U.S. Olympic Team selected to compete in Sochi
U.S. Figure Skating announced its 2014 U.S.
Olympic Team on the fi nal day of the 2014 Pruden- tial U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Boston. The 2014 Olympic Winter Games will take place Feb. 6–23 in Sochi, Russia. The ladies team is Gracie Gold, who won her
fi rst U.S. title in Boston; Polina Edmunds, the 2014 U.S. silver medalist; and Ashley Wagner, 2012 and 2013 U.S. champion. “I’m so excited to be going to Sochi, represent-
ing the United States,” Gold said. “The Olympics aren’t just another competition, it’s the ultimate dream. It’s a life experience that I’ll never forget and I’m so excited to be going.” The men’s team is four-time and reigning U.S.
champion Jeremy Abbott and 2014 U.S. silver med- alist Jason Brown. “After the 2012 season, I’ve put a lot of work
into training and into the structure,” Abbott said in Boston. “I’ve been talking about it so much, but I believe in it and it’s been paying off slow and steady. I have a lot of energy left and I’m excited to go home and keep putting in the work and staying methodical and just sticking to the plan and the goal. I’m excited to go to Sochi. Really excited!”
The pairs team is two‐time and reigning U.S.
champions Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir, and Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay, 2014 U.S. silver medalists. “This is one of the happiest days of our lives,”
Castelli said. “We’ve worked so hard for the last eight years together and it really paid off . We’re so excited to go to Sochi. We’re thrilled.” Representing Team USA in ice dance are
six‐time U.S. champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White; two‐time and reigning U.S. silver medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates; and two‐time and reigning U.S. bronze medalists Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani. “This is a dream come true for us,” White said.
“Having our sixth title and being able to go to these Olympic Games next to our friends and our train- ing mates, we really are blessed to have this op- portunity. Obviously we’re going into these Games with very high expectations. We’ve had a lot of great momentum over the last four years since the 2010 Olympics and we think we’ve put ourselves in a great position to bring home a gold medal. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”
U.S. to battle for gold in inaugural team event
The 2014 Olympic Winter
Games in Sochi will boast com- petition for 15 disciplines of sev- en diff erent sports, totaling 98 events, 12 more than the 2010 Games in Vancouver, British Co- lumbia. One of the events added this year will be the fi gure skat- ing team event, set to debut in Sochi. The fi gure
skating team
event will give U.S. athletes another Olympic medal-win- ning opportunity. Similar to the Olympic gymnastics team event, selected athletes named to the Olympic team will compete in each discipline. Athletes receive points based on their fi nishes in each segment of competi- tion. The points are combined and medals are awarded to the teams with the most points. Ten nations will compete,
based on an International Skat- ing Union (ISU) point system,
which was tabulated using re- sults across all four disciplines from the last two seasons. Taking the ice will be:
1. Canada (6,053 points) 2. Russia (5,459) 3. United States (5,274) 4. Japan (4,062) 5. Italy (3,707) 6. France (3,626) 7. China (3,609) 8. Germany (3,596) 9. Ukraine (1,528) 10. Great Britain (1,261)
Each team will consist of
six athletes, and each team may switch up to two entries from the short program/dance to the free skate/dance. Only fi ve nations will advance past the fi rst seg- ment of competition. The participants must be
selected from those already competing as individuals at the
Team USA won the World Team Trophy in 2013. (back row, l-r) Evan Bates, Max Aaron, Jeremy Abbott and Simon Shnapir; (front row, l-r) Madison Chock, Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner and Marissa Castelli. A similar team event will debut in Sochi.
Olympics. (For Team USA, ath- letes will submit their intent to compete, and if they do so, which segments of the event they would like to compete in, short, free or both.) In each segment, fi rst place
will be awarded 10 points, sec- ond place will be awarded nine points, on down to the last place, wh will earn the lowest amount of points. The points from each segment and each discipline will be added together to determine the fi nal standings.
2014 OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATING COMPETITION SCHEDULE
THURSDAY, FEB. 6 Team Event — Men’s short
program, pairs short program EST: 10:30 a.m.–1:55 p.m.
Moscow time: 7:30–10:55 p.m. SATURDAY, FEB. 8
Team Event — Short dance, ladies short program, pairs free skate
EST: 9:30 a.m.–2:05 p.m.
Moscow time: 6:30–11:05 p.m. SUNDAY, FEB. 9
Team Event — Men’s free skate, ladies free skate, free dance EST: 10 a.m.–1:10 p.m.
Moscow time: 7–10:10 p.m.
TUESDAY, FEB. 11 Pairs short program EST: 10 a.m.–1:25 p.m.
Moscow time: 7–10:25 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 12 Pairs free skate
EST: 10:45 a.m.–2 p.m. Moscow time: 7:45–11 p.m.
THURSDAY, FEB. 13 Men’s short program EST: 10 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Moscow time: 7–11:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, FEB. 14 Men’s free skate
EST: 10 a.m.–2:45 p.m. Moscow time: 7–11:25 p.m.
SUNDAY, FEB. 16 Short dance
EST: 10 a.m.–1:45 p.m. Moscow time: 7–10:45 p.m.
MONDAY, FEB. 17 Free dance
EST: 10 a.m.–1:35 p.m. Moscow time: 7–10:35 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 19 Ladies short program EST: 10 a.m.–2:20 p.m.
Moscow time: 7–11:20 p.m.
THURSDAY, FEB. 20 Ladies free skate
EST: 10 a.m.–2:10 p.m. Moscow time: 7–11:10 p.m.
SATURDAY, FEB. 22 Gala exhibition
EST: 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m. Moscow time: 8:30–11 p.m. SKATING 13
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