather than do both events. White was hoping to win two gold medals at the games and now he will have to deal with competing for just one and he is the favorite for that event in the halfpipe. White was already dealing with wrist and ankle injuries and this will give him more time to heal up. Other American athletes have been dealing with rough conditions and injuries as well, including Heidi Kloser, who is now out of the games after coming down after a fall and tearing her ACL, a similar injury to what Lindsey Vonn had and now that leaves Hannah Kearney as the USA favorite after she won the race back in 2010 in Vancouver in the moguls.
Check here for the NBC Olympics live coverage of the Opening Ceremonies.
