The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia is so close. In fact as I type this blog post we’re at 228 days remaining on our Sochi countdown and that’s really not a lot of time left. I say that from the point of view of a regular patron of the Olympics and from the point of view of an athlete. Before I confuse you anymore, I’ll just clear up the fact that I am not an athlete trying to qualify for the Olympics, I’m merely pointing out that time for the athletes to qualifying is running out. But I digress…

What’s the point of this blog? Well, I hear your concerns people but do not fear. The point of this blog is to keep you up to date with the preparations, news and everything in between of the main snowboard and freeski teams that are going to be vying for medals when the Olympics rolls around in February. Not just that but we’ll update you with the odd news pieces for the Winter Olympics themselves.

To kick it all off, we’re going to focus on a select few teams but more to the point, a select few riders.

Team Canada

Ski Slopestyle
Kaya Turski – Dara Howell – Alex Bellemare – JF Houle – Alex Beaulieu-Marchand
Ski Halfpipe
Rosalind Groenewoud – Mike Riddle – Justin Dorey – Noah Bowman – Matt Margetts
Snow Slopestyle
Mark McMorris – Sebastien Toutant – Spencer O’Brien
Snow Halfpipe
Derek Livingston – Mercedes Nicoll

Team Great Britain

Ski Slopestyle
James Woods – Katie Summerhayes – Murray Buchan
Ski Halfpipe
James Woods – James Machon
Snow Slopestyle
Aimee Fuller – Billy Morgan – Jamie Nicholls – Jenny Jones – Katie Ormerod – Nate Kern
Snow Halfpipe
Dom Harrington – Ben Kilner

Switzerland

Ski Slopestyle
Elias Ambuhl – Eveline Bhend – Fabian Boesch – Jonas Hunziker
Ski Halfpipe
Virginie Faivre – Mirjam Jaeger – Kai Mahler
Snow Slopestyle
Iouri Podlatchikov (he’s the only one we really want to watch!)

USA

Ski Slopestyle
Ashley Battersby – Sammy Carlson – Joss Christensen – Nick Goepper – Keri Herman – Gus Kenworthy – Devin Logan – Meg Olenick – Alex Schlopy – Emilia Wint – Bobby Brown – Grete Eliassen – Tom Wallisch
Ski Halfpipe
Maddie Bowman – Simon Dumont – Jen Hudak – Gus Kenworthy – Devin Logan – Tprin Yater-Wallace – Britta Sigourney – David Wise
Snow Slopestyle
Chas Guldemond – Sage Kotsenberg – Eric Willett
Snow Halfpipe
Shaun White – Gretchen Bleiler – Kelly Clark – Elena Hight – Scotty Lago – Hannah Teter – Luke Mitrani – Louie Vito

People to look out for: Jacob Wester (SWE), Emma Dahlstrom (SWE), Henrik Harlaut (SWE), Kevin Rolland (FRA), Thomas Krief (FRA).

Remember that this list will be horribly cut down as we approach February. There will be more qualifying events for the riders, ones that they’ll have to dominate to reach their Olympic dream and the US team is already bursting at the seams! There is only allowed to be 4 participants per discipline so I think Gus Kenworthy might make the cut!

What quick news update is there for you? Well, we’re looking at some pretty extensive work going on right now to get the place ready for the Winter Olympics, and even Vladimir Putin has said that any corruption surrounding the preparation won’t slow progress. Thanks Vladimir. Corruption can continue as long as work doesn’t slow down!

So that was our little intro in the teams we’re going to be watching for Sochi 2014. Come back to us in 2 weeks time for all the latest news on Sochi, the teams and anything else I can find to update you and be sarcastic about. Stay tuned folks!