Let the Games Begin!

Let the 2014 Winter Olympics Begin!

The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olympics, are scheduled to take place from 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi, Russia, with some events held in the resort town of Krasnaya Polyana.

There will be 98 events in 15 winter sport disciplines at this competition. . Sochi was selected as the host city in July 2007, during the 119th IOC Session held in Guatemala City. The Sochi Olympics will be the first Olympics in the Russian Federation since the breakup of the USSR in 1991.

There will be 12 new competitions as follows: biathlon mixed relay, women's ski jumping, figure skating mixed team, luge mixed team, ski half-pipe (men’s and women’s), ski slopestyle (men’s and women’s), snowboard slopestyle (men’s and women’s) and snowboard parallel slalom (men’s and women’s). One of my favorite winter sports is the Figure Skating Competition. The following update from guardianlv.com was written by Day Donaldson.

"This year’s Olympics figure skating competition is scheduled to begin at the newly built Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi Feb. 6, one day before the official start of the Olympics, and end Feb. 22 with the figure skating gala exhibition. Olympic skating this year will have five events for the first time. A new event has been added to the traditional solo men’s, ladies’ and pairs skating competitions and the ice dancing division, which was added to the Olympics in 1976.

The team event in figure skating will be featured at Sochi for the first time. Because of this extra event, Olympic skating will have an unusual schedule this year. Skating events will begin Feb. 6, the day before the Sochi Games officially begin.

The heavy favorites to win this year are the defending gold medalist Yuna Kim of South Korea and the U.S. ice dancing team Meryl Davis and Charlie White. It has also been remarked that Canada and Japan have particularly strong chances to win in the skating divisions.

The countries with the most skaters this year are Canada (17 athletes), the United States (15), Russia (15), Italy (11), France (11), Japan (10), Germany (10) and China (9). A total of 149 skaters from 30 countries will participate in the combined Olympic skating events. This number reflects the extra man Great Britain is being permitted to send to the games in order for that country to participate in the team event. The actual number of quota spots set by the International Olympic Committee is 148.

There will be 30 skaters in the Sochi Olympics men’s and ladies’ singles. There will be 20 pair skating teams at Sochi, and 24 ice dancing teams. Another 10 countries will participate in the team event.

On Feb. 22, a figure skating gala exhibition will be held as the culmination to the skating portion of the Winter Olympics. At this gala the top five pairs and top five men’s and ladies’ solo skaters will give a performance without consideration of judges scorecards.

Figure skating was begun as an Olympic event in the 1908 Summer Olympics that took place in London. It was also part of the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games. Figure skating is among the oldest Winter Olympic sports, having its first competition at the 1924 Chamonix Olympics. Throughout the period since Chamonix, the three skating events had been men’s and ladies’ solos and pairs skating until 1976, when ice dancing was added in Innsbruck, Austria. This year’s Sochi Olympics figure skating schedule will mark the first time team skating will be competing at the Olympics, the fifth skating event".

I can hardly wait for the games to start. I am sure I will be glued to Television from Feb 3 to 23 every day. Let the Games Begin!