It’s been a whole fortnight since I spoke about the happenings of Sochi. Not so much the happenings but the teams to keep an eye out for, because this week is full news update!
So what’s been going on? Well, I’m glad you asked!

First astonishing piece of news is that the Russians are planning to have a little fun with the Olympic torch. For years, decades and even centuries, the Olympic torch is regarded as a very important symbol. The usual thing that happens is that a load of normal people from around the country run up a road in their town carrying the torch until passing it onto the next average Joe. The other crazy things that we’ve seen is the torch being carried on a camel or taken to the Barrier Reef. The Russians aren’t one to do things like the rest of the world, which we love, so they’ve decided to send the bloody thing to space.

“But you can’t just send a naked flame into space!” Yes, I hear you folks but don’t worry. They aren’t. They’re sending a ‘fake flame’ up there instead of real fire because sending real fire would be a stupid idea. Instead they’re spending a shit load of money to send on of those fake flickering candles into space. Want to know more? Of course you do. Read the full story here.

BORING NEWS ALERT: Team Canada have signed a deal with Adidas so they’ll be wearing the three stripes throughout the whole Olympics.

The US Freeskiing Team hit Mammoth the other week and it seems like they’re giving everyone a taster of what to expect when Sochi comes calling. Either that or they’re giving away all of their best moves before the competition! Knowing what America is like, I don’t know if this is going to be pure ‘shock and awe’ but it’s a taster of what’s to come.

It does show us that Benji Farrow really cannot open his mouth. At all. So maybe that’s a weakness everyone else will exploit in some sort of shouting match? Who knows!

SNOW ALERT!!

If you were worried that Russia wouldn’t have enough snow when the Winter Olympics rolls up in February (because a lack of snow is what we would expect in Russia – that really cold place), then you don’t need to worry. It turns out that the have a reserve of snow that will act as back-up!
I don’t know if it’s just me but anywhere that is cold enough to have a reservoir of snow already waiting should be fine for snow when the time comes along. Saying that, there have been a few events cancelled due to warm weather. It’s fine though. A guy called Aleksander says it’s fine.

TEAM NEWS

The Great Britain winter sports team has had an injection of money – £443,200 to be precise. This is money that will be spread across all of the sports currently covered by the ‘winter sports moniker’. I don’t know if freeskiing and snowboarding will see any of it though. They might just plant it into some of the more traditional sports. But we’ll see.

Two-time Olympic medalist Kelly Clark (West Dover, VT) has been nominated for an ESPY award. Under the category of Best Female Action Sports Athlete, Clark’s impressive season included two X Games gold medals and her 60th career victory – more than any male or female snowboarder.

TICKET NEWS

I’ve read somewhere that more than half the tickets to the Winter Olympics have already been sold! I can’t find any official confirmation of this right now but for some reason I find that astonishing!

More news in 2 weeks time!