Olympic Daily Preview – Sunday, February 16th

Sochi, Russia (SportsNetwork.com) – Medals will be awarded in five events on the second Sunday of the Sochi Olympics.

The figure skating ice dance competition will also begin with the short dance, though medals won’t be awarded until after Monday’s free dance.

The rivalry between Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White and Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will resume.

Virtue and Moir won the gold four years ago at the Vancouver Olympics ahead of Davis and White, but the American pair finished first ahead of the Canadians last weekend in both ice dance rounds of the new Olympic team competition to help the U.S. earn the bronze. Canada took silver behind Russia.

Davis and White are the reigning world champions, though the rival pairs have both won two world titles in the past four years.

American alpine skier Bode Miller will get another chance to win his sixth Olympic medal when the men’s Super-G is run Sunday.

Miller, who earned silver behind Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal in this event in 2010, failed to medal in his first two events so far at the Sochi Olympics, finishing eighth in the downhill and sixth in the super combined.

Svindal will defend his Super-G title on Sunday against Miller and American Andrew Weibrecht, who earned the bronze in 2010. Switzerland’s Patrick Kueng, who has a World Cup win this season, is also in the field.

Preliminary play will conclude in men’s hockey on Sunday, but it will have a hard time matching both the intensity and excitement of Team USA’s shootout win over host Russia on Saturday.

There’ll be no rest for the weary, as both the Americans and Russians will be back on the ice Sunday. The United States tries to stay undefeated against Slovenia, while Russia will try to bounce back against winless Slovakia in Group A action.

Meanwhile in Group B play, 2010 gold medalist Canada will try to improve to 3-0 versus Finland with Austria squaring off against Norway in a matchup of winless teams.

Before the women begin their medal round on Monday there will be a pair of classification games on Sunday. Finland, which was upset by Sweden in Saturday’s quarterfinals, will face Germany, while Russia will try to defeat Japan for the second time at these games.

Finland, the favorites to repeat as bronze medalists, can now finish no higher than fifth.

American Lindsey Jacobellis will try a third time to win gold in women’s snowboard cross after two disappointing showings. In 2006, she was on her way to winning the final when she grabbed her board on a jump at the bottom of the hill and fell. She settled for silver, then cut a gate at the Vancouver Games and failed to make the final.

Canada’s Maelle Ricker, 35, is back to defend her Olympic title from 2010 despite a recent wrist injury that required surgery. Teammate Dominique Maltais, the 2006 bronze medalist, is also in the field.

In 2010, the United States won its first Olympic men’s bobsled gold medal in 62 years in the four-man competition. The pilot of that sled, Steven Holcomb, will guide the first U.S. sled as the two-man competition gets underway with a pair of heats on Sunday.

The U.S. hasn’t won an Olympic medal in two-man bobsled since 1952, and its last gold came in 1936. The closest the U.S. came to breaking the two-man drought was in 2002 when an American sled finished fourth. The top finish four years later in Turin, Italy, was seventh, while the Americans were sixth in Vancouver.

Holcomb, though, could change all that, as he has won five of the eight two- man races this season and is the overall World Cup champion. Actually, Team USA members Cory Butner and Nick Cunningham were fifth and sixth, respectively after the World Cup season.

Team USA’s main competition will come from Switzerland’s Beat Hefti, who was ranked No. 2 in the World Cup standings.

Also Russian drivers Alexander Zubkov and Alexander Kasjanov could have a home-course advantage, as they finished first or second in three of their six training runs.

Dutch speedskater Ireen Wust is already a gold and silver medalist in Sochi and will have a chance to defend her Olympic title in the women’s 1,500-meter race on Sunday. Wust’s haul in Sochi — she won the 3,000 and earned silver in the 1,000 — has given her five career Olympic medals.

Canada’s Kristina Groves won silver behind Wust in 2010 but has since retired. There are four Canadians in the field and three Americans.

Frenchman Martin Fourcade has already won two gold medals in the biathlon at these Olympics. On Sunday, he’ll try for the hat trick in the 15-kilometer mass start.

Another win for Fourcade, the 2010 silver medalist at this event, would also tie a 46-year-old French record for gold medals in a single Olympics.

The United States, meanwhile, has never won an Olympic biathlon medal, but Tim Burke has been the team’s best performer in this event.

Sweden will defend its Olympic title in the men’s 4×10-kilometer cross country relay after finishing ahead of Norway and the Czech Republic four years ago. The Swedish women won the women’s 4×5-kilometer relay on Saturday.

The 11 curling matches on Sunday include two for the U.S. men’s team, against 5-2 Canada and 6-1 Sweden. The Americans are 2-4 so far. The U.S. women’s team was eliminated from playoff contention after a loss to Sweden on Saturday. It faces 7-0 Canada on Sunday. The unbeaten Canadians have already clinched a spot in the semifinals.

Categorized in: Olympics