Female superstars dominate rosters

McClatchy Newspapers

It’s more than their unusual Black Sea locale that, for American TV viewers at least, will lend an exotic flavor to these 2014 Winter Olympics.

Ninety years after 304 mostly aristocratic, mostly male amateurs gathered for the first Winter Games, Sochi’s schedule will showcase several new daredevil sports, more team events, and a superstar roster dominated by females.

With diminished women’s figure-skating hopes and a men’s hockey team so far absent from the gold-medal conversation, the U.S. will rely on much-improved bobsled and Alpine skiing teams as it seeks a second straight medal-count victory.

“I don’t think the U.S. ski team, men and women, has ever gone into an Olympics with more star power,” said Steve Porino, an ex-American ski-team member who will be an NBC analyst at Sochi. “These are once-an-era athletes.”

Among the male skiers, Bode Miller, making his record fifth Olympic appearance, and Ted Ligety, who won three golds at the most recent World Championships, should contend whenever they’re on the Krasnaya Polyana slopes.

Julie Mancuso and Mikaela Shiffrin, the 18-year-old phenom who is the reigning world slalom champion, should make up for the absence of injured Lindsey Vonn.

In the Olympic movement’s nod to the popularity of extreme sports, half-pipe and slopestyle skiing, slopestyle snowboard and snowboard parallel slalom will debut.

In addition, women ski-jumpers will compete for the first time and there will be new team events — a mixed biathlon relay, a luge relay and a team figure-skating competition.

Youthful, edgy and able to arouse national interest, these additions were meant to attract a younger TV audience, a demographic that often views Olympic staples like figure-skating as too formal and staid.

Now familiar snowboarders like Louis Vito, Kelly Clark and Shaun White are back on the free-spirited U.S. team. White, the sport’s superstar, has been training on a private half-pipe in Australia.

“In our sports,” said Clark, “there’s more room for self-expression and creativity.”

Like it or not, TV viewers here will have to get used to these rookie snow sports. NBC, which along with its affiliated broadcast platforms will present 1,539 hours of television, will focus heavily on them.

That’s because Americans are expected to do well, a development that could counter anticipated declines in interest and medals in men’s and women’s figure-skating, normally the Games’ biggest TV-ratings producers.

Four years ago at Vancouver, America’s female skaters failed to medal for a first time since 1964.