Sochi scene

Fans get Olympic moment

Hours before he went for the victory, Shaun White already had delivered a gold medal moment.

Shortly after qualifying for the Olympic halfpipe final Tuesday at Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, White vaulted the barriers separating him from the fans and gave two young cancer patients high-fives and hugs.

“I thought, ‘He’s here?

What?’ ” said Ben Hughes, a 10-year-old from St. Louis who was diagnosed with leukemia four years ago.

Also sharing the love was 19-year-old Kaitlyn Lyle, who, like Hughes, was in Russia courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Lyle said she had “liked” White on his Facebook page.

“I had no idea he’d do this,” she said.

She was diagnosed shortly before the Vancouver Olympics and her wish was to come to Russia, where she was torn between asking for tickets for figure skating or snowboarding.

“But when I saw Shaun win gold [in Vancouver], I chose snowboarding,” she said.

Good choice.

Village people

When the American basketball team went to the London Olympics, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and the rest of them didn’t stay with the rest of Team USA in the Spartan accommodations of the athletes’ village. They were put up in a posh hotel with heightened security, large, soft beds and gourmet breakfast.

It’s the kind of setup that NHL players are used to having on the road as well, but here in Sochi, Zach Parise, Patrick Kane and the rest of their teammates are eschewing that lifestyle to hang with everyone else in the village. They did the same thing in Vancouver, preferring the camaraderie that comes with it.

“It’s part of the games, being around other athletes,” said Parise, a Minneapolis native. “We don’t mind it. It’s fun. It’s kind of like college dorms, all the other athletes in the same building.”

So it’s no California King bed. Just a tiny twin.

Full continental breakfast? The Americans can’t even get their yogurt.

Marble tile in the bathroom? In Sochi, luxury comes in the form of a shower curtain. Parise wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like getting the full Olympic experience,” Parise said.

Tree tops

Alpine skiing coaches are also expert tree climbers.

That’s because lofty perches provide better and more expansive views of lengthy downhill courses, letting them see the best lines down the mountain for their skiers.

Coaches from most of the big teams at the Sochi Games have claimed a tree along the Rosa Khutor course. On some trees there is even room for more than one coach.

U.S. men’s Coach Sasha Rearick explained the process.

“You first go up, put the rope up, and do the old telephone pole technique with spikes on your feet,” he said. “Then the next days, you put your fixed line up and you just [climb] up, like you’re doing a big wall.”

Rearick’s spot is on the Big Pan section of the course, midway down and just above the key Bear’s Brow jump.

He estimated that his perch is about 100 or 120 feet above the ground.

“There’s advantages and disadvantages,” Rearick said.

“The advantage is I can see a lot more of the course. … You can see the difference in line relatively well. The disadvantages are you don’t see the angle when the athlete comes in and picks the ski up. So that’s what we actually changed today, we put some different video spots to look at where you pick the ski up before the roll. On the ground. Coaches on the ground.”India’s back

It’s probably the most important moment Olympic athletes can have besides competing: Walking in the opening ceremony for their country.

But imagine waiting for your grand entrance and getting your cue: “Independent Olympic participants.”

The equivalent of the International Olympic Committee saying it’s not you, just your country.

No wonder the athletes’ parade at the Sochi Games wasn’t so fun for Indian luger Shiva Keshavan, who said he spent the moments beforehand talking with the other two Indian athletes about why their flag wouldn’t fly.

“That enthusiasm wasn’t there that I generally feel at the opening ceremony,” he said.

But India is back after resolving a dispute over its Olympic governance, setting the stage for its flag to immediately fly in Sochi along with the rest of the nations represented.

“The whole world is watching and when the Indian flag doesn’t fly, people know that it’s because of corruption and it’s not a nice image for the country,” Keshavan said. “So although there are real problems, still, symbolism is really important at the Olympic Games.”

Now, he thinks the fixes - the first in history to lead the IOC to lift a suspension during an Olympics - will give him and his countrymen a boost.

“You have a lot more behind you when you go with your country’s flag,” he said.

Medal count Through Tuesday (26 total events)

NATION G S B TOT

Norway 4 3 4 11

Canada 4 3 2 9

Germany 4 1 0 5

Netherlands 3 2 3 8

United States 2 1 4 7

Switzerland 2 0 0 2

Russia 1 3 3 7

Austria 1 3 0 4

France 1 0 2 3

Belarus 1 0 0 1

Poland 1 0 0 1

Slovakia 1 0 0 1

South Korea 1 0 0 1

Sweden 0 3 1 4

Czech Republic 0 2 1 3

Slovenia 0 1 2 3

Italy 0 1 1 2

Japan 0 1 1 2

China 0 1 0 1

Finland 0 1 0 1

Britain 0 0 1 1

Ukraine 0 0 1 1