the sochi sisterhood.

normally, i love me some olympics.

but what with all the putin smarminess, homosexual persecution & dog slaughter,
i’ve been struggling with getting into the 2014 winter games.

sochi sisters to the rescue.

all i needed were a few infusions of awesome womanly athleticism –
& the norwegian men’s curling team’s pants –
& i’m hooked on russia. for the olympic duration, anyway.

here are some highlights from the first few days of the 2014 sochi winter olympics, grrrl-style:

irina rodnina co-lights ginormous olympic cauldron.
figure-skating legend irina rodnina co-lit sochi’s jurassic-scale olympic cauldron during friday’s opening ceremony with great goaltender vladislav tretiak. rodnina won three straight gold medals with two different partners at the 1972, ’76 & ’80 olympics. she also won ten consecutive world pairs titles, matching the spectacular sonja henie. tretiak won gold medals with soviet hockey teams in ’72, ’76 & ’84, & was the first russian-born player to enter the hockey hall of fame.

canadian [literal] sisters take top two spots in women’s moguls.
19yo justine dufour-lapointe beat the world’s best moguls skier to win the gold – while her 22yo sister chloe earned the silver – in saturday’s freestyle skiing ladies’ moguls finals. their other sister, 24yo maxime, finished 12th on her birthday eve.

ashley wagner’s “oh no you didn’t” face becomes huge sochi meme.
us figure skater ashley wagner, a 22yo virginian, gave a good performance in saturday’s team figure skating event, & she knew it. but apparently, the judges didn’t. the fourth-place score of 63.10 they gave wagner left her, well, a little disappointed. still, the us team earned bronze, & wagner earned a spot in internet history alongside us olympic gymnast mckayla maroney’s “not impressed” expression.

ireen wust is first openly gay athlete to medal.
dutch speedskater ireen wust, 27yo, became the first openly gay athlete to medal at the sochi games, winning gold in the 3,000 meters sunday. wust, who also won gold in vancouver and turin, is one of only seven openly gay athletes competing in sochi. wust will also compete in the 1,500 and 1,000 meater races.

jamie anderson wins gold in inaugural women’s slopestyle.
us snowboarder jamie anderson grabbed the gold in the first-ever women’s slopestyle event sunday. the 23yo californian joined fellow american sage kotsenburg, who had earlier gotten the gold in the men’s slopestyle.