FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 19th, 2014

2014 SOCHI WINTER GAMES – FEB. 19 NBCSN, CNBC, MSNBC, USA HIGHLIGHTS

Tonight at 8/7c on NBC: Reigning World Champion Ted Ligety & Six-Time Olympic Medalist Bode Miller Compete in Giant Slalom Gold Medal Final Plus Ladies’ Figure Skating Short Program 

Elana Meyers Leads Group of Americans Competing for Gold in Women’s Bobsled

Women’s Hockey Rivals Team USA and Team Canada Play for Gold Thursday at Noon ET/9 a.m. PT LIVE on NBC

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

Stamford, Conn. – February 19, 2014 – Coming up on NBC Olympics’ coverage of the XXII Olympic Winter Games:

  • Tonight at 8/7c on NBC,  reigning U.S. champion Gracie Gold makes her individual program debut in ladies’ figure skating after winning bronze in the team event, competing against 2010 Olympic gold medalist Yuna Kim of South Korea, Yulia Lipnitskaya, who helped lead Russia to gold with a top performance in the team event, and two-time U.S. national champion Ashley Wagner.
  • Also highlighting primetime is the giant slalom gold medal final in men’s alpine skiing featuring reigning world champion Ted Ligety and Bode Miller, the most decorated skier in U.S. Olympic history, who most recently earned bronze in the super-G. In women’s bobsled, 2010 Olympic bronze medalist Elana Meyers takes her final runs. For more information on tonight’s primetime program on NBC, click here.
  • Tomorrow’s live coverage is highlighted by the gold medal game in women’s hockey between Team USA and Team Canada on NBC at noon ET/9 a.m. PT. NBCSN’s live coverage features the ladies’ figure skating gold medal final at 10 a.m. ET, and begins at 3 a.m. ET with coverage of the men’s Nordic combined gold medal final. NBCSN will also present live coverage of the bronze medal games in women’s curling between Great Britain and Switzerland, and women’s hockey between Switzerland and Sweden.
  • CNBC’s women’s curling coverage continues at 5 p.m. ET with the gold medal final between Sweden and Canada.

FOLLOWING ARE HIGHLIGHTS FROM TODAY’S NBCSN, CNBC, MSNBC & USA COVERAGE OF THE 2014 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES IN SOCHI:

Nancy Kerrigan on Gracie Gold: “Well of course with a name like Gracie Gold, it’s so perfect for figure skating, and she has the goods. She is so talented…she has been training so hard…working on the nuances and she is ready – she’s a fighter.”

Kerrigan on Ashley Wagner: “Ashley has this determination and fire, and I think after the team program where she was a little disappointed in her score, she has a lot to prove – to her country after placing fourth at the U.S. championships, but also to herself.”

Kerrigan on Yulia Lipnitskaya: “Yulia has this ‘wow’ factor with the flexibility…she’s so flexible it almost hurts. She said that she’s trying to keep focus on what she’s doing and not focus on the audience but at [age] 15, I think that’s when you really start to get doubts and let them creep in.”

Tara Lipinski on Polina Edmunds: “If anyone was worried the 15-year-old couldn’t handle the pressure at her first Olympics, I think she just proved everyone wrong.”

Lipinski on Edmunds: “I think what she gives us that we haven’t seen from American skaters in the past few years is consistency and a very solid, strong, competitive mind set.”

Johnny Weir on the stiff competition in ladies’ figure skating: “One blink, one little mistake will open the door and create doubt in the minds of the judges.”

Jeremy Roenick on Team USA vs. Canada facing off in semifinals of men’s hockey on Friday (coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on NBCSN): “Their offense is running on all cylinders, their defense is good, Jonathan Quick looks good…but, it’s still U.S. vs. Canada, one of the biggest rivalries in the world. Somehow, the Canadians always seem to play their best hockey against the Americans.”

Eddie Olczyk on Team USA forward David Backes, who had a goal and an assist in 5-2 win over Czech Republic: “When he’s on the ice, and you’re the opponent, whether it’s here in Sochi or back home in the United States playing for the St. Louis Blues, you know you’ve been in a battle [against] David Backes.”

Mike Milbury on Russia’s loss to Finland: “Usually a loss like this lasts a lifetime. For a guy like Pavel Datsyuk, Slava Voynov, I think they’ll be walking down the streets in their hometowns 10 years or 20 years from now, and wince at the memory of this. Sadly, I think for the other members of this Russian team, because I haven’t seen that commitment from them, it won’t mean that much to them. They will just carry on, and therein lays the sad root of the problem.”

Roenick on hockey in Russia: “I think about what the Russians have done to try and build hockey here in Russia. Putin is trying to make the KHL comparable to the National Hockey League… it’s not as competitive and you can see that in the way [the Russians] played this tournament.”

Roenick on Alex Ovechkin: “In this tournament he was nonexistent.”

Milbury on the Russian national team: “This was representing their country in their backyards, with the president of the country sitting around waiting for them to do something special, and they laid a big fat egg.”

Dave Strader on Latvian goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis, who made 55 saves in 2-1 loss to Canada: “The story of the night has been a Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick of general manager Steve Yzerman, that’s almost ruined Yzerman and the Canadians’ Olympic experience.”

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