Inside the rings

Vladislav Tretiak carries the torch during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Vladislav Tretiak carries the torch during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Russia shares a light

SOCHI, Russia - One of the greatest goaltenders of all time and an innovative figure skater who won three consecutive Olympic pairs titles lit the cauldron together Friday night at the opening ceremony of the Sochi Games.

Vladislav Tretiak and Irina Rodnina were given the honor of sparking the cauldron that will burn throughout Russia’s first Winter Olympics.

They were handed the torch by Alina Kabayeva, a former Olympic champion gymnast who has been linked romantically with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although the Kremlin has denied it. Other torchbearers in the final group were wrestling great Alexander Karelin, pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and tennis star Maria Sharapova.

Tretiak was a star on the great Soviet Union hockey teams of the 1970s and 1980s, and is usually called the best goalie ever by those who saw him play.

He was the first Russian-born player to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame and won Olympic gold medals with Soviet teams in 1972, 1976 and 1984.

But he only won silver after his team was upset by the United States in the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980.

In the first period of that game Tretiak allowed two goals, and legendary Soviet Coach Viktor Tikhonov unexpectedly replaced him with Vladimir Mishkin in an apparent move to shake up his complacent team.

“It was difficult for me to sit on the bench with the score 2-2,” Tretiak said at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, the 30th anniversary of the upset. “If I played the second and third period, the game might have turned a different way.” Track lengthened

Course workers added 40 meters (130 feet) to the biathlon track Friday because it was too short.

The loop should measure 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles).

Even though a 5 percent deviation is allowed by the rules, the track at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Center came up short.

“We had an issue with the length but we made a change, which takes care of it,” said Max Cobb, the biathlon’s technical delegate at the Olympics.

First doubts about the track length came from the Norwegian team, and they proved right after IBU officials measured the course on Thursday.

On the World Cup circuit, most courses are inspected four days before the actual competition though IOC rules are different, leaving organizers less time for adaptions if needed.

“It’s much too late and it creates issues,” Cobb said.

“All of us feel it’s the right thing to do and we still have (one) day before racing.”

The venue hosted a World Cup biathlon event last year but the shape of the course has been modified since.

The new part of the track will be used in the women’s 7.5K sprint on Sunday, and after that in the women’s 12.5K mass start, the men’s 12.5K pursuit and the three relays.

Some skip opening

Many athletes at the Sochi Olympics decided to stay off their feet for the opening ceremony because they will be on their skates or skis today.

Several figure skaters said Friday they were skipping the ceremony’s often spectacular but occasionally tedious parade of athletes to rest up for their competition today. The U.S. women’s hockey team had a meeting after practice Friday and decided not to march in the opening ceremony to rest up for today’s game against Finland, a noon start local time.

“We’re here to compete for a gold medal,” U.S.

forward Julie Chu, who already has two silvers and a bronze, said before the meeting. “The opening ceremony is a very special part of the Olympics, but isn’t it more (important) to win a medal?”

The parade of 3,000 athletes at past Olympics has been known to drag on like a classic Russian novel.

Athletes often have to line up an hour or more before the opening ceremony starts, and they could still be on their feet five hours later.

That’s why three-time Olympic figure skating medalist Evgeni Plushenko, who might otherwise have been a candidate to be the host country’s flag-bearer,said he would not attend to rest for the team events on Sunday.

Long ticket lines

Many sports fans had to wait in line for hours Friday to pick up tickets for the Sochi Olympics.

On the day of the opening ceremony that kicks off 17 days of sport, long queues, made up mostly of Russians, snaked into ticket collection points in and around the Russian Black Sea resort hosting the games.

Organizers said the queues formed in part because local residents from Sochi, who could have picked up their tickets months ago, waited until the last minute and had to wait with thousands of visitors from elsewhere in Russia who are pouring into town for the games.

Oksana Yeguryan, from Adler on Sochi’s outskirts, said she waited for four hours to collect her 20,000-ruble ($578) ticket for the opening ceremony, only to be told she would have to come back a day later to buy more tickets.

“I’m frustrated,” she said.

“I spent four hours waiting to pick up my ticket and now I have to come back tomorrow and wait for four more hours.”

Sochi Olympic organizers said more than 80 percent of tickets to events have been sold. Russian spectators have been allocated 70 percent of the total available.

Ticket collection points are operating at Sochi’s airport, at railway stations in downtown Sochi and at the Olympic Park in Adler.

Tickets bought online also could be picked up in Moscow.

Website blocked

The website of Canadian bobsled racer Justin Krippshas been blocked in Russia.

When viewed in Russia, including at the Sochi Games, the site displays a notice in Russian saying access has been restricted and that it could be for a range of reasons, including a court order or because the site is on a Russian blacklist.

The website was accessible to Internet users outside Russia, with pictures and biographical information and updates on Kripps’ training and competition results.

Sports, Pages 24 on 02/08/2014

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