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After a build-up to the Olympic Games filled with controversy surrounding alleged corruption and new anti-gay laws, Russians were relieved to witness the opening ceremony which shifted focus to the athletes and their performances.
President Vladimir Putin declared the Games officially open after Maria Sharapova, Russia’s equivalent of David Beckham, carried the flame into the Fisht Stadium before it was lit by triple gold medallists Irina Rodnina and Vladislav Tretiak.
The stunning ceremony featured nearly 3,000 athletes representing 87 nations, with some competing under the Olympic flag having qualified yet failed to obtain the necessary backing from their national Olympic committee.
In the first Olympic Games to be held in the Russian Federation since the fall of the Soviet Union, it is perhaps a sign of progress that one of the main talking points in the opening days of competition featured allegations from the French newspaper, L’Equipe, subsequently denied by the International Skating Union, of collusion between Russia and the USA judges to ‘hand each other’ gold medals.
There could have been no doubting the performance quality resulting in Russia’s first gold medal of the Games in the newly-introduced team skating discipline under the appreciative eye of the president.
Comprising men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance competitions, the Russians were so dominant (winning five of the eight segments) that they had wrapped up the competition before the final round, largely as a result of the dazzling 15-year old, Yulia Lipnitskaya, whose expressive and effortless talent will be enjoyed for many years to come.
Unlike the summer equivalent, which uses the blue riband event to culminate proceedings, the Winter Olympics has already witnessed its star attraction, the men’s downhill. The course, which has been under construction since 2006, has attracted unprecedented criticism for the severity of its slopes and complexity of its turns.
The toboggan start allows racers to reach speeds exceeding 80mph before throwing them into three tight turns before finishing with a 46-degree gradient schuss.
Despite having topped the timesheets in two of the three practice sessions, five-time Olympic medallist, US-skier Bode Miller, warned that the treacherous Rosa Khutor course in the Caucasus mountains above Sochi ‘could kill you’, having been shaken by a serious crash into teammate Marco Sullivan while 10 skiers failed to make it to the bottom.
The scorching temperatures and clear skies at least allowed for exceptional visibility for the skiers – and their coaches as teams sought to gain every advantage with several teams spotted sending cameramen high into the trees to film competitors in action in an attempt to learn the fastest lines through the tight turns!
However, by race-day, the clouds had returned leading to different conditions and new excuses for Miller who finished a disappointing eighth, lamenting the slower snow by the time his turn came. Downhill world champion, Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, also missed a medal leaving the gate open for a surprise.
Matthias Mayer, the 23-year old son of 1988 bronze-medal winner, Helmut, was the eventual winner, closely followed by Italian, Christoph Innerhofer. Prior to the Olympics, Mayer’s best finish in a world cup event was fifth!
The Extreme Park also received complaints about the severity of its slopes and jumps with strong favourite Shaun While withdrawing, citing ‘the potential risk of injury’, having watched Norway’s Torstein Horgmo break his collarbone in practice.
Yet the show went on and produced the first gold medal (of the 98 to be awarded at the Games) for US slopestyle snowboarder, Sage Kotsenburg, another surprise package having finished in a lowly 20th position in the world championships in 2013.
The women’s event saw Great Britain claim its first ever medal on snow as the winter fairytale for Jenny Jones. The 33-year old three time X-Games winner from Bristol was concussed in training in December and delayed retirement specifically to compete in Sochi.
The speed skating produced fewer surprises with the Netherlands sweeping all before them! The 8,000-seater Adler Arena watched the Dutch claim all podium positions in the 5,000m opener as Sven Kramer claimed the gold by a winning margin of nearly five seconds to notch his 16th consecutive race victory.
In the women’s event, Irene Wust claimed gold by two seconds in the 3,000m over defending champion, Martina Sablikova, and Russian-hopeful, Olga Graf.
The women’s ice hockey got off to a fast start with the US striking their opener after just 53 seconds. The Russian hosts took much longer, falling behind to the Germans before hitting four goals in seven minutes in the final period, to ease their nerves with a 4-1 win.
The Iron Lady won her fourth Olympic Gold medal and eighth in total with success in the women’s 15km skiathlon. Norway’s Marit Bjoergen showed her experience in a tight finish involving six skiers to finish under two seconds ahead of her nearest rival.
The biathlon course, which had to have the penalty loop lengthened by 40m the day before the first event after a legitimate complaint from the Norweigian team, saw history created with an amazing performance from Slovakian skier, Anastasiya Kuzmina. The first woman to ever defend her title did so by a staggering 20-second margin over the 7.5km sprint course.
The men’s luge also saw a champion defend his title as Felix Loch gave Germany their first medal. His dominant performance relegated Russian veteran, Albert Demchenko to silver. Armin Zoeggler, claimed his sixth successive medal, becoming the first athlete to do so, by taking the final place on the podium.
However the highlight has to have been two Canadian sisters, Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, taking gold and silver in the women’s moguls – only the third time in history that siblings have taken the top two positions. What makes this event unique is that a third (and oldest) sister, Maxime, was also competing, although failed to qualify for the final.
