Sochi Day 7: Key events to watch
Posted Feb 14, 2014 05:41:18 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After a disappointing fifth-place showing at Vancouver 2010, figure skater Patrick Chan has an eye on the podium entering the long skate on Friday.
The three-time world champion from Toronto is second after Thursday’s short program.
Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu is in first place in the competition.
The competition gets underway at 10 a.m. ET.
1) Women’s skeleton finals: In Turin in 2006, Melissa Hollingsworth put in Canada’s best-ever result in women’s skeleton, coming home from Italy with a bronze medal. Today, in the final two of four total heats, the 33-year-old Alberta native will look to beat her own record, competing alongside Calgary’s Sarah Reid, who took home bronze at the 2013 world championships. 10:40 a.m. ET
2) Men’s skeleton: Neither of the last two gold medallists in the event, Canadians Jon Montgomery and Duff Gibson (Team Canada skeleton coach), will be competing, so it will be up to Calgary’s John Fairbairn and Kelowna, B.C.’s Eric Neilson to carry that weight in the first two heats on the men’s side. 7:30 a.m. ET
3) How will Lou do? Thursday was Carey Price’s turn. On Friday, Roberto Luongo, who stood between the pipes for much of Canada’s gold medal run in Vancouver four years ago, will get his chance to prove he still has what it takes. This game against Austria is Canada’s second in the round robin in Group B, where the only real threat comes in the form of Finland and the tournament’s best goalie, Tuukka Rask. Noon ET
4) Not normal: Only two of the five Canadian ski jumpers in Sochi have competed in an Olympics before Sochi, but when it comes to ski jump, it doesn’t really matter who’s competing, we just want to witness some of the most stunning and hypnotic visuals in sports. The best part? We’ve only seen the normal hill so far. Friday we’ll get our first glimpse at the “large hill,” which stands 34 metres higher at 140 m. As for the athletes, look out for Noriaki Kasai of Japan. The 41-year-old is competing in his seventh Games. 12:30 p.m. ET
5) Men’s alpine: All in all, the men’s downhill event was a disappointment for the Canadian Cowboys ski team, with Eric Guay putting in the best performance of the bunch, finishing in 12th. Today they’ll get a crack at redemption in the combined event- first downhill again and then the slalom track. 2 a.m. ET
