SOCHI 2014: Michel Mulder Wins 500m Speed Skating Gold

Michel Mulder won gold as the Netherlands' domination of the speed skating events at Sochi 2014 continued with a clean sweep in the men's 500m. Mulder, 27, finished only 0.01 seconds ahead of Jan Smeekens with a combined time of 69.32secs.

A fine second run from Ronald Mulder earned him bronze, making them only the second set of twins to win medals in the same event at the Winter Olympics. The Dutch had already won gold in the men's 5,000m and women's 3,000m races.There was confusion at the death, as Smeekens initially thought he had earned a tie for the gold after he crossed the line. But the clock then adjusted the official times, which is a common occurrence in speed skating, giving Mulder the slimmest of victories.

SOCHI 2014: Jenny Jones Wins Britain's First Winter Olympic Medal

Snowboarder Jenny Jones won Great Britain's first ever Olympic medal on the snow with a dramatic slopestyle bronze in Sochi. Jones, 33, held the lead after scoring 87.25 points in her second run and had an agonising wait while 10 athletes tried to better her score. American Jamie Anderson eventually took gold with 95.25, ahead of Finland's Enni Rukajarvi on 92.50.

"I did the best run I could have done," a thrilled Jones told BBC Sport.

Jones scored 73.00 to place fifth after the first round, just 4.25 points off the podium places, and after an impressive second run she secured the bronze when the final competitor, Austrian medal prospect Anna Gasser, fell.

SOCHI GAMES: America's Sage Kotsenburg Wins Game's First Gold

The kid they call "second-run Sage" didn't waste time putting down the run of his life. Sage Kotsenburg tamed the treacherous slopestyle course at the Extreme Park on Saturday, grabbing the first gold medal of the Sochi Olympics. And he did it with a run that left the 20-year-old American who talks like a surfer and rides like a purist momentarily stunned in disbelief.

Kotsenburg's soulful first run in the finals ended with a score of 93.50 that held up over the next 30 minutes as the rest of the field's dozen riders failed to catch the laid-back Couer d'Alene, Idaho, native, who peppers his interviews with "whoas" and "gnarly" and often refers to himself as "your boy."
One that's now an Olympic champion.

Sochi Opens Winter Olympic In Grand Style

Russia gave its highest Olympic honor to two of its greatest champions. Hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak and figure skater Irina Rodnina used the torch to light the Olympic cauldron on Friday and conclude the opening ceremony of the Sochi Games. The identity of the cauldron lighter was the great mystery heading into the evening, as it is at many Olympics. Some even thought Russian President Vladimir Putin would take the honors.

The tension built in the closing moments as huge skeletal figurines representing all the Winter Games competitions lit up in the arena and Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" was sprinkled in with a frenetic soundtrack.

SOCHI 2014: Russia Set For Opening Ceremony

The costliest Olympic Games in history officially open in Russia on Friday, with 98 medals to be won over 16 days. Sochi, on Russia's Black Sea coast, will welcome about 2,900 athletes in 15 disciplines as the opening ceremony begins at 20:14 local time (16:14 GMT).

The build-up has been overshadowed by security fears, human rights concerns and delays to preparations. But, at £30bn, the cost of these Games is more than the combined total of all other Olympic Winter Games to date. Canada, Norway and the United States are considered the likeliest candidates to top the Sochi medal table, while Team GB have been set a target of at least three medals in Sochi. If Britain reaches their target, that would mark the team's best performance in terms of medals won since 1936, while hope is high that Britain could win more than one gold medal at a Winter Olympics for the first time.

President Obama Selects Two Gays As American Delegates For Sochi Games

As Russia's laws against homosexual "propaganda" become an increasingly widespread debate topic with the Sochi Olympics encroaching, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union Address to put in no uncertain terms where he stood on the matter.

Speaking Tuesday night (Jan. 28) for his annual address, Obama said that the United States' identity is in part defined by the respect in the "inherent dignity and equality of every human being, regardless of race or religion, creed or sexual orientation," per Michael Gold of The Baltimore Sun, and pointed to the Sochi Games as "one expression of that commitment."