Winter Olympics TV schedule: What to watch Monday, Feb. 17
Winter Olympics TV: Check out the Ice Dancing, two-man bobsledding, women's hockey, and freestyle skiing aerials Monday.
If you were hoping to catch men's biathlon mass-start race and men's snowboardcross on Monday, you can follow in the footsteps of those Olympic athletes – and go take a nap.
Those two events were postponed until Tuesday due to snow fog. The warm Sochi weather is playing havoc with some events. But don't expect the ever-chill snowboarders to complain.
"This is standard for snowboarding and ski events. Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate," American snowboardcross rider Nate Holland told the Associated Press.
But the women's biathlon did get off on time, and (Spoiler Alert) Darya Domracheva of Belarus completed an unprecedented hat trick of Olympic gold medals in women's biathlon by winning the 12.5-kilometer mass start race on Monday. Domracheva also won the pursuit and individual race last week.
NBC will air tape-delayed afternoon broadcasts from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and a prime-time broadcast at 8 p.m. EST. Its affiliate networks, including NBC Sports, MSNBC, and CNBC, will broadcast events throughout the day, and all events can be live-streamed by cable subscribers at nbcolympics.com.
Two-Man Bobsled
On Monday morning (11 a.m EST), the final two heats of the two-man bobsled race will be broadcast live. American Steve Holcomb and brakeman Steve Langton were in third place headed into Monday's final heats, but Holcomb isn't optimistic about getting gold.
"The hometown guy is going to be tough to beat," Holcomb told USA Today. "It'll be tough, but it's possible (to catch Russian Alexander Zubkov). ... He's the most experienced driver on this hill. You can't sit there and expect him to make a mistake."
Figure skating
Free Dance portion of the Ice Dancing competition takes place Monday morning (10 a.m. EST), with high expectations that the gold medalists will come from the US or Canada. Meryl Davis and Charlie White of Team USA lead Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir by 2.5 points going into the last skate. The speculation before the event was that the battle would be for the bronze, between three or four pairs from Russia, Canada, and France.
Ski jumping
The men's team ski jumping competition will be held Monday afternoon (12:15 p.m. EST). This is event is held on the large hill and each team sends four jumpers. Austria is the traditional powerhouse, but Poland's Kamil Stoch has already won gold in both the large and normal hill events. But because this is a team event, depth matters. That means Japan could also be a team to watch.
Freestyle skiing aerials
Weather permitting, the finals of the men's aerials will begin at 12:30 pm Monday. The US has one competitor among the 12 finalists, Mac Bohonnon. The 18-year-old native of New Haven, Conn., who was named the World Cup rookie of the year this past season, is considered a long shot to metal in an event dominated by Belarus and China. Many pick the Chinese to take the gold.
Women's hockey
Spoiler alert: The US team beat Sweden 6-1 on Monday to reach the gold medal game in Sochi. Canada, the three-time defending champion, plays Switzerland (12 p.m. EST) in the semifinals. The winner of that match will play the US team on Thursday.