News and Features Editor
The
2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia will begin February 7, and here are some
athletes to watch out for.
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| Upcoming Olympics in Sochi |
Shaun
White hopes to defend his gold medal for the second time in the halfpipe, and
hopefully show off even more new tricks.
Member
Steve Holcomb‘s life story proved himself to be inspirational last winter
Olympics. He had a degenerative eye disease that almost cost him his vision and
caused him to suffer from depression, which led to a suicide attempt before
recovering. Later, however, in the 2010 Olympics, Holcomb and his team ended a
62-year U.S. gold-medal drought in bobsledding. In Sochi, they will be
defending their gold.
Hannah
Kearney will be defending her Olympic gold medal title. In doing so, Kearney
would become the first American to win multiple golds on the moguls.
In
the 2006 Olympics, Shani Davis became the first African American athlete from
any country to win gold in the winter Olympics. In 2010, he became the first
speedskater to ever win two consecutive gold medals in the 1,000 meter. Now, he
is skating for a third Olympic gold and a spot among America’s winter Olympic
all-time medal leaders.
Snowboard
cross debuted in 2006, and has only had one winner of gold since. Seth Wescott
aims to continue his winning streak in Sochi.
Billy
Demong became the first American to win Olympic gold in Nordic combined (combined
cross-country skiing and ski jumping) in the 2010 Olympics, he is now attempting
to become the first American to win two gold medals in the Nordic combined
event.
After
winning gold in the 2006 winter Olympics, giant slalom skier Ted Ligety hopes
to come back eight years later and win again.
Women’s
ski jumping will debut in the winter Olympics in Sochi with Sarah Hendrickson
leading the charge for the U.S. Before even turning 18, Hendrickson won nine of
13 events at the FIS World Cup in August.
Dylan
Ferguson had an emergency appendectomy before the 2010 Olympics, but since then
he has won back-to-back U.S. National Championships in freestyle skiing and is expected
to perform well on the world stage.
Noelle
Pikus-Pace has come out of retirement in hopes of winning skeleton this year
after placing fourth in 2010, retiring, and having a son.
There
is skepticism that Lindsey Vonn will compete this Olympics due to irritating a
previous knee injury at a competition in France. If she is healthy and stays on
top of her game, she could easily win another slalom, giant slalom, super G, or
downhill Olympic medal.
Julia
Mancuso, who actually has three more Olympic medals than any other American
female skier, goes into this Olympics with hopes of winning her ninth world or
Olympic championships in super G.
Mikaela
Shiffrin, 17-years-old, has been called “the next Lindsey Vonn” and has proven
that her slalom racing skills may put her on the podium in Sochi.
Lolo
Jones proved that going from the track to the snow is possible when she became
part of the gold winning combined bobsled-skeleton team at a world championship.
This year she will be a part of the U.S. women’s bobsled team in hopes of
attaining a gold medal.
Kikkan
Randall became the first American woman to win a World Cup event in the
cross-country skiing and hopes to improve upon her top 10 finish in the 2010
Olympics.
Heather
Richardson recently won a speedskating world championship title and set a new
world record, proving she has what it takes to win in Sochi.
After
being on three Olympic hockey teams and winning two silver medals and a bronze,
Julie Chu hopes to win gold with her team this Olympics.
Sources:
olympic.org, usskiteam.com, teamusa.org, and msn.foxspots.com
