Even though all signs point to the non-sporting side of the Sochi Winter Olympics being a farce — or worse, a potential terrorist heaven — to anyone not there enduring the awful accommodations, packs of wild dogs and apparent government surveillance, it should be the sports we’re thinking of. The US is sending a huge delegation of atheletes, almost 250 men and women from 38 (mostly Northern) states.
As you might expect, the squad is fairly thin when it comes to Floridians — in fact, there are only 3.
Speed skating
Speedskating
500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 5,000m Relay
from: Miami
Speedskating
500m, 1,000m, 1,500m
From: Ocala
Speedskating
1,000m, 1,500m
From: Ocala
…and they’re all speed skaters. I hope you guys like speed skating. Speed skating.
So, you want to root for something else having to do with Florida, but what are your options?
Well, hockey. Good old hockey.
The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning have several players each heading to Sochi to try and win gold.
Florida Panthers
Aleksander Barkov, Center (UPDATE: injured at tournament)
Finland
Tomas Kopecky, Right Wing (UPDATE: injured at tournament, status unknown)
Slovakia
Tampa Bay Lightning
Steven Stamkos, Center (injured, out of tournament)
Canada
Martin St. Louis, Right Wing (injury replacement)
Canada
Valtteri Filppula, Center (UPDATE: injured, out of tournament)
Finland
Sami Salo, Defense
Finland
Ondrej Palat, Left Wing
Czech Republic
Radko Gudas, Defense
Czech Republic
Richard Panik, Right Wing
Slovakia
Kristers Gudlevskis, Goaltender (minor leaguer)
Latvia
The 2014 Winter Olympics begin tonight on NBC and nbcolympics.com.
This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2014.