FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, February 8th, 2014

2014 SOCHI WINTER GAMES – FEB. 8 NBC PRIMETIME HIGHLIGHTS

Gracie Gold, Meryl Davis & Charlie White Expected to Compete in Team Figure Skating Gold Medal Final Sunday, Feb. 9, in Primetime on NBC

NBC Primetime Begins at 7 p.m. ET Featuring Bode Miller in Downhill Gold Medal Final & Team USA’s Jamie Anderson in Inaugural Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Gold Medal Final

Live Coverage Begins Tomorrow at 3 a.m. ET on NBCSN

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

STAMFORD, Conn. – February 8, 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 gold medal final coverage of the first-ever figure skating team event highlighted by reigning U.S. champion Gracie Gold and world ice dance champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White. In addition, five-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller hits the slopes in the downhill gold medal final and Team USA’s Jamie Anderson competes in the inaugural women’s snowboard slopestyle gold medal final.
  • Live coverage begins tomorrow at 3 a.m. ET on NBCSN and includes women’s speed skating, luge, men’s ski jumping and men’s cross-country.

NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app will live stream all events. Click here for listings for Sun., Feb. 9 and Mon., Feb. 10.

Following are highlights from today’s NBC coverage of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi:

Olympic primetime host Bob Costas on Bode Miller and Norwegian Aksel Svindal’s downhill gold medal final (Sunday in primetime on NBC): “It looks like there could be a showdown between two of the best skiers of this generation… Fear has to be put aside, or at least overcome in the fastest event down the mountain – the men’s downhill.”

American skater Ashley Wagner, whose short program in the team event put Team USA in contention in the gold medal final (Sunday in primetime on NBC): “I know for a fact that I deserve to be here. I belong on this team… People see figure skaters as these pretty little porcelain dolls that you put up on a shelf, but I’m not a soft skater, and I don’t want to be. I am strong. I am powerful. I’m athletic… The entire performance was redemption for me.”

Analyst Tracy Wilson on the Meryl Davis and Charlie White ice dance short program in the team figure skating event: “There’s such a freedom and ‘joie de vivre’ in this performance… They are glad to have that one under their belt. You can see the look on Charlie’s face. He knew at the end that they nailed that performance… That is exactly what they had to do to change the momentum for Team USA.”

Play-by-play voice Tom Hammond on performance of Davis and White, which put Team USA in medal contention: “Meryl and Charlie deliver. Uncle Sam needed that.”

Wilson on Russian skaters Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Solovyiev ice dance short program in the figure skating team event (Russia is in first place in the event): “This short dance certainly played well at home. You can see them [Bobroba and Slovivev] on the ice tapping along with the music and the audience got in, clapped along with them. It sort of brought the short dance to life. That’s the home-field advantage. That’s how this audience can help their own skaters.”

Analyst Todd Richards on Team USA snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg’s gold medal final snowboard slopestyle runs and the new ‘1620 Japan’ trick: “Sage Kotsenburg embodies the feel and style of snowboarding in everything he does. He’s a very loose character both on and off the slopes, and that is a great thing… It is slopestyle, you want to make it look good… He is the most relaxed out of any competitor that I have seen out here the entire week. Sage is just having a great time… Good time to bring out a new trick.”

Kotsenburg on his gold medal in the inaugural snowboard slopestyle event: “I never even tried the trick I did on the bottom jump. I just whipped it out of the bag right here and did a ‘1620 Japan’ and I landed and I just blacked out in the air. I don’t even know what happened. I can’t even believe this is going on right now. It’s pretty surreal.”

Play-by-play voice Steve Schlanger on transitioning from cross-country skiing to rifle shooting in biathlon: “If you’ve ever run up 10 flights of stairs and tried to thread a needle, or hit a tee shot in golf and sprinted to the fairway and tried to hit your putt right away, that’s what it’s like to ski at their threshold and then slow it down and shoot and focus.”

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