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 Far from the sporting arena, Ukraine's Olympics boss Sergey Bubka
called for an end to violence in his country, where at least 25
people have been killed in bloody street protests.
Russian fans will be roaring on the home team when they come up
against the formidable barrier of Finland at the futuristic Bolshoy
Ice Dome, while Canada and the United States both play later in the
evening.
At the nearby Iceberg Skating Palace, there will be similarly
partisan support for 15-year-old Julia Lipnitskaya, one of the
favorites in the women's singles competition having mesmerized the
Games with her performance in the team event.
That contest concludes on Thursday, while on Wednesday eight medals
are up for grabs in the Caucasus mountains and on the Black Sea
coast in the Sochi Olympic Park.
They include the men's giant slalom, in which Ted Ligety is seeking
to win a first U.S. Alpine skiing gold at the Sochi Games. Thick
fog, rain and snow that made skiing so difficult over the last two
days had lifted, and conditions were clear.
Former pole vault champion Bubka called for peace in Ukraine, while
for the country's Olympic team minds were as much on tumultuous
events at home as they were on the sport.
"I want to bring Olympic Truce to my country," Bubka said on
Twitter. "Dialogue is power, violence is weakness."
"Our athletes are competing hard in Sochi, but peacefully and with
honor. Violence has no place in the world."
The upheaval has been hard for Ukraine's athletes to block out.
"Yes it's a distraction, everyone's talking about it — even just now
at the start, at the finish, people are saying 'what's happened in
your country, what's happened?'" said Dmytro Mytsak, 18, a Ukrainian
giant slalom skier from Kiev.
"We're getting support from the Russian spectators and I'm grateful
for that."
"STOP THE BLOODSHED"
Demonstrations erupted in November after President Viktor Yanukovich
bowed to pressure from neighboring Russia and pulled out of a
planned trade pact with the European Union, deciding instead to
accept a Kremlin bailout for the indebted economy.
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On Wednesday, Russia demanded that Ukrainian opposition leaders
"stop the bloodshed" in Kiev, and said Moscow would use all its
influence to bring peace to its "friendly brother state".
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hope events in Ukraine do not
overshadow Russia's first Winter Games, where state-of-the-art
venues and thrilling action have pushed criticism during the buildup
to the Olympics firmly into the background.
The president attributed much of that criticism — of a law banning
the promotion of homosexuality among minors and of the high costs of
staging the event — to a Cold War mentality in the West.
Threatened demonstrations have been few and far between during the
February 7-23 Games, although protest group Pussy Riot did crash the
Olympic party briefly on Tuesday when they were detained for several
hours at a Sochi police station.
Members of the group, who once again grabbed international media
attention, were in Sochi to record a musical film called "Putin will
teach you to love the motherland".
DUTCH DOMINANCE
At the Adler Arena in the Olympic Park, Czech Marina Sablikova will
try to hold back the orange Dutch tide by retaining her 5,000 meters
speedskating title.
Ireen Wust has already beaten her over 3,000 meters in Sochi and
will be seeking yet another Dutch gold in a sport they have
dominated at these Games.
France, with double Olympic champion Martin Fourcade doubtful
because he is suffering from sinusitis, Norway and Russia are among
the favorites for the mixed relay in biathlon.
Two other sports have double medal events — the men's and women's
team sprints in cross-country skiing and the snowboarding parallel
giant slalom.
The last event to be decided is the woman's bobsleigh while there
are also semi-finals in both curling competitions.
(Reporting by Reuters Olympics teams in Sochi and Rosa Khutor)
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