Sochi Winter Olympics TV schedule: What to watch Saturday
USA plays Russia in men's ice hockey and Shani Davis takes to the ice for his last race.
Russia's goalie Sergei Bobrovski (L) battles Team USA's Patrick Kane during the men's preliminary round ice hockey game at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Gary Hershorn/Reuters
Seven medals are up for grabs as we reach the midway point of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
US athletes, including speedskating star Shani Davis, skier Julia Mancuso battle for medals today. Yet the marquee event of the day won’t yield a medal – the US and Russian men’s hockey teams face off in a huge match in the first round of group play.
NBC will air a tape-delayed afternoon broadcast from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. EST and a primetime broadcast at 8 p.m. EST. Its affiliate networks, including NBC Sports, MSNBC, and CNBC, will broadcast events throughout the day, and all events can be live-streamed by cable subscribers at nbcolympics.com.
You don’t want to miss:
Alpine skiing women’s super-giant
This event is a combination of the downhill and giant slalom races. According to Sochi organizers, in the super-giant “athletes achieve speeds just as high as in the downhill, but the course trajectory is similar to the course trajectory in the slalom.” There are between 46 and 58 gates for the women, who get one run on the course.
American Julie Mancuso, the bronze-medalist from the super-combined has a chance to medal. Favorites going into the event also include Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather and Switzerland’s Lara Gut.
This event streamed live at 2 a.m. EST and will replay on NBC primetime.
Women’s cross-country 4 x 5 km relay
After missing out on a medal in the individual team sprint, defending World Champion Kikkan Randall and her American teammates will battle for redemption in the team relay. The Americans won bronze in two World Cup relays over the past two years, but they face stiff competition from the Norwegians, Fins, and Scandinavians.
The event streamed live at 4:45 a.m. EST and will replay on the NBC afternoon broadcast.
Men’s 1,000-meter short track
No American speed skater – short or long track – has won a medal yet in Sochi. J.R. Celski looks to turn that around in the 1,000-meter today. Watch out for South Korean born Vitor An, who now skates for Russia, and Canadian Charles Hamelin who won gold in the 1,500-meter event earlier this week.
The event streamed live at 7:15 a.m. EST and will be replayed on NBC primetime.
Men’s hockey USA vs Russia
The most-anticipated event of the day is the matchup between the US and Russian’s men’s hockey teams. Russia is under enormous pressure to deliver the gold medal on home ice. The teams meet in preliminary group play after having each won their first matches. Here’s how the teams stacked up in the four previous Olympic meetings (including Soviet Union and the Unified Team in 1988 and 1992), according to NBC Sports Network:
1988: Soviet Union 7, US 5 (group play)
1992: Unified Team 5, US 2 (semifinals)
2002: U.S. 3, Russia 2 (semifinals)
2006: Russia 5, U.S. 4 (group play)
The game live streamed 7:30 a.m. EST and will be replayed on NBC Sports Network at 6 p.m. EST.
Speed skating men’s 1500-meters
Four-time Olympic medalist Shani Davis takes to the ice to race for his first medal in the Sochi Games after finishing off the podium in his first two events. Davis has two Olympic silver medals in this event and holds the world record in it (set in 2009), but he’s never stood atop the Olympic podium in this event. He’ll also have to battle discontent among US speedskating athletes who say that their new uniforms could have something to do with their disappointing results.
The event streamed live at 8:30 a.m. EST and will be replayed on NBC primetime.
Men’s skeleton
A day after Noelle Pikus-Pace brought home silver for Team USA in the women’s skeleton, John Daly and Matt Antoine look to match her feat. They are sitting in third and fourth place, respectively, heading into the final two runs today. The surprise leader after Day 1 is Alexander Tretiakov of Russia.
The event streams live at 11:15 a.m. EST and will replay on NBC primetime.
What else is on:
NBC 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. EST: Short track (women’s 1500-meter), Cross-Country (women’s relay)
NBC 8 p.m. EST: Alpine Skiing (Women's Super-G), Speed Skating (Men's 1500m), Short Track (Men's 1000m), Ski Jumping (Men's Individual Large Hill), Skeleton (Men's Runs 3 and 4)