Sochi Day Four: Five things to watch

If Gough reaches the podium, she will be the first Canadian to win a medal in luge. Tobias Hase/AP

1. Pairs short program: Riding momentum from Canada’s silver medal finish in the first-ever team figure skating event, the pairs teams will look to repeat their success in the pairs short program. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford will be medal favourites coming off an impressive performance at the Canadian nationals, though keep an eye on Dylan Moscovitch and Kirsten Moore-Towers who will be skating to Motley Crue’s “Micmacs.” No, seriously. 10 a.m. ET

2. Slopestyle redux: The Olympic debut of slopestyle is off to a great start, with an exciting battle for Sochi’s first medal taking place this past weekend on the snowboarding side, highlighted by a bronze for Regina’s Mark McMorris. On Tuesday, it’s the skiers’ turn, with four Canadians—Dara Howell, Yuki Tsubota, Kim Lamarre, and Kaya Turski—competing in qualifiers for a chance to appear in the women’s finals later three hours later. 1 a.m. ET

3. Pipe dreams: The men’s half-pipe event gets underway, headlined, as always, by the Flying Tomato, Shaun White, who withdrew from slopestyle to concentrate his efforts on his signature event. The focus leading up to the event has been on the quality of the half-pipe, which has been openly criticized by the athletes for its bumpy drops and less-than-ideal drop-in angles. American rider Danny Davis told Yahoo Sports: “All these kids, myself included, worked very hard to get here. And then the pipe is just no fun and boring…riding a crappy pipe and having to perform in it is the worst. It’s the Olympics. It should be flawless. What a lame showcase of snowboarding and what a lame way to treat the athletes.” 5 a.m. ET

4. Gough it up!: A medal will be awarded following the fourth and final run of women’s luge on Tuesday. Calgary’s Alex Gough, who earned a silver in the team event at the 2013 World Championships, currently sits in fifth with two runs remaining. On Monday she reached a top speed of 134.7 km/hr. So there’s that. 9:30 a.m.

5. Watch me soar: Women get their long-awaited go in ski jump, as the ladies normal hill individual event makes its Olympic debut. Atsuko Tanaka and Taylor Henrich compete for Canada. 12:30 p.m. ET

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