11 Olympic factoids: Fun facts, figures and more from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and Winter Olympic history.
11. The 2014 Games in Sochi will feature 12 new events in eight different disciplines. Some of the more anticipated new events are slopestyle snowboarding and slopestyle skiing, where athletes perform flips and spins while on boards and skis, competing to “wow” judges.
10. Team figure skating is another addition this year — think of it like team gymnastics — where winners are determined by their combined overall scores. According to the International Olympic Committee, the figure skating team event will feature teams of six skaters: one male skater, one female skater, one skating pair and one ice dance couple. The team with the highest number of aggregate points wins.
ALSO SEE:
Complete 2014 Winter Olympics Day-By-Day TV Schedule
Winter Olympics preview: Top 10 Team USA athletes to watch
9. Speed skater Apolo Ohno is the most decorated American Winter Olympic athlete of all time with eight medals. He’s part of this year’s NBC coverage of the Games.
8. Bonnie Blair is the only woman to have won Olympic speed skating events at three successive Games, winning gold medals in the 500-meter event in 1988, 1992 and 1994. She also won gold in the 1,000-meter event in 1992 and 1994.
7. Eddie Eagan is the only U.S. athlete to have won gold medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympics. He won gold in the 1920 Games in boxing and the 1932 Lake Placid Games in the team bobsleigh event.
6. U.S. speed skater Dan Jansen’s gold medal quest was one of the most heartbreaking yet triumphant Olympic stories that unfolded over three Olympics, beginning with the 1988 Calgary Games, when his sister died just hours before he was scheduled to race, and concluding at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, when he finally won gold.
5. Team USA has some catching up to do in terms of total medals won in the Winter Games. Norway’s got us beat with 313 medals, compared to our 274.
4. 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of Lillehammer’s “good versus evil” skate-off between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. For those of you who are memory-challenged, good prevailed — Kerrigan got silver — Harding stayed out of jail. It’s also the anniversary of our first introduction to bozo Jeff Gillooly, Harding’s ex-husband, who helped orchestrate the baton-beating of Kerrigan.
3. Looks like Sochi is the “IT” city! In addition to hosting the 2014 Olympics, the Russian city will also serve as host to the G8 summit (2014), Russian Grand Prix (2014) and the FIFA World Cup (2018).
2. During the Olympics, an average one-night stay at a hotel in Sochi is estimated between $750 to $1,000.
1. At the time of this writing, 1 U.S. dollar equated to 32.79 Russian rubles.
Winter Games At A Glance
Click on sport to view TV schedule.
Opening/Closing Ceremonies Feb. 7, 23
Alpine Skiing Feb. 9-10, 12, 14-16, 18-19, 21-22
Biathlon Feb. 8-11, 13-14, 16-17, 19, 21-22
Bobsled Feb. 16-19, 22-23
Cross-Country Skiing Feb. 8-9, 11, 13-16, 19, 22-23
Curling Feb. 10-21
Figure Skating Feb. 6, 8-9, 11-14, 16-17, 19-20, 22
Freestyle Skiing Feb. 6, 8, 10-11, 13-14, 17-18, 20-21
Ice Hockey Feb. 8-23
Luge Feb. 8-13
Nordic Combined Feb. 12, 18, 20
Short Track Speed Skating Feb. 10, 13, 15, 18, 21
Skeleton Feb. 13-15
Ski Jumping Feb. 8-9, 11, 14-15, 17
Snowboard Feb. 6, 8-9, 11-12, 16-17, 19, 22
Speed Skating Feb. 8-13, 15-16, 18-19, 21-22
All sports have live and on demand coverage on NBCOlympics.com and on the NBC Sports Live Extra mobile app.
