The first Sochi 2014 Olympic champions to be named today

Snowboarder from Canada Maxence Parrot features good chance to obtain the first Sochi medal. The athlete dominated the qualifiers Thursday and goes into Saturday's inaugural slopestyle finals as favorite. Russian Alexey Sobolev will also compete.

In cross-country's women's skiathlon there's a chance to see 2010 archrivals Marit Bjoergen of Norway and Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk slug it out again. Russia will be presented by Yulia Chekalyova, Olga Kuzyukova, Natalya Zhukova and Irina Khazova, Vancouver bronze medalist.

In the speed skating Dutch dynamo and five-time world champion at the distance Sven Kramer is gunning to defend his Olympic title. Russia has good chances for medals with Ivan Skobrev who won bronze medal in Vancouver and 1500 m world champion Denis Yuskov.

The first shots will be fired in the battle for biathlon golds too where France's Martin Fourcade and Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen should both do well. Russian fans will support Evgeny Ustyugov, Dmitry Malyshko, Anton Shipulin and Evgeny Garanichev.

There is also women's moguls where defending champion Hannah Kearney topped the qualifying round. Breathing down her neck are the three Dufour-Lapointe sisters Chloe, Justine and Maxime, 2nd, 3rd and 8th respectively. Russian Regina Rakhimova has already been qualified to compete in the final.

The women’s hockey tournament starts today with the USA-Finland and Canada-Switzerland matches.