2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Latest News, Photos, and Videos

There are less than 20 days until the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the first nominees for the Halfpipe and Slopestyle Skiing Team were announced this weekend at the Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix held at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah.

Time to meet the Halfpipe and Slopestyle Skiing Team: David Wise, Nick Goepper, Gus Kenworthy, Maddie Bowman, Bobby Brown, Keri Herman, Devin Logan, Aaron Blunck, Lyman Currier, Brita Sigourney and Angeli VanLaanen were the first skiers to be nominated to the team.

The full team roster will be released next week!

Both halfpipe and slopestyle will make their Olympic debut this year. Slopestyle’s goal is to perform the most difficult tricks while getting the highest amplitude off of jumps, with an emphasis on performing different types of tricks instead of doing one great trick repeatedly.

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Figure Skating Team share a giant hug out on the ice during Smucker’s Skating Spectacular following the 2014 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships held at TD Garden on Sunday night (January 12) in Boston, Mass.

The full team includes: Gracie Gold, Polina Edmunds, Ashley Wagner, Jeremy Abbott, Jason Brown, pairs Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir, Felicia Zhang and Nathan Batholomay, and ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani.

Olympian Scott Hamilton, who won gold at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, spoke with The Today Show about the Ashley and Mirai Nagasu controversy. Despite placing third at the US Nationals this weekend, Mirai was not chosen to represent the USA at the Sochi Olympics.

“The national championships aren’t the Olympic trials,” Scott shared. “The selection process for the Olympic Games goes on for a couple of years before the Olympic Games, so the nationals are a part of that process, but it’s not the process. So when you look at Ashley Wagner and what she’s done over the last two years, winning nationals twice, placing high enough in the world championships to allow three participants to go, she’s already earned her spot on the Olympic team.”

He added, “I like to see somebody earn their spot on the team, but Ashley kind of did that. Mirai, I adore. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, was to give her our traditional ice cream last night with her eyes full of tears. She’s devastated, and my heart bleeds for her. I’m so sad for her, but the reason we have three women going to the Olympics is because of Ashley Wagner.”

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Speed Skating team trials were held this past week in Park City, Utah and JJJ has the full list of athletes who are heading to Russia!

Shani Davis and Heather Richardson lead the long-track team which also includes Brittany Bowe, Lauren Cholewinski, Kelly Gunther, Maria Lamb, Sugar Todd, Anna Ringsred, Jilleanna Rookard, Jonathan Garcia, Tucker Fredricks, Mitch Whitmore, Brian Hansen, Jonathan Kuck, Emery Lehman, Joey Mantia and Patrick Meek.

“I think we’re pretty strong and really happy and satisfied with the team we’ve built,” U.S. national long-track coach Ryan Shimabukuro shared. “From a coach’s perspective, I think we’re taking one of our strongest teams to the Olympic Games.”

The short-track team is made up of Eddy Alvarez, Jessica Smith, Emily Scott, Alyson Dudek, J.R. Celski, Chris Creveling, Jordan Malone and Kyle Carr.

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics start on February 7th.

40+ pics inside… More Here! »

Team USA celebrates on the ice after a win over Team Canada at the Air Canada Centre on Monday afternoon (December 30) in Toronto, Canada.

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics prep game was the last in a series before the team’s announcement on New Year’s Day in Ann Arbor, Mich.

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics

“We had some very tough decisions, but we’re confident that we have assembled 21 players that will help us achieve our goal of winning the gold medal,” team general manager Reagan Carey shared after the announcement.

Team USA will first play against Finland on February 8th, kicking off the games in Russia.

Team USA members: Kacey Bellamy, Megan Bozek, Gigi Marvin, Michelle Picard, Josephine Pucci, Anne Schleper, Lee Stecklein (DEFENSEMEN), Alex Carpenter, Kendall Coyne, Julie Chu, Brianna Decker, Meghan Duggan, Lyndsey Fry, Amanda Kessel, Hilary Knight, Jocelyne Lamoureux, Monique Lamoureux, Kelli Stack (OFFENSE) and goaltenders Brianne McLaughlin-Bittle, Molly Schaus, and Jessie Vetter.

Can you believe there are only 40 days left until the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics?!

And earlier this month, the Team USA Luge team was announced during the Viessmann Luge World Cup event held at Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah. Meet them all below!

Women: Summer Britcher, 19, Erin Hamlin, 27, and Kate Hansen, 21.

Men: Aidan Kelly, 19, Chris Mazdzer, 25, and Tucker West, 18.

Doubles: Preston Griffall, 29, and Matt Mortensen, 28; Christian Niccum, 35, and Jayson Terdiman, 25.

Stay tuned to meet more of Team USA!

25+ pics inside of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Luge Team… More Here! »

Hilary Knight wears her Team USA uniform proud at the USOC 100 Days Out 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Celebration at Times Square on Tuesday afternoon (October 29) in New York City.

The 24-year-old athlete joined team mates Meghan Duggan and Julie Chu for the event.

Hilary and Meghan recently spoke with NHL.com about the upcoming Olympic games.

“We’re just elevating the game to a different level,” she shared. “We’re faster. We’re stronger. We’re bigger. We’re just focusing on getting ourselves better. It’s going to be exciting to watch us play and compete.”

15+ pics inside of Hilary Knight… More Here! »

And we’re back with even more Olympic hopefuls series for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics — and it’s figure skating this time around!

Did you know that figure skating originated in Finland some 4000 years ago? Figure skating in its current form started up in the mid-19th century and now has six common jumps — can you name them?

Be sure to click through our slideshow below to meet the women, men, pairs and ice dance hopefuls…