The Sochi Winter Olympic Games this year went down in history as the most expensive sports event ever organized, with a staggering cost of more than US$51 billion.
The legacy left by Russia’s first winter Games is one of gleaming purpose-built arenas with little or no post-Games use, a massive overhaul of infrastructure at the Black Sea resort and a record price tag that triggered changes for future Olympics.
Despite months of bad press in the run-up to the Games over Russia’s human rights record and antigay propaganda law, when the competitions started, the Olympics were a sporting success.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin in the stands for a project he helped bring to his country in 2007, when sports took center stage, the fate of stray dogs, double toilets and #sochiproblems top trending on Twitter all slipped into the background.
US snowboarder Shaun White failed to shine again on the Olympic stage, withdrawing over safety fears in the inaugural slopestyle competition, leaving Sage Kotsenburg as the first-ever Olympic slopestyle gold medalist.
The women’s ski jumping competition was also one of 12 new events, with teenage American Sarah Hendrickson becoming the first woman to soar through the air at an Olympics, going on to finish 21st.
Germany’s Carina Vogt flew 104.5m to win the milestone event, the culmination of a 13-year fight by female athletes to be allowed to take part.
Another first was the shared gold medal in the women’s downhill at Rosa Khutor’s 2,713m-long run, with Slovenia’s Tina Maze and Swiss Dominique Gisin both clocking 1 minute, 41.57 seconds.
Belarus’ Darya Domracheva dazzled in Sochi, becoming the first woman to win three biathlon titles at the same winter Olympics.
For Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, there was nothing novel about another gold medal, but it was a record 13th Winter Games gong after he helped his country to the biathlon team mixed relay title.
The 40-year-old edged ahead of former cross-country skier Bjorn Daehlie and moved alongside his compatriot as the leading all-time Winter Olympics gold medalist with eight.
The Dutch dominated speedskating like few nations have done in any sport, winning 21 of 30 individual medals and four medal sweeps, turning the Adler arena orange.
There was also joy for the hosts, with Viktor Ahn, an adopted Russian after switching allegiance from South Korea, winning two gold medals in an hour at the Iceberg arena.
He confirmed himself among the Olympic greats with victory in the 500m individual and 45 minutes later returned to help Russia win the 5,000m relay.
Russian teenager Adelina Sotnikova won the women’s figure skating individual title amid accusations from South Korea of biased judges after their Vancouver winner Kim Yuna was beaten into second.
However, the home team was hit by tragedy when Russian ski cross athlete Maria Komissarova broke her back during a training run for the extreme sport.
She underwent hours-long surgery and was taken abroad for further treatment, but has been paralyzed since.
The growing conflict in neighboring Ukraine also cast its shadow during the Games, with Ukraine athletes told not to mourn the dead, killed during protests back in Kiev.
The Sochi Olympics have since triggered changes for future hosts as the International Olympic Committee saw four of six bid cities for the 2022 Olympics pull out mid-race — scared off by Sochi’s price tag.
The IOC has introduced changes to allow outsourcing competitions to other cities or even countries to keep the cost down and assure their prime winter product remains attractive.
It has also strengthened its anti-discrimination clause to avoid a repeat of the Russian law that raised concerns from sponsors and also saw some calls for a boycott.
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday said that she hoped she would be able to play tennis under the Belarusian flag after the International Olympic Committee lifted its ban on the country’s athletes competing in the Olympics. World No. 1 Sabalenka has had to compete under a neutral banner as a consequence of her country’s support for Russia following its ally’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC earlier on Thursday lifted its ban on Belarusian athletes competing in the Olympics, although restrictions on Russian athletes remain in place. Asked whether the women’s tour would drop the ban on her representing her country, Sabalenka said:
China’s Wu Yize on Monday won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final. Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year. Wu is also the second-youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990. “I have been trying
Real Madrid announced on Friday they had fined Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde 500,000 euros (US$588,000) each after a training ground clash that saw Valverde transported for medical care. The club did not impose any sporting sanctions on the two players, saying in a statement that the fine “thereby concludes the internal procedures” launched against them. Valverde is going to miss today’s Clasico against Barcelona as a result of the head injury he suffered during the altercation. The club said he would be out for up to two weeks. Tchouameni took part in training on Friday and could feature at Camp
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