NBC’s primetime coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games begins at 8 p.m. with live coverage of the men’s short track 1500m gold medal final and the women’s freestyle skiing moguls gold medal final. Also in primetime, the men’s alpine skiing downhill gold medal final. Apolo Ohno begins his quest to make history as the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian ever in the 1500m gold medal final, and Bode Miller looks to take home gold in the men’s downhill gold medal final. In women’s freestyle skiing moguls, returning U.S. Olympians Hannah Kearney and Shannon Bahrke compete for gold against defending Olympic gold medalist and event favorite Jenn Heil, who could win Canada’s first-ever gold on home soil.
Saturday’s coverage continues with the following:
NBC DAYTIME:
2006 Torino Winter Games gold medalist Shani Davis looks to capture his first Olympic gold medal of 2010 in the men’s speed skating 5000m gold medal final. Also competing for Team USA in the event is the reigning Olympic gold medalist Chad Hedrick.
NBC LATENIGHT:
Latenight features the women’s short track with the 3000m relay semifinals.
CABLE:
Live on CNBC is a double dose of women’s hockey as two-time defending gold medalist Team Canada takes on Slovakia and Sweden faces Switzerland.
Today’s highlights –
NBC
2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Men’s Speed Skating – 5000m Gold Medal Final (LIVE)
Ski Jumping – Individual K95 Gold Medal Final
Women’s Biathlon – 7.5km Sprint Gold Medal Final
8:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Men’s Short Track -1500m Gold Medal Final (LIVE)
Women’s Freestyle Skiing -Moguls Gold Medal Final (LIVE)
Moguls Competition (LIVE)
Men’s Alpine Skiing – Downhill Gold Medal Final
Midnight – 1:00 a.m.
Women’s Short Track – 3000m Relay Semifinals
500m Competition
Medals Plaza – Award Ceremonies
1:00 a.m. – 4:30 a.m.
Primetime Replay
CABLE
CNBC
3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Women’s Ice Hockey – Sweden vs. Switzerland (LIVE)
8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Women’s Ice Hockey – Canada vs. Slovakia (LIVE)
MSNBC
3:00 a.m. – 5:30 a.m.
Women’s Ice Hockey – Canada vs. Slovakia (replay)
NBC HIGHLIGHTS (Primetime):
Men’s Short Track: 1500m – Five-time Olympic medalist, who many viewers also remember as the 2007 Dancing with the Stars champion Apolo Ohno (Seattle, Wash.) begins his chase for history, LIVE tonight. The electrifying Seattle native needs two medals in Vancouver to become the most decorated Winter Olympian in U.S. history, and he skates for his first gold tonight LIVE in short track speed skating’s endurance event.
Men’s Alpine Skiing: Downhill – Two-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller (Franconia, N.H.) and a star-studded international field compete in alpine skiing’s fastest and most thrilling event, the men’s downhill. The setting is as spectacular as the ski racers – majestic Whistler Mountain, North America’s premier ski destination.
Women’s Freestyle Skiing: Moguls – LIVE coverage of the women’s moguls Gold Medal Final as former world champion Hannah Kearney of Norwich, Vermont goes for gold in her second Games, with 2002 Olympic silver medalist Shannon Bahrke (Tahoe City, Calif.) also returning. After four years of preparation, Olympic gold is decided by who’s the best over a run that lasts less than 30 seconds. This could also be a big night for the host country, seeking its first ever-gold medal at a home Olympics. Defending gold medalist Jenn Heil of Canada is a top contender.
NBC HIGHLIGHTS (Daytime):
Men’s Speed Skating: 5000m – Speed Skating star Shani Davis (Chicago, Ill.), who in 2006 made history as the first African-American athlete ever to win winter gold in an individual event, skates in the first of his four individual Gold Medal Finals LIVE. Team USA also features reigning Olympic gold medalist Chad Hedrick of Houston, who four years ago won gold as he made his Olympic debut in this event. In Vancouver, the USA will get its first look at 20-year-old Trevor Marsicano from Ballston Spa, NY, the 2009 world bronze medalist in this event. Dynamic Dutchman Sven Kramer is the gold medal favorite.
Ski Jumping: Individual K95 Competition – Switzerland’s Simon Ammann, the Harry Potter look-alike who shocked ski jumping by sweeping both individual gold medals in Salt Lake eight years ago, is again among the top competitors in the first ski jumping event of the Games, also the first gold medal of the Vancouver Olympics. But the new sensation is 20-year-old Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer, the wunderkind of the deep Austrian ski jump team. He could be in the mix for all three golds and has replaced retired alpine legend Hermann Maier as Austria’s most popular athlete.
NBC HIGHLIGHTS (Latenight):
Women’s Short Track: Relay and 500m Competition – The Winter Games’ most frenetic sport will keep you awake as short track’s female stars look to advance towards the Gold Medal Final. China’s Wang Meng is a dominant presence in the sport, but Team USA’s Katherine Reutter, a 21-year-old from Champaign, Ill., is on the rise and should be in the hunt.
CNBC HIGHLIGHTS:
Women’s Ice Hockey: No two medals mean more to the hockey-crazed host country than gold in men’s and women’s ice hockey. The Canadian women, winners of the past two Olympic golds, begin their quest for the ultimate prize vs. Slovakia LIVE.
Highlights for Sunday, February 14, include:
Sunday, February 14 (DAY 3)
NBC
1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Women’s Speed Skating – 3000m Gold Medal Final (LIVE)
Nordic Combined – Individual Gold Medal Final: K95 Jumping (LIVE)
10km Cross Country (LIVE)
Men’s Luge – Singles Competition (LIVE)
Men’s Biathlon – 10km Sprint Gold Medal Final (LIVE)
7:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Figure Skating – Pairs Short Program (LIVE)
Men’s Freestyle Skiing – Moguls Gold Medal Final (LIVE)
Women’s Alpine Skiing – Super Combined Gold Medal Final
Men’s Luge – Singles, Gold Medal Final
11:35 p.m. – 12:05 a.m.
Figure Skating – Pairs Post Game
Medals Plaza – Award Ceremonies
12:05 a.m. – 4:05 a.m.
Primetime Replay
Cable
USA
3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Women’s Ice Hockey – USA vs. China (LIVE)
CNBC
7:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Women’s Ice Hockey – Finland vs. Russia (LIVE)
MSNBC
3:00 a.m. – 5:30 a.m.
Women’s Ice Hockey – USA vs. China (replay)
NBC HIGHLIGHTS (Primetime):
Women’s Alpine Skiing: Super Combined Gold Medal Final – Twenty-five-year-old Lindsey Vonn (St. Paul, Minn.) makes her first of five appearances in the super combined, an event which combines the daring downhill with the serpentine slalom. Vonn, Team USA’s best-ever female skier and the top women’s skier in the world, is also the rare athlete who can compete in both the speed and technical events, and should be among the frontrunners in this event.
Figure Skating Pairs Short Program: The gold medal and sentimental favorites for the Olympic pairs competition are China’s Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo, who appear for the first time LIVE tonight. This married couple has won two Olympic bronze medals and is back in hopes of claiming the elusive gold. China has never won an Olympic figure skating gold medal -Russian or Soviet skaters have won gold in the past 12 Olympics (Canadians Jamie Sale & David Pelletier were co-Olympic gold medalists in 2002.)
Men’s Freestyle Skiing: Moguls Gold Medal Final- 22-year-old Patrick Deneen is the 2009 world champion in this event; where skiers must conquer car-sized bumps and gravity-defying jumps LIVE tonight. The Cle Elum, Wash. native has been skiing since he was 11 months old and helps his mother raise quarter horses when not competing.
NBC HIGHLIGHTS (Daytime):
Women’s Speed Skating: 3000m – Expect a LIVE cross-Atlantic clash as Canadians Kristina Groves and Cindy Klassen, a sentimental host country favorite and classic comeback story challenge the Czech Republic’s Martina Sablikova and the German duo of Stephanie Beckert and Daniela Anschuetz-Thoms.
Nordic Combined: Individual K95 Ski Jumping and 10km Cross Country – Team USA has never won a medal in nordic combined, in which athletes must combine the power and agility of ski jumping with the endurance and determination of cross-country skiing, but that could change today, LIVE. For the first time ever, Team USA has medal contenders with three world champions on the roster: 2009 world champions Bill Demong (Vermontville, N.Y.) and Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, Colo.), and 2003 world champion Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) who is in the midst of a remarkable comeback of his own with a strong pre-Olympic season.
Men’s Biathlon: 10 km Sprint Gold Medal Final – Imagine sprinting up 10 flights of stairs then trying to thread a needle. Welcome to the world of biathlon, where athletes must ski and shoot well if they want to win gold. And for the first time, Team USA has a surging medal contender in New York native Tim Burke, who grew up 30 miles from the Miracle village of Lake Placid. Norway’s “biathlon king” Ole Einar Bjoerndalen makes his first appearance of the Games. With nine Olympic medals to his credit, he needs four to become the most decorated Winter Olympian ever – and that is a realistic target at these Games.
NBC HIGHLIGHTS (Latenight):
Figure Skating: NBC’s figure skating experts break down the first night of figure skating and look ahead at what’s to come. Plus medal presentations and musical performances from the medal ceremonies.
USA HIGHLIGHTS:
Women’s Ice Hockey: Coached by 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hero Mark Johnson, the USA women’s hockey team is favored to meet Canada in the Gold Medal Final. But first up, they take on China, LIVE.
