There wasn’t really a wolf wandering the halls in Sochi
Roaming Sochi wolf was a prank
Remember the video of the wolf U.S. Olympian Kate Hansen said she saw roaming around the hallway in the athletes’ village? Well, it was fake.
The supposed Sochi wolf is actually an American timberwolf mix, and his name is Rugby, according to CNN, and it was all just another prank from Jimmy Kimmel.
Kimmel admitted to the prank, filming the video and even got Hansen involved in the prank to post it on her Twitter and YouTube pages. Hansen joined Kimmel on his show Thursday night via Skype and admitted that once she posted the video it created quite the buzz in the village.
“Security started freaking out, because technically it was a breach. You know, athlete safety,” Hansen said. “It kind of went a little crazy here.”
U.S. Keeps Bieber
The U.S. men’s hockey team fell to Canada today in the semifinals, and now we supposedly get to keep Justin Bieber.
According to CBS Chicago, a billboard in Stokie, Ill. showed Bieber, U.S. hockey player Patrick Kane and Canadian hockey player Jonathan Toews – both Chicago Blackhawk players – and reads “Loser keeps Bieber.”
So, that happened.
U.S. Olympian makes history
History was once again made in Sochi on Friday when 18-year-old U.S. Olympian skier Mikaela Shiffrin took the gold medal in the Women’s Slalom, the youngest to ever do so.
Shiffrin finished 0.53 seconds faster than Austria Olympic veteran Marlies Schild, who has been a favorite of Shiffrin’s since childhood according to NBC.
Olympic athletes test positive for doping
The first cases of doping at the Sochi Olympics were discovered with just two days left in the Winter Games. German Biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Italian Bobsledder William Frullani were both kicked out of the games Friday after testing positive.
The Associated Press reported that the IOC declined to comment on the incidents. But, Sachenbacher-Stehle did make a statement, and was baffled about the positive result.
“I am going through the worst nightmare that you can imagine, because I am unable to explain at all how there could be a positive test,” Sachenbacher-Stele said.
Figure Skating judging controversy
Controversy sparked Thursday night when Russian figure skater Adelina Sotnikova shockingly won over reigning gold medalist Yuna Kim of South Korea and Italian Carolina Kostner.
USA Today reported that the controversy spotlighted the judging, and was even being compared to the figure skating judging controversy from the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. But the IOC was quick to respond and deny the judging scandal.
“I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams stated. “I think first off we have to see if there’s an official complaint, because the people concerned I’d assume would make a complaint and it would go to the federation. I’m not aware there’s been such a complaint and if there was they’d got through the federation. I don’t think it’s even happened yet. If it does that will be the first step to go through if there isn’t a credible complaint we wouldn’t take it any further.”
Women’s halfpipe pioneer honored by Sochi volunteers
Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke, who died in 2012 following a skiing accident, was remembered Thursday prior to the halfpipe finals. Sochi volunteers skied down the middle of the halfpipe in the shape of a heart to honor her and the impact she had on the sport.
Burke is known as a pioneer of the freestyle ski halfpipe event, and was considered to be a favorite in Sochi, which would have been her Olympic debut, before her accident. Burke also won four X-Games titles.
