Athletes will today compete to be called an Olympic champion in biathlon, alpine skiing, speed skating, short track speed skating, Nordic combined, freestyle skiing and snowboarding. In addition, on Tuesday the final list of participants for the quarterfinal in men's ice hockey tournament will be determined.
On Sunday, weather interrupted the men's biathlon mass start, but today fans should see the 30 best biathletes in the world with the overall favorite two-time Olympic champion Martin Fourcade hoping to take the gold.
Tina Maze of Slovenia dominated the women’s giant slalom after the Vancouver Games, winning five times in the World Cup 2012/13. Also competing for gold in Sochi are 18-year-old American Mikaela Shiffrin, Lara Gut of Switzerland, Anna Fenninger of Austria, and Jessica Lindell-Vikarby and Maria Pietilä-Holmner of Sweden. Violinist Vanessa Mae of Thailand will also take to the course.
The fight for medals in the men’s 10,000 meters at the Adler Arena will include the decorated Sven Kramer of the Netherlands, his compatriots Jorrit Bergsma and Bob de Jong, Bart Swings of Belgium, and Vancouver Olympic champion Seung-Hoon Lee of South Korea.
In the Iceberg Skating Palace, short track speed skaters will compete for sets of medals in the 3000m relay. The rush for gold will be led by athletes from South Korea, headed by Sochi silver medalist in the 1500m race Shim Suk-Hee and Vancouver Olympic champions from China Li Jianrou and Zhou Yang, who are already medalists in the Sochi Games. Preliminary races will be held in the women's 1000 m and the men's 500 m.
Japanese skier Akito Watabe, Jason Lamy-Chappuis from France and Norwegians Magnus Krog, Magnus Hovdal Moan and Håvard Klemetsen will compete for medals in the men's individual Nordic Combined.
The half-pipe will be the fourth competition in the freestyle discipline to determine the medalists. Half-pipe skiing for both men and women has been introduced into the Olympic program for the first time. American world champion David Wise must compete with his teammates - Aaron Blunck, Torin Yater-Wallace and Lyman Currier. Kevin Rolland from France and Canadian Michael Riddle may stand in their way.
The men's snowboard cross is set to be held today. The main favorite is Markus Schairer of Austria, his main competitor – the experienced Nate Holland of America.
The time has now come for the playoffs in the men's hockey tournament to identify who will play in the quarter finals of the Olympics. The national teams of Austria and Slovenia will be first on the ice, later on in the Bolshoy Ice Dome the Norwegians will take on the Russian team. At 21.00 Moscow time, the final two matches will begin, where Switzerland and Latvia will play their second match of the tournament and the Czech Republic will clash with Slovakia.