Germany's Maria Hoefl-Riesch bids for her second gold of the Winter Olympics on Wednesday in the blue riband women's downhill as the much-anticipated men's ice hockey tournament starts in Sochi.
The winner of Monday's super-combined is favourite to win her fourth Olympic gold in the absence of injured 2010 champion Lindsey Vonn and after the withdrawal of the injured Tina Weirather.
Victory for the 29-year-old would put her level with Croatia's Janica Kostelic on a record four Olympic golds in women's alpine skiing but Anna Fenninger and Elisabeth Goergl nurse ambitions of sealing the first Austrian men's-women's downhill double since 1980.
Matthias Mayer took the men's version on Sunday.
Norway currently top the medals table with four golds and 11 medals in total.
Also among the six gold medals up for grabs on Wednesday is the second figure skating title of the Games, in the pairs competition.
The event had been won at 12 consecutive Olympics by Russia or the then Soviet Union until 2010 in Vancouver when China triumphed and Russia failed to win a medal.
But the hosts are favourites to take the title after team gold medallists Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov set a new world record in the short programme on Tuesday.
Trankov and Volosozhar performed flawlessly to "Masquerade Waltz" by Aram Khachaturian to score a record 84.17 points.
Dismal showing at the 2010 Olympics
In the mountains above Sochi, American snowboarder Kelly Clark will face stiff competition from 2010 Olympic champion Torah Bright of Australia in the women's halfpipe after US superstar Shaun White was dethroned in the men's competition on Tuesday by Switzerland's Iouri Podladtchikov.
Germany's Carina Vogt won the first ever women's ski jump competition, pushing gay Austrian athlete Daniela Iraschko-Stolz into silver while Japanese teenage hope Sara Takanashi missed out on the podium.
The first matches in the men's hockey tournament will be the Czech Republic taking on Sweden and Latvia against Switzerland.
The three big guns -- Canada, the United States and hosts Russia -- do not make their bow until Thursday.
There is also a tasty tie in the women's ice hockey on Wednesday, with a match-up between defending Olympic champions Canada and world champions, the United States.
Russian ice hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak insisted the host country's men's team were fully aware of the need to make amends for their dismal showing at the 2010 Olympics, when they were dismantled 7-3 by Canada in the quarter-finals.
"We remember the Vancouver Olympics and we know we have a lot of responsibility and a lot to answer for," said Tretiak, who is president of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia and a three-time gold medallist.
"We are on our home turf. We will fight for the result in every match."
US speed skater Shani Davis will go for his third successive gold medal in the men's 1,000m and medals are also up for grabs in the individual normal hill Nordic combined and the luge doubles.
The rising temperatures at the Sochi Games are causing concern. They hit 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit) at sea level where stadium-based events are held and 5 degrees Celsius at the mountain cluster on Tuesday.
Organisers began shovelling snow stored since last winter on to race pistes after the warmer weather threatened the quality of the track surfaces.
Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch bids for her second gold of the Winter Olympics on Wednesday in the blue riband women’s downhill as the much-anticipated men’s ice hockey tournament starts in Sochi.
The winner of Monday’s super-combined is favourite to win her fourth Olympic gold in the absence of injured 2010 champion Lindsey Vonn and after the withdrawal of the injured Tina Weirather.
Victory for the 29-year-old would put her level with Croatia’s Janica Kostelic on a record four Olympic golds in women’s alpine skiing but Anna Fenninger and Elisabeth Goergl nurse ambitions of sealing the first Austrian men’s-women’s downhill double since 1980.
Matthias Mayer took the men’s version on Sunday.
Norway currently top the medals table with four golds and 11 medals in total.
Also among the six gold medals up for grabs on Wednesday is the second figure skating title of the Games, in the pairs competition.
The event had been won at 12 consecutive Olympics by Russia or the then Soviet Union until 2010 in Vancouver when China triumphed and Russia failed to win a medal.
But the hosts are favourites to take the title after team gold medallists Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov set a new world record in the short programme on Tuesday.
Trankov and Volosozhar performed flawlessly to “Masquerade Waltz” by Aram Khachaturian to score a record 84.17 points.
Dismal showing at the 2010 Olympics
In the mountains above Sochi, American snowboarder Kelly Clark will face stiff competition from 2010 Olympic champion Torah Bright of Australia in the women’s halfpipe after US superstar Shaun White was dethroned in the men’s competition on Tuesday by Switzerland’s Iouri Podladtchikov.
Germany’s Carina Vogt won the first ever women’s ski jump competition, pushing gay Austrian athlete Daniela Iraschko-Stolz into silver while Japanese teenage hope Sara Takanashi missed out on the podium.
The first matches in the men’s hockey tournament will be the Czech Republic taking on Sweden and Latvia against Switzerland.
The three big guns — Canada, the United States and hosts Russia — do not make their bow until Thursday.
There is also a tasty tie in the women’s ice hockey on Wednesday, with a match-up between defending Olympic champions Canada and world champions, the United States.
Russian ice hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak insisted the host country’s men’s team were fully aware of the need to make amends for their dismal showing at the 2010 Olympics, when they were dismantled 7-3 by Canada in the quarter-finals.
“We remember the Vancouver Olympics and we know we have a lot of responsibility and a lot to answer for,” said Tretiak, who is president of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia and a three-time gold medallist.
“We are on our home turf. We will fight for the result in every match.”
US speed skater Shani Davis will go for his third successive gold medal in the men’s 1,000m and medals are also up for grabs in the individual normal hill Nordic combined and the luge doubles.
The rising temperatures at the Sochi Games are causing concern. They hit 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit) at sea level where stadium-based events are held and 5 degrees Celsius at the mountain cluster on Tuesday.
Organisers began shovelling snow stored since last winter on to race pistes after the warmer weather threatened the quality of the track surfaces.
