FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 7th, 2014

OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 2014 SOCHI WINTER GAMES – FEB. 7 NBC PRIMETIME HIGHLIGHTS

World Ice Dance Champions Meryl Davis & Charlie White of U.S. Highlight Saturday Primetime Coverage on NBC

Live Coverage Begins Tomorrow, Sat. Feb. 8 at 3 a.m. ET on NBCSN with Team USA Women’s Hockey vs. Finland Followed by Team Figure Skating at 9:30 a.m. ET

MSNBC Presents 2010 Vancouver Olympic Women’s Hockey Gold Medalist Canada vs. Switzerland Live at 8 a.m. ET

All Events Live Streamed on NBCOlympics.com and NBC Sports Live Extra Mobile & Tablet App

STAMFORD, Conn. – February 7, 2014 – Tomorrow’s coverage of the XXII Olympic Winter Games is highlighted by:

  • NBC’s primetime presentation, which begins at 8 p.m. ET, features World ice dance champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White of Team USA in the short program for the inaugural figure skating team event;
  • Live television coverage of Team USA Women’s Hockey vs. Finland at 3 am. ET on NBCSN;
  • Live team figure skating at 9:30 a.m. ET on NBCSN;
  • And 2010 Vancouver Olympic women’s hockey gold medalist Canada vs. Switzerland live at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.

NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app will live stream all events. Click here for listings for Sat., Feb. 8 and Sun., Feb. 9.

Following are highlights from NBC’s primetime coverage of the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Games on Fri., February 7.

For a transcript of NBC Olympics primetime host Bob Costas’ interview with President Barack Obama, click here.

Bob Costas on the significance of the 2014 Sochi Olympics: “The Olympic Games are always a major world event, but based on where they’re taking place this time, the significance of these Olympics is undeniable.”

Opening Ceremony co-host and TODAY show anchor Matt Lauer: “There’s kind of an unpredictable feeling surrounding these Games. We come here prepared to cover the athletes but also prepared to talk about the entire story.”

Opening Ceremony co-host and NBC News special correspondent Meredith Vieira: “In many ways, the pride of Russia and nobody has more at stake than President Vladimir Putin because he’s the one who invested so much on these Games and he personally invested to get them on Russian soil and in fact, they’ve been nicknamed ‘the Putin Games.’”

Olympic correspondent and Pulitzer-prize winning editor of The New Yorker David David Remnick on the importance of the Opening Ceremony to Russian President Vladimir Putin: “He [Putin] doesn’t care if the world thinks he’s an autocrat. There’s a message he wants to give his own people and that is that ‘We are a modernizing, great power… Putin wants to assert Russia on the modern stage.’”

NBC Olympics correspondent, Olympic silver medalist and four-time grand slam champion Maria Sharapova on carrying the Olympic torch in the Opening Ceremony: “That was the best run of my life… The most incredible experience.”

Team USA four-man bobsled pilot and Olympic gold medalist Steven Holcomb on the Opening Ceremony: “This is what we do it for. This is what we live for.”

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–NBC OLYMPICS–