Sochi 2014 Olympics – Ryland’s TV & Streaming Highlights
It’s Winter Olympics time again and anyone who was around four years ago will remember just how damned excited I get for the Games. USA won the total medal count last games with 37 with host country Canada winning the most Golds (14 to USA’s 9). Russia finished way back in the pack with only 3 gold medals and 15 medals total. That was good enough for sixth place (behind Austria). You can bet the Ruskies are going to be looking for some redemption.
UPDATE: I’ve created a Public Google Calendar with all of the event discussed in this post. See the Calendar below.
The Sochi time zone is exactly 12 hours ahead of the West Coast of the US so it’s not exactly as the Vancouver Games — not as if that mattered to NBC four years ago. The network is actually doing a pretty commendable job this time around of airing the events live or close to live on the family of channels, with the Primetime NBC broadcast being used to show the best of the day as the folks in Russia sleep. Live events start around midnight Pacific Time and go through the night and morning with the 2pm slot being used for some slightly delayed events. And of course, everything is available live online through NBC’s streaming apps. Finally, we’ve reached the 21st Century.
Other than Men’s Figure Skating and Women’s Hockey, there are really no events at the Winter Games that I don’t enjoy watching. Still, some of them are “try to catch” or “watch if it’s on” sports, while others are “set your alarm and wake your ass up” events. I’ve collected the times for the live airings (or close to live) of those can’t-wait sports below.
As much as I love them, there are too many Alpine and Cross-Country Skiing events to keep track of. They’ll be on TV so just tune in. I also didn’t bother to dive into the downhill or speed track events like Bobsled, Luge, or Speed Skating. I’ll be watching those, but I don’t need to get up in the middle of the night. Instead I focused on some faves. Check them out below, and feel free to text me at 3am when the USA drops the hammer down on the Russians.
Note: 12am times are the standard next day way of telling time. So 12am Monday would be more commonly thought of as late Sunday night
CURLING
One of my absolute faves from Vancouver 2010 was the rock sliding tournaments that are equal parts skill and strategy. USA qualified for both Men’s and Women’s tourneys. The tournaments are 9-team round robin brackets so this makes Curling one of the most prolific sports at the Games. Lucky us.
USA failed to medal in either field with the Men’s team’s John Shuster making a bid for one of the worst choke artists of the Olympics. He’ll be once again leading the American squad. Debbie McCormick was the Skip on the last US Women’s team but she’ll be throwing Third Rock this time around with Erika Brown at the top of the heap.
Canada took home the Men’s Gold last time around but they’ve got a whole new team captained by Brad Jacobs. It was Sweden that took the Women’s Gold and they have a new Skip this time too. Keen observers from 2010 will be happy to know that GBR Skip Eve Muirhead will be back on the ice at Sochi.
Here are the can’t miss matches (i.e. USA and playoffs) for this year’s curling tournaments:
| Day & Date | Time (PT) | |
Station | |
| Monday 2/10 | 2 am | Women: | USA vs. SUI | USA |
| Monday 2/10 | 2 pm | Men: | USA vs. NOR | CNBC |
| Tuesday 2/11 | 12 am | Women: | USA vs. RUS | NBCSN |
| Tuesday 2/11 | 2 am | Men: | USA vs. CHN | USA |
| Tuesday 2/11 | 2 pm | Women: | USA vs. GBR | CNBC |
| Wednesday 2/12 | 12 am | Men: | USA vs. DEN | NBCSN |
| Wednesday 2/12 | 2 am | Women: | USA vs. CHN | USA |
| Thursday 2/13 | 2 am | Men: | USA vs. GBR | USA |
| Thursday 2/13 | 2 pm | Women: | USA vs. JPN | CNBC |
| Friday 2/14 | 12 am | Men: | USA vs. GER | NBCSN |
| Friday 2/14 | 2 am | Women: | USA vs. DEN | USA |
| Friday 2/14 | 2 pm | Men: | USA vs. RUS | CNBC |
| Saturday 2/15 | 2 pm | Women: | USA vs. SWE | CNBC |
| Sunday 2/16 | 12 am | Men: | USA vs. CAN | NBCSN |
| Sunday 2/16 | 2 am | Women: | USA vs. CAN | MSNBC |
| Sunday 2/16 | 1 pm | Men: | USA vs. SWE | CNBC |
| Monday 2/17 | 12 am | Women: | USA vs. KOR | NBCSN |
| Monday 2/17 | 2 am | Men: | USA vs. SUI | USA |
| Tuesday 2/18 | 2 pm | Both | Reserved for Tie-Breakers | CNBC |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 2 am | Women: | Semi A | USA |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 6 am | Women: | Semi B | MSNBC |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 11:30 am | Men: | Semi A | MSNBC |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 2 pm | Men: | Semi B | CNBC |
| Thursday 2/20 | 12 am | Women: | Bronze | NBCSN |
| Thursday 2/20 | 2 pm | Women: | Gold | CNBC |
| Friday 2/21 | 12 am | Men: | Bronze | NBCSN |
| Friday 2/21 | 2 pm | Men: | Gold | CNBC |
SNOWBOARDING
Yes they’ve added slope style to this year’s Games but that will probably be over by the time you read this so we’ll ignore that and the downhill slalom bullshit and just focus on Halfpipe and Boarder Cross.
Half Pipe is only on in primetime, so be sure to tune in online if you want to see it live. Shawn White won the Men’s side last time around and is the heavy fave to repeat. Silver and Bronze were won by Fin Peetu Piiroinen and American Scotty Lago. 2010 Women’s gold was won by Aussie Torah Bright with Americans Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark taking silver and bronze. Of all of those athletes, only Lago won’t be competing at Sochi.
It was USA’s Seth Wescott who took home the Vancouver gold with Canuck Mike Robertson and Frenchie Tony Ramoin behind him (Nate Holland finished an agonizing fourth). Women’s BX saw Canadian Maëlle Ricker take top honors with France’s Déborah Anthonioz and Swiss chick Olivia Nobs as runners up.
| Day & Date | Time (PT) | |
Station | |
| Tuesday 2/11 | 7 am | Men: | Halfpipe Semi-Final | ONLINE* |
| Tuesday 2/11 | 9:30 am | Men: | Halfpipe Final | ONLINE* |
| Wednesday 2/12 | 7 am | Women: | Halfpipe Semi-Final | ONLINE* |
| Wednesday 2/12 | 9:30 am | Women: | Halfpipe Final | ONLINE* |
| Sunday 2/16 | 1:15 am | Women: | Snowboard Cross Finals | ONLINE* |
| Monday 2/17 | 1:30 am | Men: | Snowboard Cross Finals | ONLINE* |
*Note: All events will be re-broadcast during the same day’s primetime coverage on NBC.
FIGURE SKATING
There is a lot of Figure Skating going on in Sochi with a whole new team competition I haven’t quite wrapped my head around yet. But the big events of Pairs and Women’s (or as they call it, Ladies) are not the kind of events you want to try to stay in the dark all day for. The USA have a strong team with Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold vying for a place as America’s next sweetheart. USA was nowhere near the Ladies podium last time with South Korean sensation Kim Yu-Na taking gold, Japan’s own Mao Asada with silver, and Canadian Joanie Rochette winning bronze. Rochette won’t be at Sochi but you better believe Kim and Asada will be out for blood. Cute, cute, blood.
China’s gold winning Pairs team won’t be in Sochi but their silver winning duo of Pang Qing and Tong Jian returns alongside German bronzers Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy. The Americans may be considered a long shot in Pairs, but they are being called a shoe-in for Ice Dancing gold with Vancouver silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White having much improved in the interim.
| Day & Date | Time (PT) | |
Station | |
| Tuesday 2/11 | 7 am | Pairs: | Short Program | NBCSN |
| Wednesday 2/12 | 7 am | Pairs: | Free Skate | NBCSN |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 7 am | Ladies: | Short Program | NBCSN |
| Thursday 2/20 | 7 am | Ladies: | Free Skate | NBCSN |
HOCKEY
We got ourselves a big ol’ hockey tourney in our midst and there is going to be some great action. Remember USA just barely lost out on gold in Vancouver to the homeboys in a sudden death over time. Finland took Bronze in 2010 but you can bet Russia isn’t going to go down as easy this time around (they lost to Canada in the quarter 7-3), and this time they are in our group! Here are the live US, Canadian, and playoff matches.
| Day & Date | Time (PT) | |
Station |
| Thursday 2/13 | 4:30 am | USA vs. SVK | NBCSN |
| Thursday 2/13 | 9 am | CAN vs. NOR | USA |
| Friday 2/14 | 9 am | CAN vs. AUT | USA |
| Saturday 2/15 | 4 am | USA vs. RUS | NBCSN |
| Sunday 2/16 | 4:15 am | USA vs. SLO | NBCSN |
| Sunday 2/16 | 9 am | FIN vs. CAN | USA |
| Tuesday 2/18 | 12 am | Wildcard Match 1 | NBCSN |
| Tuesday 2/18 | 4 am | Wildcard Match 2 | NBCSN |
| Tuesday 2/18 | 9 am | Wildcard Match 3 | NBCSN |
| Tuesday 2/18 | 9 am | Wildcard Match 4 | MSNBC |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 12 am | Quarterfinal 1 | NBCSN |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 4:30 am | Quarterfinal 2 | NBCSN |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 9 am | Quarterfinal 3 | USA |
| Wednesday 2/19 | 9 am | Quarterfinal 4 | MSNBC |
| Friday 2/21 | 3:30 am | Semifinal 1 | NBCSN |
| Friday 2/21 | 8:45 am | Semifinal 2 | NBCSN |
| Saturday 2/22 | 7 am | Bronze | NBCSN |
| Sunday 2/23 | 4 am | Gold | NBCSN |
That’s it folks. Please enjoy and let me know if you want to come over for any of the big events!
UPDATE: Here is the embedded Google Calendar version of all of these events. Feel free to add it to your Calendar.