And now to help USA oriented sports fans and media, here are the USA Event Factsheets for the medal events concluding on 8 February. One event omitted is men’s snowboarding slopestyle, which finishes today but is a new event, and has no history or statistics to present to you.

• USA Biathlon – Men’s 10K
• USA Cross-Country Skiing – Women’s Skiathlon
• USA Freestyle Skiing – Women’s Moguls
• Speed Skating – Men’s 5K

OK, we just noted that 5 flagbearers in Sochi will be carrying their national flag for the 3^rd time at an Opening Ceremony. Does that equal the record? Not really. Five athletes have carried their national flag 4 times at the Opening Ceremony, but nobody has ever done it 4 times at the Winter Olympics. However, Spain’s Francisco Fernández Ochoa, an Alpine skiier, uniquely carried the Spanish flag 3 times at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies, and also carried at the 1972 München Opening Ceremony – at a Summer Olympics. 30 athletes have carried their national flag 3 times at an Olympic Games – 25 before tonite.

Here is the list of flagbearers carrying their national flag 4 times at the Olympic Games.

[table]

NOC,Athlete,Sport,Years

AUT,Hubert Raudaschl,SAI,1972/1984-88/1996

BEL,Gaston Roelants,ATH,1964-76

FSM,Manuel Minginfel,WLT,2000-12

TTO,Hasely Crawford,ATH,1972-84

ESP,Francisco Fernández Ochoa,ASK,1972(S/W)/1976-80

[/table]

OK, the flagbearers have been officially announced. There are 87 of them announced, as India, which will compete in these Games as Independent Olympic Athletes (IOA), will march under the Olympic Flag, so it seems they did not want to announce who will carry that flag.

No major surprises. As always, the majority of the flagbearers are former Olympic athletes – 52 of the 87 have competed at the Olympics previously. The 35 new Olympians to carry the flags are often from small countries, with only 1-2 competitors,  or nations competing in the Winter Olympics for the first time, such as Dominica, or Timor-Leste.

Five athletes will be carrying their nation’s flag for the 3^rd time at an Opening Ceremony – Albanian Erjan Tola, and Nepalese Dachhiri Sherpa both carried their flags in 2006 and 2010. Three athletes will be doing this for a third time, but not consecutively –Cristian Simari Birkner carried the Argentine flag in 2002 and 2010, the Mexican Prince Hubertus Von Hohenlohe carried his flag in 1994 and 2010, while Eva Tofalvi carried the Romanian flag in 2002 and 2010.

Several athletes will carry their national flag for a second time – Bermuda’s Tucker Murphy, Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Žana Novaković, the Cayman Islands’ Dow Travers, Kyrgyzstan’s Dmitry Trelevski, and Moldavian Victor Pînzaru.

There are a few interesting notes about flagbearers. Hanna Mariën will carry the Belgian flag. She has competed at the Olympics before, but only at the Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in the 4×100 relay at Beijing in 2008. Ivica Kostelić will carry the Croatian flag for the first time, but his sister, Janica, carried it three times at the Winter Olympics – 1998, 2002, 2006. And Todd Lodwick will carry the USA flag before competing in his 6^th Winter Olympics. Only three times has an Opening Ceremony flagbearer done so before competing in his 6^th Winter Olympics – Jochen Behle of Germany in 1998, Mike Dixon of Great Britain in 2002, and Finland’s Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi-Hämäläinen in 1994.

If you want to carry your nation’s flag, it’s a good idea to be an Alpine skiier, as fully 33 of the flagbearers will compete in that sport. Second on the sporting list is cross-country skiing with 15. Ski jumping brings up the rear with only multiple Olympic medalist Simon Ammann of Switzerland carrying a flag from that sport.

And here is the complete list of flagbearers. The order in the far right column denotes the order in which they will march into the stadium. This is done as follows: Greece is always first, the host nation is always last (Russia), and the others come in alphabetically, in the alphabet of the host nation, in this case, Cyrillic Russian.

[table]

NOC,Name,Sport,Sex,Order

Albania,Erjon Tola,ASK,M,5

Andorra,Mireia Gutierrez,ASK,F,6

Argentina,Cristian Simari Birkner,ASK,M,7

Armenia,Sergey Mikayelyan,CCS,M,8

Australia,Alex Pullin,SNB,M,2

Austria,Mario Stecher,NCO,M,3

Azerbaijan,Patrick Barchner,ASK,M,4

Belarus,Alexei Grishin,FRS,M,10

Belgium,Hanna Emilie Marien,BOB,F,11

Bermuda,Tucker Murphy,CCS,M,12

Bosnia & Herzegovina,Zana Novakovich,ASK,F,14

Brazil,Jaqueline Mourao,BIA/CCS,F,15

British Virgin Islands,Peter Crook,FRS,M,9

Bulgaria,Maria Kirkova,ASK,F,13

Canada,Hayley Wickenheiser,ICH,F,35

Cayman Islands,Dow Travers,ASK,M,34

Chile,Dominique Ohaco,FRS,F,82

China,Tong Jiang,FSK,M,38

Chinese Taipei,Sung Ching-Yang,SSK,M,69

Croatia,Ivica Kostelic,ASK,M,79

Cyprus,Constantinos Papamichael,ASK,M,36

Czech Republic,Sarka Strachova,ASK,F,81

Denmark,Lene Nielsen,CUR,F,24

Dominica,Gary Di Silvestri,CCS,M,25

East Timor,Yohan Goncalves Goutt,ASK,M,70

Estonia,Indrek Tobreluts,BIA,M,85

Finland,Enni Rukajarvi,SNB,F,77

France,Jason Lamy-Chappuis,NCO,M,78

Georgia,Nino Tsiklauri,ASK,F,23

Germany,Maria Hoefl-Riesch,ASK,F,21

Great Britain,Jon Eley,STK,M,17

Greece,Panagiota Tsakiri,CCS,F,1

Hong Kong,Pan To-Barton Lui,STK,M,22

Hungary,Bernadett Heidum,STK,F,18

Iceland,Saevar Birgisson,CCS,M,30

Ind. Olympic Athletes,,,,50

Ireland,Conor Lyne,ASK,M,29

Iran,Hossein Saveh Shemshaki,ASK,M,28

Israel,Vladislav Bykanov,STK,M,27

Italy,Armin Zoeggeler,LUG,M,32

Jamaica,Marvin Dixon,BOB,M,86

Japan,Ayumi Ogasawara,CUR,F,87

Kazakhstan,Yerdos Akhmadiyev,CCS,M,33

Korea,Lee Kyou-Hyuk,SSK,M,60

Kyrgyzstan,Dmitry Trelevski,ASK,M,37

Latvia,Sandis Ozolins,ICH,M,39

Lebanon,Alexandre Mohbat,ASK,M,40

Liechtenstein,Tina Weirather,ASK,F,42

Lithuania,Deividas Stagniunas,FSK,M,41

Luxembourg,Kari Peters,CCS,M,43

Macedonia  FYRO,Darko Damjanovski,CCS,M,16

Malta,Elise Pellegrin,ASK,F,44

Mexico,Hubertus Von Hohenlohe,ASK,M,46

Moldova,Victor Pinzaru,CCS,M,47

Monaco,Olivier Jenot,ASK,M,48

Mongolia,Byambadorj Bold,CCS,M,49

Montenegro,Tarik Hadzic,ASK,M,80

Morocco,Adam Lamhamedi,ASK,M,45

Nepal,Dachhiri Sherpa,CCS,M,51

Netherlands,Jorien ter Mors,STK,F,52

New Zealand,Shane Dobbin,SSK,M,53

Norway,Aksel Lund Svindal,ASK,M,54

Pakistan,Muhammad Karim,ASK,F,55

Paraguay,Julia Marino,FRS,F,56

Peru,Roberto Carcelen,CCS,M,57

Philippines,Michael Christian Martinez,FSK,M,76

Poland,Dawid Kupczyk,BOB,M,58

Portugal,Arthur Hanse,ASK,M,59

Romania,Eva Tofalvi,BIA,F,61

Russia,Alexander Zubkov,BOB,M,88

San Marino,Vincenzo Romano Michelotti,ASK,M,62

Serbia,Milanko Petrovic,BIA,M,63

Slovakia,Zdeno Chara,ICH,M,64

Slovenia,Tomaz Razingar,ICH,M,65

Spain,Javier Fernandez,FSK,M,31

Sweden,Anders Soedergren,CCS,M,84

Switzerland,Simon Ammann,SKJ,M,83

Tajikistan,Alisher Qudratov,ASK,M,67

Thailand,Kanes Sucharitakul,ASK,M,68

Togo,Mathilde Amivi Petitjean,CCS,F,71

Tonga,Bruno Banani,LUG,M,72

Turkey,Alper Ucar,FSK,M,73

US Virgin Islands,Jasmine Campbell,ASK,F,20

Ukraine,Valentina Shevchenko,CCS,F,75

United States,Todd Lodwick,NCO,M,66

Uzbekistan,Kseniya Grigoreva,ASK,F,74

Venezuela,Antonio Pardo,ASK,M,19

Zimbabwe,Luke Steyn,ASK,M,26

[/table]

• Speed Skating – Men’s 5,000 metres

• Freestyle Skiing – Women’s Moguls

• Cross-Country Skiing – Women’s Skiathlon

• Biathlon – Men’s  10 Kilometre

OK, the real action starts tomorrow, with 5 medal events being decided – men’s biathlon 10 km, women’s cross-country skiathlon, women’s freestyle skiing moguls, men’s snowboarding slopestyle, and men’s speed skating 5,000 metres.

We will start posting separate Events Factsheets on this blog in just a few minutes for those events – save slopestyle, which is a new event. These will give all the historical and statistical background anyone will need to understand the event and write a story about it, should you be so inclined.

We have already done Sports Factsheets for all the Winter Olympic sports. The Events Factsheets will contain information that was in those, but will actually have a lot more info for you.

Each morning during the Winter Olympics we will post these, and try to get them out the morning before the actual event concludes so that the media can have them for their stories.

The first Olympic Winter Games were held at Saint Moritz, Switzerland in 1928. What’s that you say? You thought it was at Chamonix, France in 1924? Hang on a second, and we’ll tell you why one can make a case that they actually started in 1928.

The history of the Winter Olympics is a bit complex actually. Pierre de Coubertin was not in favor in Winter Olympic Games, and opposed the idea. The concept started with the Scandinavians who started holding Nordic Games in 1901, and these are regarded as the “precursors to the Winter Olympics.” You can find out a lot about the Nordic Games and the origins of the Winter Olympics in this article by Ron Edgeworth – library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv2n2/JOHv2n2h.pdf‎. (A little disclaimer here – Ron Edgeworth is a pseudonym for the author of this post.)

Winter Olympic events were held at the 1908 Olympics in London, when figure skating was contested, and at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, when both figure skating and ice hockey were contested. The 1916 Olympics were scheduled for Berlin although they were never held because of World War I. Those Games also had skiing and skating events on their original program.

The leading figure in the history of the Nordic Games was Sweden’s Viktor Gustaf Balck, who was actually opposed to the idea of Winter Olympics, fearing that they would make his Nordic Games less significant, and in fact, this would happen, as the last Nordic Games would be contested in 1926.

The idea of holding winter sports at the Olympics is mentioned in IOC Sessions as early as 1909, and discussions about this concept are described going right up to the 1924 Chamonix competitions.

I say “Chamonix competitions” because they were never officially called Winter Olympic Games, although to be fair, most of the world’s press did describe them in that way. The working title of the 1924 Chamonix “Winter Olympics” was “Semaine internationale des sports d’hiver” (International Winter Sports Week). If you really want to get pedantic (and we do), their official title in the 1924 Official Report was “Les sports d’hiver organisés du vendredi 25 janvier au mardi 5 février 1924 à Chamonix – Mont Blanc par le Comité Olympique Français avec la collaboration de la Fédération Française des Sports et du Club Alpin Français sous le Haut Patronage du Comité International Olympique à l’occasion de la Célébration des Jeux de la VIII^me Olympiade.”

In May 1925 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) amended the Olympic Charter to allow for Olympic Winter Games. But the 1924 Chamonix International Winter Sports Week was never declared as the 1^st Olympic Winter Games by the IOC in the minutes of its sessions, although this has been felt to be an error of a secretary taking the minutes of the session in 1925, as the IOC has long recognized Chamonix as the 1^st Olympic Winter Games. Sorry, Saint Moritz.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will official open the 2014 Olympic Winter Games tonight at the Opening Ceremony – no surprise there as these Games have one man’s stamp on them, Putin, more so than any Olympics since Berlin in 1936.

Vladimir Putin is the current President of Russia, or the highest ranking official in the country. It is standard that Olympic Games are opened by the Head of State of the nation in which the Games are held, per IOC Protocol, although the IOC also contradicts itself by always stating that Games are awarded to cities and not countries. We’ll overlook that.

Since the Modern Olympic Games started in 1896 it has been rare that the nation’s Head of State did not open the Olympics. The United States has been famous for this, as in 1932 at Lake Placid and Los Angeles, 1960 at Squaw Valley, and 1980 at Lake Placid, the US President did not open the Games. In 1932 at Lake Placid it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who at that time was only Governor of New York state. The Los Angeles 1932 Olympics were opened by Vice-President Charles Curtis, as President Herbert Hoover declined to travel to Los Angeles because of his preoccupation with the world-wide depression. In 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower did not go to Squaw Valley, with those Games opened by Vice-President Richard Nixon – another Olympics at least opened by a future US President.

And famously, at Lake Placid in 1980, President Jimmy Carter refused to open the Winter Olympics, as he was pressuring the IOC to boycott the Moscow Olympics, and sent Vice-President Walter Mondale in his stead. Mondale also opened the IOC Session in Lake Placid and angered the IOC by his political speech in which he called for a boycott of Moscow.

Finally, in 1984 at Los Angeles, President Ronald Reagan broke the US “tradition” of not sending the President to the Opening Ceremony. US Olympics have since been opened by Presidents Bill Clinton (1996 Atlanta) and George W. Bush (2002 Salt Lake City).

Other than the USA situations, there has been only one other time at which a Head of State did not open an Olympics, and it did occur at the Winter Olympics. That was at the first Winter Olympics, at Chamonix in 1924, which were opened by Gaston Vidal (1888-1949), the French Under-Secretary for Physical Education, rather than French President Alexandre Millerand or Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré. But those first “Winter Olympics” were a bit odd in themselves – more on that in the next blog post.