Shaun White has become a household name and Zach Parise is the captain of the men’s hockey team.
But the U.S. chose little-known Todd Lodwick as its flag bearer for Friday’s opening ceremonies for the Sochi Games, which actually begin with a handful of events Thursday.
The Nordic combined features athletes who compete in both ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Lodwick, 36, was part of the team that won silver in Vancouver in 2010.
Billie Jean King will not attend Friday’s opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics because her mother is ill.
King, who was selected to help lead the U.S. delegation to the Games, has been outspoken in her opposition to Russia’s anti-gay law. She also planned to attend ice hockey and figure skating events and meet U.S. athletes during her three-day visit to the Games.
The White House announced that former U.S. hockey player Caitlin Cahow, originally scheduled for the closing ceremony, will take King’s place.
King told The Associated Press that because of her mother’s “failing health, I will not be able to join the U.S. Presidential delegation at this week’s opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency expects a breakthrough within weeks to catch athletes who use human growth hormone.
Testing for HGH, including samples from Sochi Olympic athletes, should resume after being stalled by an appeal case ruling last year, WADA director-general David Howman said at a pre-games briefing.
Howman said a backlog of samples has built up awaiting publication of peer-viewed results from two research projects involving 20,000 samples.
“We anticipate that in the next few weeks the publication will be accepted and therefore the test can be undertaken,” Howman said.
Tampa Bay Lightning star Steven Stamkos will not play for Canada.
Steve Yzerman, the Lightning’s general manager and Team Canada’s executive director, said doctors ruled out Stamkos because he hasn’t recovered sufficiently from a broken right leg.
Jamaica’s beloved bobsled team had to raise money just to get to Russia. Now they’ve arrived at the Sochi Games — but without their equipment.
The carefree Jamaicans were unable to make their first practice runs Wednesday because their luggage, with the runners for their two-man sled as well as all their sliding gear, was missing.
“The sled is here,” driver Winston Watts said. “But the blades that we put our heart out to get, the airline maybe left them back in New York. None of us have clothing.”
An activist who has been monitoring environmental fallout from the Sochi Olympics has been jailed for five days for resisting police, apparently part of a continuing campaign against local activists.
Igor Kharchenko was arrested on the street in the regional capital of Krasnodar late Tuesday afternoon as he left his house and found his car smashed, an associate, Olga Soldatova, said. Police charged him with resisting police orders. Soldatova, who was with him at the police station, said Kharchenko was given a blank sheet of paper instead of a protocol sanctioning his detention.
Kharchenko was put on trial behind closed doors Wednesday and sentenced to five days in jail for disobeying police orders.