Sochi Olympics 2014: While You Were Sleeping

By Fusion Staff | February 8, 2014 | 4:29pm

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Sochi is nine hours ahead of the eastern United States—12 hours ahead for the people out west—making it difficult for the average Olympic viewer to catch a lot of the events live. That’s where we come in.

Starting today, we’ll be posting daily updates on what happened while you were sleeping, what’s coming up later in the day, and what’s on the docket tomorrow, as well as any relevant GIFs, tweets and interesting articles.

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Today featured the first medal rounds of the Sochi Olympics, so let’s get you up to speed.

What You Missed:

Snowboarding – Men’s Slopestyle: No Shaun White? No problem. Utah’s Sage Kostenburg won Sochi’s first gold earlier today. With a score of 93.5, his victory came as a surprise to some. Kostenburg himself was even astonished to reach the final.

Turned out to be a pretty sweet day for the 20-year-old.

To round out the podium, Staale Sandbech of Norway finished second with a score of 91.75, and Mark McMorris of Canada, widely considered the favorite, received bronze for his score of 88.75.

Cross Country – Ladies’ Skiathlon: Norwegian Marit Bjoergen (38:33) edged Charlotte Kalla (38:35) of Sweden by just 1.8 seconds to capture gold. Fellow Norwegian Heidi Weng (38:46) fell into third to achieve bronze.

Women’s Ice Hockey: USA opened its Sochi campaign with a 3-1 victory over Finland courtesy of goals from Hilary Knight, Kelli Stack and Alex Carpenter. They face Switzerland on Monday at 5 a.m. EST.

Speedskating – Men’s 5000m: The Dutch swept the 5000 meters to pick up their first three medals of the games. Sven Kramer set an Olympic record on his way to a second career gold medal.

What’s About to Happen (All times EST, * signifying a medal round):

Figure Skating – Team Ladies Short (11:10 a.m.), Team Pair Free (1:05 p.m.)

Ski Jumping – Men’s Normal Hill Individual Qualifying (11:30 a.m.)

*Freestyle Skiing – Ladies’ Moguls Final (1:00 p.m.)

Three must-reads:

1. Sochi’s mayor recently claimed there’s no gay people in his town. Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel found otherwise.
2. Nothing to see here: Russian TV alters video after Olympic ceremony glitch
3. Meet the college kid who created @SochiProblems

Tweet of the day

Medal Count as of February 8, 9 a.m. EST (total gold, silver, bronze)

T1. Norway: (3) 1, 1, 1
T1. Netherlands: (3) 1, 1, 1
2. USA: (1) 1, 0, 0
3. Sweden: (1) 0, 1, 0
4. Canada: (1) 0, 0, 1

Notable events tomorrow (in chronological order, * signifying a medal round):

*Alpine Skiing – Men’s Downhill (2 a.m.)

Women’s Ice Hockey – SWE vs. JPN (3:00 a.m.), RUS vs. GER (8:00 a.m.)