Chuck Culpepper is on the ground in Sochi and seems to be filing around the clock for Sports on Earth. Sochi is loaded with sports scribes for the Games, but Chuck is a rare animal, he’s a gay sports writer. Just after the 2013 Super Bowl he came out (to his readers) in a very personal and thoroughly enjoyable column:

In my offbeat life, I have clomped my klutzy size-13 shoes in two worlds you might call disparately disparate. On six continents I have hung around excellent gay people who find sports an unappealing mystery and look flabbergasted at my interest. I have hung around excellent sportswriters who would never stray near a gay bar unless they wandered too far down Bourbon Street at a Final Four. The gay people seldom ask about the sports people, and the sports people seldom ask about the gay people.

Chuck has been humping it double extra overtime covering the action in Sochi but he was able to carve out some time to do a Q&A with us. If you don’t follow him on twitter, shame on you. You’re missing one of the best sports feeds there is, gay or straight.

How did you come to cover sports from so many different locations? What’s personally and professionally  rewarding for you about that jet-setting life?

It all came about piecemeal. I always did love the foreign assignments – Barcelona ’92, Sydney ’00, Athens ’04, Wimbledon, etc. – and my former and wondrous employer, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, once sent me to Europe for a slew of summertime events (1998) simply because they knew I loved all the roaming.

Still, this habit accelerated after I became one of those “love exiles” (foreign same-sex partner – Colombian in my case – and no immigration rights to live legally in the U.S.). My Other Half and I, somewhat excited but pretty much scared to shards, moved to London in 2006, with no job and no flat at the time. After that my travel became more varied with more regions, and from there I became addicted to frontiers, through a Los Angeles Times contract in London and especially a subsequent two-year job in Abu Dhabi.

For whatever reason, maybe because I came from a small (Virginia) town and remain grateful for this unforeseen path, I have never tired of boarding jets. I still love when they aim airborne. I still get excited about flight routes. I still take photos of screens that show the destination or never-before-seen airlines parked at the terminal. (I saw an Air Madagascar at Guangzhou!) I still can’t believe when I’m going from Bangkok to Seoul or Dubai to Guangzhou or Amsterdam to Cape Town or Amman to Addis Ababa or New York to Austin. This will to roam has gathered rather than receded. It seems to be getting worse. When I was riding around the Auckland, New Zealand, harbor while covering the Volvo Ocean Race (sailing) race in March 2012, I already had been at this wandering for a long time, yet still kept looking around thinking, I cannot believe this . . . I cannot believe this . . . I cannot believe this . . .

You’ve been to so many places. What, if any, are some of the lessons or trends that tend to ring true from place to place, culture to culture?

Here’s one: I find the vast majority of earthlings are just trying to struggle through the day.

And here’s one: I grew up thinking it a nice world with hard pockets; now I think it’s probably a hard world with nice pockets.

And: There’s so much more beauty to see than I ever realized, so that the whole total of desired sights becomes intimidating; how will I get to everything? (Did anybody ever tell us of the beauty and grace of, say, Oman? Isn’t it something we could get through entire childhoods without hearing of Iguazu? How did I go all the way to Auckland and miss the glowworm tour?)

And (but this line belongs to Bertrand Russell): All sin is geographical.

And: I’m overwhelmed by the overwhelming prevalence of English; just yesterday, a young Russian woman told me she finds it a problem when young Russians can’t speak English.

And: The common refrain of the United States as “greatest country in the world,” coming even from political figures at campaign rallies, doesn’t help us. It’s pointless and ill-mannered and quite possibly damaging to our motivation. What do they give you for that, anyway, the BCS trophy?

I remember traveling in Russia in the early 90’s; it wasn’t very tourist-friendly, or friendly in general. What’s Russia seem like these days and how were you received on arrival?

A dear (media) friend and I were talking about how this might be the most inscrutable Olympics we’ve known, the one on which we have the least grasp of the setting. (I’ve been to four foreign Olympics; he has been to six.) The wonderful young volunteers give a bright and hopeful picture of the Russian future, but even though they hail from all over the country, the fact is we’re in a resort, and resorts don’t tend to give real pictures.

But, same as for you, it’s not a chirpy-friendly place in general. I have a longstanding habit of smiling at people; about 10 percent smile back here as opposed to, say, the Philippines, where everyone smiles back. There’s that sense of some deep and unknowable reality here, something beyond the visible reticence or sullenness, as if the people have a much better read on us than we do on them. The very-oft-quoted Churchill line on Russia – “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside in enigma” – has come to make sense after my scientific sample size of, what, 17 days now.

You often mine out humor of the stories you cover – whether it’s the venue, the competition or the athlete. What strikes you as funny about Sochi so far?

I think it’s funny they had all these loud, graphic problems with people checking into their living quarters (especially the stray dog in one room), and that they’ve still been doing work in the hallways where I stay, but that the buses and so much else have run with excellent efficiency. (I’ve had two long bus waits the entire time.)

I suppose it’s funny that, with Vladimir Putin present, they got a hockey goal disallowed in the third period on home ice (even as I don’t root for anybody when I go to games).

I definitely think the demanding questions posed to the men’s hockey coach are funny as they come into my earphones through the interpreter, because they remind me there’s pressure to win in so many pockets of the world.

I think it’s funny what Martin Rogers of Yahoo! wrote, that the young women here don’t so much fancy the men because the men smoke and drink too much and don’t tend to want to talk to the women.

I suppose the divide between the older Soviet-era Russians and the young is funny, because I can just see Putin et al signing off on having t.A.T.u., the female duo who once played lesbians in a video, play before the Opening Ceremony. What a moment that must have been.

When you came out, you found a lot of support. What if anything did you hear from athletes who you either know or cover? Are you treated differently now?

I have hopscotched for a long time now, so that issue applies to me less than it would, say, a beat writer for a certain team, or a columnist who works principally a certain city. The difference I notice is in myself.

Only after writing that column did I realize that for years, decades, I had gone to stadiums – my principal workplace! – with that vague fear of the unknown. This had dissipated with time, of course, but I realize it had spent a lot of time swirling in me: What might happen to me? Who might use this against me in some way? To have that fear removed was to comprehend it had been both present and powerful in a way I’d barely noticed. How strange.   There was plenty of disagreement whether gay and lesbian athletes should compete, withdraw, protest or say nothing about Russia’s anti-gay “propaganda” laws while in Sochi. What do you think?

We have a historic lesson sitting right there and shouting at us about how well withdrawal works. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow had no effect on the Soviet war in Afghanistan, which wore on until 1989. It failed in every sense including fairness to the American athletes. I view that, among other things, and I think you engage. I’m in line with the Elton John approach, which is that you do a lot more good by going and doing your concert (even though I never do concerts) than by staying away in a huff even when the huff has merit.

There has been little chatter about it here, very little in the way of stances from athletes. When the great Bruce Arthur in the National Post (Canada) wrote of a Canadian snowboarder who did speak out about the various real-life issues involved here (including the anti-gay-propaganda law), it came as a reminder that, Oh, yeah, we’re in a bubble. I went to the beautiful gay club – doorman, just to make sure: “This is a gay club” – and wrote about a gay male Russian living in the U.S. but who used to live near Sochi, and he said the anti-gay-propaganda law will change in 20 years, that it’s an old Soviet relic, that gay life in Russia is good generally.

My feelings go in three directions here: respect for the choice of any athlete of any orientation who chooses not to address it here, big respect and wishes for future benefit for anyone who does speak out, and boundless gratitude toward athletes such as the American figure skater Ashley Wagner for her beautiful candor.

Have protests ever accomplished anything during Olympics or other large, global sporting events?

Nobody can measure it, but I think Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ famous Black Power gesture on the medal stand at Mexico City 1968 did help.

You recently wrote about social problems in Russia, and in Brazil and Qatar also. Why are these massive international events occurring in places like this – where they invite controversy?

I’m curious where all this will go from here. Certainly there has been a sentiment and a push to bring these events to fresh places, and the tears of Brazilian President Lula at the choice of Rio de Janeiro 2016 stated how much the world’s confidence can mean. When Qatar won the World Cup for 2022, I thought it healthy to take the world’s biggest event to an entirely new region and let the cultures mingle even though, just myself, I’d much rather go to a country with a lot more debauchery (such as Brazil).

Still, maybe there’s a sense the IOC, FIFA et al are tiring of the range of distracting issues – Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 – and wish to return to places more politically or economically pristine. Many thought that premise helped boost Tokyo to the 2020 Summer Games (and as a metropolis-lover, I salute that one), and I’d give a careful look to whether the 2022 Winter Games to go Oslo, as they should given a city with so many venues in place and a country that assembled one of the greatest Olympics ever in 1994.

What’s a normal day going to look like for you in Sochi? What events are you zeroing in on?  How often will you file?

There’s limited sleep. I will barely get any rest at the time while I’m here, but thanks to this this queen size mattress. I’m bringing along is going to put me to sleep right away. There are two columns per day, usually, sometimes three. And it’s a privilege to cover this. I’m really into hockey (especially the plight of the homestanding Russians), Mikaela Shiffrin (the impressive 18-year-old American slalom skier), and, above all, the internationalism. I love going to figure skating and feeling first-hand the Russian knowledge and heritage and zeal for that sport.

The truth for me is, though, there’s something interesting at every venue. Having gone to biathlon the first day, I’m still amazed at how the biathletes crumple to the snow in near-death once they cross the finish.

How will the LGBT controversy in Russia impact your coverage?  How do you think it will impact coverage for other outlets? Are rights holders under different pressures?

Once the competitions get rolling at any Olympics, the whole thing always carries away your previous life. I no longer remember who I was on February 1. It’s a zone, a bubble, a corridor, whatever. The events, the athlete bios, the storylines, all of it, pushes aside bigger issues for two weeks. That might be part of the point, still.

Before this Olympics, I thought it presented the biggest coverage puzzle I’d ever seen for an event. It took me a while to formulate my approach. I don’t think we help gay Russians by barging in here and sneering. I don’t think we help gay Russians by coming in and letting the issue override the Games. I’ve written one full column here about the LGBT controversy, have mentioned it in two or three other columns and will write on it at least once more. I’m trying to find the right balance on the outside chance it might just help a little bit somehow.

How do you see social media playing a role – via fans, athletes or media? Are you 24/7 on social? Are you under any restrictions?

I am about 12/3.5 on social. I try to stay off it while watching an event although I couldn’t resist during U.S.-Russia men’s hockey. The Olympics bring that rare case where you attend an event (Olympics) but miss most of it (all the sports you’re missing when you choose to watch any one), so there are events I’ve followed by Twitter.

I know of no restrictions, although I did avoid raciness – self-censor, I guess – in my column on how the idea of having the Russian government spy on us in our rooms does have its positives (such as that I was going to stop at 80 pushups one day but, thinking someone might be watching, continued to 100).

What are people talking about in Sochi when it comes to LGBT issues. (Even though it seems brown), what’s the water cooler chatter among the athletes, journalists, officials and fans?

Naturally, I’m among media people often. The needle has moved a bit there until it seems a foregone conclusion that the anti-propaganda law is atrocious. This still amazes me in some way. I never expected to live in this kind of supportive environment.

We do feel set apart from the actual citizens, with the language only part of it. I have heard of Russian gay people feeling grateful for our support and of Russian gay people feeling weary of it because it might bring them unwanted attention, and I have talked to Russian gay people who say their life here is good. The club is wonderful; I’m hoping to have enough energy in the tank to return on the weekend.

Every major international sports event, we seem to have an argument about whether politics belongs in sports or not. Does it? Can or should that issue ever be laid to rest?  If so, how?

It can’t and shouldn’t, I would say. I think we’re always chattering, trying to find that balance somewhere. I often do think covering sports is sort of a window into everything: politics, physiology, sociology, art, psychology and, of course, pharmacology.

Have you ever gone back to an Olympic venue years later and witness the Game’s legacy first-hand?  Where do you see Sochi in 2024 or 2034?

That’s a marvelous question. I find a distinct melancholy in visiting old Olympic sites, either because of my memories (if I went) or my perceptions (if I didn’t go). I once went to the site of the 1976 Montreal Summer Games, and it just looked so silent, as did Munich (1972). Sometimes in Atlanta I comb through that Olympic area and barely even think about the Olympics.

But if that can happen in mighty Barcelona, it can happen anywhere, I guess, and in the summer of 2012 I went back to the site of the first Olympics I covered, to Montjuic, the hill above the city and the zone that staged so many events in that spectacular Olympics of 1992. I savored the view again. I paid 10 euros and swam in the pool that held the Olympic swimming. I also felt just a little sad at the relative tranquility.

THANKS CHUCK!  SAFE TRAVELS!

God, Jesus, Buddha, and Vishnu sat around a table, watching hockey. They loved it, but Buddha turned to God and said, “What if we took the NHL, and just blew it up! All new teams, like a fantasy draft, but for real. And we’ll add in players from the other best hockey leagues in the world, too, like the KHL and the Elitserien!” And ye, God did look upon Buddha and say, “That’s a bitchin’ idea, Buddha, but let’s pair them up by country so they care super hard.”  And so there was Olympic hockey.

Meet the New Boss – Team USA

Oh what a difference four years makes. Like a wide-eyed freshman unsure how to pronounce “Jagermeister,” Team USA’s 2014 roster has matured into a big, bold, burly upperclassman. They were the underdogs in Vancouver, for reasons broader than cartographic geography. They still bore the scent of that Miracle team: scrappy, with far fewer marquee names than big, bad, Hollywood Team Canada. Call it fifty shades of Eruzione. And so when they lost the gold medal, or won the silver, depending on time of day and who you ask, it was a bittersweet bite from a fruit called “Crosby.” No one expected a silver medal, to have the United States officially named the second-best hockey team in the world. It was, in all senses, a victory. But this time…

But this time things are different. That steam whistle you hear playing “God Bless America” is the sound of a red white and blue freight train headed straight for Sochi. While respectable, competitive teams like Slovakia and the Czech Republic field two or three NHLers and a host of KHL and domestic heroes, Team USA features an entire roster of all-stars from the top hockey league on earth. One goal on Sunday against Slovenia credited the goal and both assists to NHL team captains. This is not your father’s cold war hockey team. These are monsters, and they’re on our side for once.

Just listen, as the shepherd hark’ed upon the herald angels: Kane. Kessel. Callahan. Kesler. Carlson. Quick. Oshie. Orpik. Pavelski. Backes. Brown. Et glorious al. Our backup goalie? Ryan Miller. With notable (and laughably Detroit) injuries to Sweden’s Henrik Zetterberg and Russia’s Pavel Datsyuk, the latter still operating on a tetrademensional plane of hockey val halla DESPITE his injury, Team USA is poised to duke it out with Canada for a syrupy apology-laden gold medal.

Team Canada is Un-Eh-Voidable

And speaking of things that go “sorry” in the night, Team USA’s yellow brick road runs straight through Los Provinces. Team USA’s Wednesday quarterfinal opponent will be the Czech Republic, who lost to lowly, Lindt’y Switzerland 1-0 in group play. Assuming the United States dispatches these pretenders, they would face the winner of Canada vs. Latvia – who cares, they’re playing Canada in the semifinals.

Of course, in Vancouver the gold medal game saw Sidney Crosby score in overtime to give Team Canada the win, and as I ironically drank myself to death on Crown Royal and Molson and muttered the fevered nonsense of a madman,”Not him, god, not him, why,” what I felt was not injustice, but the cold hard wallop of reality. The better team had won.

But hell, if you want to exorcise some demons, we can get a P90X class going this year. Team USA’s path to gold could feasibly go through both Canada and, on their own ice, Russia. I want that more than I want just about anything.

What Yay’s in Sochi Stays in Sochi

I do feel a bit like a cheating boyfriend, however. I hate Brooks Orpik with every fiber of my being. I hate him down to my gooey nougat core. He’s a Penguin and for that he must die. But, damnit, he’s an American, and I cheer for him when he has the puck.

It’s an almost voyeuristic joy to relish in this once-in-a-leap-year opportunity to hear the fantastic, the faerie Emrick echo of “Malkin to Ovechkin, over to Datsyuk!” or “Sidney Crosby across to Rick Nash!” It’s the kind of thing I hope to be greeted with when I die. And so I indulge, and I shut the blinds, and I lock the doors, and I cheer for a defenseman from the Penguins and a forward for the Rangers and I thank god over and over that I’ll never have to root for Sidney Crosby.

Sweet Jerseys, or, “Uni-Bombin'”

On a less geopolitical note, one of the best parts about Olympic hockey is the jerseys. Sweden rocks a minimalist three-crown logo that looks like the letterhead of an offshore banking firm. Russia’s away jerseys feature a chess piece undergoing the final stage of cell mitosis, and Slovenia snuck into the Seahawks trash bin and took the left overs.

I bought a knock-off 1960 Team USA hockey jersey when I lived in China. I bartered down real cheap, and told the shop keeper I didn’t give a damn where it was made. I got it home, and the crest on the chest, right about the “U” in U-S-A, did not say “USA.” It said “ANUS.” I guess that’s what I get.

The Czech Republic plays Team USA on Wednesday in Sochi. Let’s hope that what so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming will, through the perilous fight, still be gallantly streaming.

So I thought I’d chime in on a few timely Olympics issues while my now two different half-written Habs articles simmer just a little while longer.

First, the gays. You know, the one group of people that could’ve helped Putin put on an opening ceremony that didn’t remind everyone of a 1980s themed Las Vegas-on-the-Volga head-scratcher. I’m glad that the more enlightened countries of North America and Western Europe didn’t, in the end, boycott the games. That would have been a big slap in the face to Putin but it wouldn’t have changed anything for gays in Russia. It would’ve denied all the athletes a chance to compete on a televised world screen though and would’ve seriously cut down on mid-winter lycra-wrapped eye-candy on my TV set.

The fact that many nations, in particular and in a very-in-your-face way the US, did not send any high level, A-list politicians or celebrities to Sochi in an official capacity was a big cuff upside the head to Putin. And that, along with Obama outright spelling it out in numerous speeches, was about as effective as a boycott would’ve been. Message sent. From a US President no less. But nothing would or will deter Putin.

Lost in this all to some but not all is the amazing facts that in 2014 gay rights are an international issue in a big way (not an afterthought or minor detail) and, on top of that, are also being referred to in any way connected to sports other than figure skating. These are big changes. Another milestone. Though I’m more of the kind of gay guy who’s all for smashing down the closet door and letting the unicorns roam free under rainbow dappled skies RIGHT NOW things just don’t move that fast in Russia. They never have. Remember, it took them over 70 years to figure out that authoritarian communism was not such a great idea after all.

So, except for actually dropping nuclear bombs on Russia, I don’t think there was or is any way to convince Russia to change it’s draconian anti-gay laws. Let the games go on. And, in any case, after a few days of games it’s not like Russia is either getting a lot of medals so far or getting very good press about Sochi accommodations or snow conditions. Given that the US didn’t boycott the 2002 Salt Lake games despite Utah’s equally medieval anti-gay laws the whole boycott of Sochi would’ve just fallen flat on it’s hypocritical face. Unless you are going to go all out and do an embargo – think Cuba or Iran – a boycott has little effect.

On a lighter note, there is also the issue of which team I’m cheering on. This is as simple for me as complex as it may seem. I’m American but I used to live in Montreal. I’ve lived in New England and Quebec almost all of my life. I’m a Habs fan. Plus I can practically see Canada from my bedroom window (if the earth wasn’t round and all). Put that all in a blender and… I’m cheering on athletes from New England and Quebec. There are a lot of skiers and some skaters and other athletes competing in these games from my region. Screw the international border or feverish nationalism (the 3rd biggest cause of wars after religion and money).

My region is doing better than yours! So far a bunch of gold medals in Free Style Skiing from Quebec athletes and medals in other disciplines for New England athletes.

And in men’s hockey: It’s Team Canada all the way, baby! Why Team Canada?

Well, if you want me to be pedantic (moi?) I just can’t support a team that represents a country with so many states that repress gay rights. I’m talking about the US. Boycott USA! Does that make any sense? No, of course it doesn’t. So, fortunately I have some better reasons:

Because I can easily admit I secretly like and look forward to embracing Sidney Crosby every 4 years and there is no way in hell I could not support Carey Price and PK Subban. I realize they are not from my home region, but they play for my home team. Plus I think Team Canada is going to win and who doesn’t want to support a winner?

Team Canada got off to a great start today by besting Norway 3-1. Weber, Benn and Doughty found the twine while Carey Price looked good. Next up, Austria on Friday at 12noonET, Luongo will be in net for the good guys and hopefully PK is in the line up.

Ultimately, I support any team that keeps Russia from winning hockey gold. Defeating Russia for hockey gold is just about the biggest pee-pee whacking you can give Putin. And there’s a very good chance that’ll happen, unlike any chance that Putin can be pressured to change his mind on gay rights.

No, what I’m angry about is the fact that there are red, white and blue-blooded Americans out there rooting for other countries! There are people from Pittsburgh rooting for Canada. Pittsburgh is a city where the British and American troops kicked those crazy French Canadians out, and renamed Fort Duquesne to something easier to pronounce.

Worse still are the people from our nation’s capital rooting for Russia. Russia! That would never have happened 30 years ago. How quickly these people forget. Can you imagine someone from DC rooting for the CCCP against the young college-aged Americans in 1980? Unless that person was a KGB sleeper agent, no such Americans existed in 1980.

We’ve become too attached to hockey players, and we’ve lost a grasp on our own nationalism. This is ‘Merica, for cryin’ out loud! We’re the greatest country in the whole world. American teams have won the Stanley Cup each of the last 20 years. In Abraham Lincoln speak, that’s a score!

Where has our pride gone? Team USA came so close to gold four years ago, and they have a good shot to do it again this year. We have a great group of goalies on the roster, some great defenders like Brooks Orpik and talented forwards like Patrick Kane and Bobby Ry—oops.

Okay, the USA roster isn’t that great. But still, I’ll be cheering my heart out for the good ol’ US of A. I’m a Penguins fan, so yeah, I’ll be cheering especially for Orpik and Paul Martin. But my Penguins fandom won’t brainwash me into cheering for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin or Olli Maata.

In the words of Herb Brooks, “Screw ‘em!”

I’m actually looking forward to hating Sidney Crosby for a few weeks. Only once every four years do I get to feel what it’s like for fans of the other 29 NHL teams. (Fun story: I watched the 2010 gold medal game at the house of a die-hard Flyers fan…you don’t know Crosby-hatred until you’ve seen his reaction to that game).

I’m especially looking forward to rooting against Russia—for obvious reasons—and because Malkin is just so darn likeable. It’s fun to cheer against likeable people for a few days, just to further my own sense of nationalism.

If you’re from America, you root for America. If you’re from Canada, you root for Canada. If you have dual citizenship, you should probably root for Switzerland. I don’t care what country your favorite player is from.

Oh wait…Gabe Landeskog plays for Team Sweden? Umm…okay, go Sweden!

Billy will be offering guest posts on figure skating during the Olympics. Don’t be a lutz, follow him here on Twitter @waflanagan, or face his Death Spiral!

Hello Hockey Fans! I’m Billy Flanagan, and I’ve been asked to write about figure skating during the Sochi Olympics for you all. A brief bit of background on me – I was a competitive figure skater for about 11 years growing up, and though the participatory part of my involvement in the sport has ended, my interest (obsession?) continues. In fact, I hauled my ass up to Boston from DC in January to watch this year’s National Championships (which is where the Olympic team was named) in person. But enough about me, let’s talk about figure skating.

Figure skaters. Long the bane of the hockey player’s existence – having to split ice time, and getting in your way on open ice sessions. There are many stereotypes regarding figure skaters – the sequins, the drama, the sabotaging other skaters (and that’s just the men!) – some of which I hope to dispel in these posts. There are skaters from every background competing in Sochi, so whether you’re into tall guys, short guys, Asian guys, black guys, twinks, bears, girls(?!) or anything in between, you’re sure to find someone to fit your fancy (and chances are they’ll be wearing tight pants – who doesn’t like that).

The Olympics are figure skating’s big show. Once every four years, the general public actually pays attention to the sport and everyone needs a little refresher course on how things work.

In Sochi, we’ll see the four traditional skating events – ladies’, men’s, pairs, and ice dance – plus a new event, the team competition where skaters from each discipline join efforts to win medals for their country. Each event involves both a short program (which has 8 required elements – jumps, spins, and footwork – and is 2-2 ½ minutes in length) and a free skate (which has less stringent guidelines on elements and lasts between 4 and 4 ½ minutes each). I’ll break them down in the order that the events will occur in Sochi. To stay abreast of all the events, here’s the NBC skating broadcast schedule and athlete information page. The links below will take you to the official Sochi events pages.

The team competition actually starts on the day before the Opening Ceremonies, February 6, with short programs by the pairs and men. With everyone getting the day off on Opening Ceremonies day, the competition heats up again on Feb. 8, with the pairs skating their free programs and the ladies and ice dancers doing their short programs. Medals will be awarded on the 9th following the men, ladies and ice dance free programs. Watch for the US, Canada, and Russia to vie for the medals in the team competition, since those three countries have the strongest all-around programs.

The pairs event is the first to hit the solo stage. If you like seeing girls thrown 20 feet into the air while twisting 3 or 4 times, along with pretty spectacular lifts, this is the event for you. The Russian team of Tatiana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankov (below, quite a looker) are the front-runners and could very well set new world records for score in this event.

The German pair of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy (below, also a looker!) will challenge them for gold; the Canadians and Chinese will also be vying for podium spots.

Javier Fernandez

The men take the ice next. The favorite going in is Canadian Patrick Chan, the defending world champ. Expect quadruple jumps (where a skater jumps in the air and rotates four times before landing on one foot) to play a central role – the guy that lands them cleanly will rise to the top. Other medal challengers will come from Japan (Yuzuru Hanyu, Tatsuki Machida, and Daisuke Takahashi) and Spain (Javier Fernandez, who is cute as a button), with outside possibilities of medals from the Russians and Americans.

The much-maligned ice dancers are next up, but this Olympics, the US team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White (she of the Belle-the-Disney-princess looks, he of the adorably-floppy hair) are favored for gold!

If they win, it would be the first-ever gold for the US in ice dancing (they already have a silver medal from the 2010 Vancouver games). While you won’t see the spectacular overhead lifts and throws that you see in pairs, you’ll see intricate footwork, lifts that spin like a top, and some pretty amazing costumes. Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the defending Olympic champs, are really the only ones who could challenge Davis and White for gold.

Yuna Kim

Last, but certainly not least, comes the marquis event for figure skating – the ladies. It’s shaping up to be a rematch from Vancouver, with South Korea’s defending gold medalist Yuna Kim going up against Japan’s defending silver medalist Mao Asada. This is by no means a two-woman show, however… There are two ladies from Russia (Julia Lipnitskaia and Adelina Sotnikova), two more from Japan (Akiko Suzuki and Kanako Murakami) and two from the US (Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold) with legitimate shots at the podium, along with former world champion Carolina Koster from Italy.

There you have it, hockey fans! No, there won’t be any board checks, and not a single goal will be scored, but there will be some excellent skating and some very close contests (and some really nice butts). Enjoy the action on the other rink!

“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.” Coco Chanel

OK, we’ll play to type and fulfill the obvious stereotype – style is important to us. Among the things we have in common with straight boy hockey fans, is getting absolutely giddy when new jerseys are unveiled. We like hockey jerseys so much, we incorporated them into our header. (See if you can spot the hidden, magic gay rainbow!).

We’re going to weigh in later this week with our critique of the Sochi hockey unis, but we thought it was important to talk to an expert first. Chris Smith of icethetics is the go-to guy for rink jerseys and logos. He was good enough to answer some questions for us and tease us a bit – his full ranking of the Sochi sweaters hits on February 1st. Can’t wait. THANKS, CHRIS! Follow him on twitter here.

1. What are the qualities that make for a great hockey sweater, especially for the Olys?

What an impossible question to answer. Obviously it varies for everyone. For me, it needs to be distinctive. A jersey should be recognizable at a glance — even when the crest isn’t visible. Russia, Canada, Sweden, Germany and Finland excel in this area.

2. In the battle between tradition and innovation, where should a jersey come down?

There’s no reason the two can’t go hand in hand. In my opinion, Nike proved that with a lot of these jerseys. Tradition is great for teams that have it (Canada, Russia, USA, Sweden, among others) but unnecessary for those without it (Slovenia and Japan come to mind). It’s not fair to say one or the other across the board. Every country should have its own style.

3. What are the key elements for Olympic jerseys: national symbols, flags, shields, names, etc?

More than anything, colors. After that, go with what’s memorable and what best represents your nation. The Czechs’ flag jersey looks amazing. The Finns’ not so much.

On the other hand the red and gold Finnish coat of arms is brilliant on the blue jersey while the Austrian coat of arms is a bit dull.

As far as names on jerseys, I’ve never been a big fan of using text where a symbol can be more quickly read.

4. How do you know when you have a dud – and what are a few examples?

Japan. They may not be known for their ice hockey prowess, but the women’s team made it to the big show.

Why do they have to look so boring? There’s such a rich history of art and creativity and their admittedly American-designed jerseys ended up being duds. But they’re really the only example of that this year in my mind.

5. A few years ago the Olympics went all very old-school. I kinda liked the way they looked – like old photos. Do you think they worked?

In seven years of writing about hockey uniforms, I’ve learned there are really two camps. You have your traditionalists who think hockey jersey design peaked in the 1960s and need not advance any further. And you have your modernists who want to see new and interesting jersey designs. Nike is run by modernists. Reebok is to an extent, but more willing to bend to traditionalist fervor.

Some people have one foot on each side of the line (like me) but generally get shouted down by the louder voices with both feet firmly planted on one side or the other. I think there’s a place for old school jerseys. Maybe break them out every couple of decades or so to remind the new generation what came before them. But we should allow hockey jersey design to stagnate. The quickest way to kill anything is with too much of it. That’s my treatise on the subject.

6. Of this year’s crop, what are the hits and what are the misses? In your opinion, rank Gold, Silver and Bronze jersey efforts.

My full ranking will be published on Icethetics on Feb. 1. I thought Japan, Norway and Austria were the biggest misses. As for the hits, I’ll give you my top three, but I won’t tell you which order. You’ll have to read my article. But I like the U.S. (not just because I’m American), Czech Republic and Canada. Also think Russia and Slovakia fared well.

7. What’s the market outlook like for sales of these Oly jerseys to hockey fans?  What are sales normally like? And can you get us a discount on a Swedish Backstrom sweater?  

I’m not a sales expert so I’ll have to pass on this question. For what it’s worth, @flyersfansindc quoted a Nike rep being interviewed on SiriusXM NHL as saying Canada’s red jersey is selling best followed by black then white. And all are selling faster than projected. That was reported Nov. 15, 2013. No idea how/if that information has changed.

8. We come at hockey fashion from a different position, being gay and all, design is in our DNA. What is it about new sweater announcements, no matter the league, make straight hockey guys go all “Project Runway?”

That is an excellent question! I’ve often wondered what turns everyone into an expert as soon as a new uniform is unveiled. When I first started this site, readers used to give me a hard time for rarely expressing an opinion. Part of that was trying to be a good journalist (which I’ve since given up) but the other part was knowing when I didn’t know enough to make an informed opinion.

Anyway, I think there’s just something about hockey. Our uniforms are unlike those in any other sport. In football and basketball, numbers dominate and there are no sleeves. In baseball, it’s all word marks and in soccer, it’s all shields. Hockey has such a variety of styles, including the big logo crest front and center that differentiates its jerseys. It’s hard for a lot of people not to get sucked into that aspect of it.

9. Is there a color, or a symbol, or anything else that should NEVER EVER find its way onto a hockey jersey?

I hate to make blanket statements like that (though as a TV producer I definitely know they make for better interview soundbites). I truly believe a good designer can make any color work on a hockey jersey. But just the same, I think a bad designer can ruin a jersey with any color. I also don’t think there’s any one way to get it right. It’s all a matter of taste and style. And ultimately, it comes down to knowing the audience. You can’t go wild and crazy with the Montreal Canadiens. But with the Nashville Predators, a little craziness is probably in order.

10. Lastly, what sweater(s) will you be sporting during the Games?

Well, I’m American so I have to support my home country. But let’s say I had a U.S. jersey and was offered one more of any other country. My personal preference would be Finland’s blue jersey. Odd choice maybe, but it suits my personal design sense.

Matt Davies (right) accepting the 2011 Sony Radio Award for Best Sports Programme

As current and former broadcasters ourselves, we have a soft spot for anyone in the industry. And by the industry, we mean of course, the business. Because there’s NO business like show business. Matt Davies is Executive Producer for the BBC radio show, Sports World. The weekend programme boasts an audience of nearly 50 million listeners. Try that on for size, Don Cherry.

Matt is gay; he’s headed to Sochi, and he’ll be covering hockey (among other sports) at the Winter Games. He was good enough to talk to us about his background, coming out, working in a media environment dominated by straight guys and covering the Games amidst the troubles in Russia. He’s a great guy and a dedicated journalist. We look forward to his coverage from Sochi, and who knows, maybe someday he’ll help us out with cricket.

PuckBuddys: Tell us a little about yourself and your history in the sporting life. 

Matt Davies: I am 42 and originally from Gloucester in the UK. I was always massively into sport; particularly football, cricket and water polo. I played all three as a kid but once it became clear I wouldn’t be good enough to do any professionally I thought that being paid to commentate, report and write about them would be a pretty cool way to earn a living. A busted knee in my late teens would have made it impossible anyways.

Most of my earliest sporting memories are of watching the Olympics. The first games I remember were Moscow in 1980 and watching Seb Coe against Steve Ovett (800m finals).

We were on a family holiday at the time and can remember watching on a black and white TV set with an aerial on the roof of the camper van.

PB: Tell us about your background in journalism. 

MD: All of my journalism jobs have been at the BBC. I always thought working in sports media would be a great job but didn’t really do anything about it until I left University with a degree in geography in 1993. No, I have never used that since.

I started by doing voluntary work at a local hospital radio station. Many hospitals in the UK have their own radio station staffed by volunteers and funded by charity giving. I used to produce and present a review of the local sports action every Monday evening. I would go out to events over the weekend and record interviews and do commentary into my tape machine. By chance the head of sport at the local BBC station heard the show and invited me along to do some voluntary work for them as well. Everything happened from there really.

It wasn’t until 1996 that I earned my first money from working in the media. Even the BBC didn’t pay me at first. That isn’t allowed at the BBC now. I did various odd jobs at the local petrol station – gas to you – and at the 7-11 – yes we have there here as well – until I was earning enough for the media to make that my full-time career. I have been at the BBC ever since.

PB: To many people, “gay sports fan” seems contradictory. Growing up, how did you square those seemingly opposing facets of your life?

MD: Yes I agree. I still meet gay guys now who seem quite surprised at what I do. I guess it is still not a role you would expect. I don’t know any other openly gay guys in BBC Sport, though it’s a big department and I don’t know everyone. Another gay guy somewhere in the department might say exactly the same. The BBC does have a LGBT social group but I have never met a guy there from sport. So maybe I am right.

Oh, one of the BBC’s top sports presenters Clare Balding is openly gay. I should give her a mention because she is a brilliant presenter. Looking back I think sport might have been my cover for being gay as I didn’t come out until quite late. I was 28. My teenage years and early 20s we spent obsessed with sport. I was either watching or playing it. I didn’t really do the things other boys of my age were doing. It had to be about sport.

PB: What was coming out like for you?

MD: It was late. Would do it earlier if I had my life again but you can’t change things can you ? Family were very supportive. I don’t think they were surprised. I was a bit more cautious at work as by this time I was working in a very male dominated sports-room environment. I wouldn’t say I particularly shout about it now but would be open if asked. I still think there are some people in sports media who have a problem with it but by and large it has not been an issue. I think that is because it is a male dominated environment. That is changing though, and so too attitudes.

PB: Tell us a little about Sports World: What’s your audience, just UK or is it aired globally? What type of stories does the programme like to focus on? Notice how we’re spelling “programme!”

MD: Thanks for the correct spelling of programme but we prefer to call it a show. Sounds more entertaining! Sports World is the weekend sports show on BBC World Service Radio.

It can be heard right around the world, and in the USA on SiriusXM. We think it is the biggest audience for a radio sports show anywhere. Exact numbers are hard to establish but we estimate close to 50 million. Our main focus is the English Premier League as we are rights holders to carry match commentaries. We bill ourselves as big matches, big names and big events. Last weekend we had commentary on Manchester City v Manchester United, an interview with Usain Bolt and the Singapore Grand Prix.

PB: What’s your role as EP at Sports World, both on a day-to-day basis and what will be your duties in Sochi?

MD: I am responsible for the overall sound and direction of the show. I am involved in the recruitment, development and appraisals of the Broadcast Assistants and Assistant Producers. They tend to be involved in the week to week production of the show. My view is more long-term on how we should develop the sound, the events we cover and how we can best use changing technology to connect with the audience. We are taking the show to Sochi for two weekends.

PB: What are the wider BBC coverage plans for Sochi? 

MD: BBC Radio coverage of a winter games is very small in comparison to the summer ones. UK Radio will be served by 3 staff. Television is a bigger presence.

One of the two main BBC television channels will carry over 100 hours of live networked coverage but via the website and the red button service on digital television you will be able to watch live action from any venue you wish.

So if you want to watch every minute of every ice hockey match, you can. More of the television production that previous games will be done at the BBC Sport headquarters near Manchester. Only presenters, commentators, reporters and key OB production staff will be in Sochi.

Budgets are tight, especially that the games fall in the same year as two of the biggest sporting events the BBC will ever be involved with – the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

PB: What will it be like covering hockey in Sochi, given that the sport isn’t especially popular with traditional BBC audiences? 

MD: Well hockey is just of the sports that we will be covering when Sports World is presented from Sochi for the games. I don’t think any of my team are an expert on many of the winter sports. Luckily we have a great team of researchers who will produce a cheats guide to the sports, especially ice hockey. That should enable us to report on any sport with some knowledge although we would leave commentary to the experts. The BBC commentary on hockey in Sochi will be provided by Seth Bennett. It’s his first games and I know he is very excited. I am sure Seth would talk to you guys about hockey all day.

PB: A journalist’s job is to tell a story, but also decide which stories need telling. What are the stories that need to be covered at this Olympic games, and which are a distraction? Is the LGBT issue getting the necessary attention or is it overplayed?

MD: I think the LGBT issue is not going to go away. Remember Russia are also hosting the World Cup in 2018. They also have a terrible record on racism in football. Which makes Russia as a choice of country to stage these massive global events more surprising. It’s a story that will be covered, lead I think by the BBC.

PB: Who can cover the LGBT+ Sochi issue better, the news or sports desk? What strengths and weaknesses does each bring to the table?

MD: We are lucky at BBC Sport that we have a brilliant team of sports news correspondents who sit on that sometimes rather uneasy boundary between news and sport. That leaves our sports presenters and commentators to concentrate on the action and the correspondents on the stories around the games which would include the LGBT issue. It is something that I know they are already preparing for by making contacts with local gay groups and activists in Russia.

PB: What are some media outlets that have been doing a good job covering the issue? 

MD: I think the BBC – and the UK media in general – lead the way in several areas of sports coverage and social issues. OK, I am blowing the BBC trumpet here but I don’t have to. It’s not a condition of employment. The BBC has played a massive part in the success of Paralympic sport, increasing the profile of women’s sport and highlighting racism and homophobia in sport. We have not just jumped on this issue because of Sochi. It was the BBC who questioned awarding the 2022 football World Cup to Qatar – a country where being gay is still illegal. It was the British media who questioned Sepp Blatter on this only to be told that gay people would be welcome in Qatar as long as they didn’t have sex. We are not the world’s biggest and most respected public service broadcaster for nothing.

PB: NBC as a US Olympics rights holder is already under pressure from advocates and activists to tell the “full story” during their coverage. Is the BBC seeing similar pressures? Are the journalists insulated from that? 

MD: I haven’t heard of the BBC being under pressure like this. What I will say is that while the BBC are proud to be rights holder with the IOC it doesn’t make us cheerleaders. Where a story needs to be told it will be. We don’t shy away from stories just because it might not look good for the IOC. We heaped a load of flack on them in the build up to London where it was justified. I know some commercial broadcasters would never run such stories in case it impacted in their next rights contract. The BBC did a massive expose on FIFA in the week the bidding was announced for 2018 and 2022 World Cup. England lost the bid. Many said that was wrong of the BBC but I would always defend its right to do high quality journalism and not be pressured.

PB: What personal pressures if any do you feel as a gay man covering this story and how do you reconcile (or separate) those and your professional responsibilities?

MD: I keep separate and find it easy to do so. I think if anything I would always be more cautious about such stories as I don’t want to be seen to be this champion of gay rights. Sport is a bigger part of me than being gay. Where a story needs to be told like Sochi I will. We did it on the show a few weeks ago because we had some good material and a strong news line. Whether I am gay or not really doesn’t come in to it. I certainly don’t feel an extra responsibility.

PB: What other stories have you worked on during your career that have touched so close to home like this?

MD: No-one spring to mind. But as you mention career there, I have wondered how much of a scoop  it would be for me to get the first interview with the first Premier League player to come out. There are none. This in a country now with the equalisation of consent for same-sex couples, civil partnerships, gay marriage and openly gay players  in sports such as cricket, basketball, boxing and hockey. It will happen.

PB: How do you see the Russia LGBT story playing out over the next few months and during the Games?

MD: It won’t go away that’s for sure with the next two World Cups in Russia and Qatar with their appalling issue on gay rights. I think we live in a world of changing times and attitudes. Remember Russia’s awful record on racism as well with players being subjected to monkey chants and bananas thrown at them. I am not sure these countries would get awarded these events today – certainly not in a few years time. The likes of FIFA and the IOC are at the behest their corporate sponsors and they won’t want their brand tarnished. We are not quite there yet – but not far away from issues like equality being a factor in these bids. I think the media do have a role to play in bringing about this change.

PB: Recently, a number of NHL players, Russians included, have been asked about Russian LGBT policy. It’s going to come up with other Sochi athletes as well. What are your thoughts on that?

MD: Yes it’s happening isn’t it? And after Yelena Isinbaeva’s comments at the World Athletics they are going to be asked more. After the massive amount of negative publicity it created, the teams of media and PR people that surround the top sports stars are going to have them fully briefed on what to say. I would be very surprised if any Russian sports star with her profile would come out now and say what she did. So journalists ask away of course but you won’t get the killer line of  “we are a normal country with normal people. Boys go with girls and girls go with boys,” like we did from the pole vaulter.

It goes back to the corporate dollar. Can you imagine a Russian player in the NHL saying that and the impact it would have on their club? They are not fools. She was and desperately tried to back-track.

We thank Matt for his time and interest. For other perspectives on Sochi, an interview with Russian hockey journalist, Slava Malamud is here, and our sassy open letter to Vladimir Putin is here.

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin penned an open letter to the people of the United States, and printed in the New York Times. In it, he took American leaders to task over the issue of ‘American exceptionalism’ among other critiques. As an exercise in diplomacy it had limited value; as yet another means to tweak American noses – which seems to be Putin’s raison d’etre – we say well played.

Much in the model of the Cold War where he learned his managerial techniques at the KGB, Mr. Putin turned two blind eyes to the many troubles his nation is facing, some of them of his own making. This, it seems, provides a great opportunity to return the favor in the same spirit as it was given. The PuckBuddys, working with contributor AnonymousHockeyGuy, offer this open letter to Mr. Putin.

You see, we just wanted to do something. And so, in front of our rural town’s grocery store, we had rented an eight-foot tall high heel, stepping on an oversized pack of cigarettes. These were the Delaware County Ash Kickers, a group I had helped to found, and we were sending a message! We were going to stomp out Big Tobacco! The fact that we had ordered a sneaker, but were delivered a high heel, remained unaddressed. And so there we stood, for hour after hour, handing out pens with our logo emblazoned proudly on them by The Clothing People. The day was long to keep it short.

We were young, middle schoolers. My voice hadn’t yet settled, and through the occasional pops and squeaks, I rattled on about the deception of the tobacco industry, the manipulation of teens by corporate suits, and the targeting of my peers for financial gain.  Poor Judy just wanted to get her milk and eggs, and she had made the mistake of coming in through my entrance.

The Ash Kickers helped develop in us a capacity to care, and to feel. But more than that, it created the feeling that we were able to affect change, to help.

In high school, those Ash Kickers gave way to a statewide program, called Reality Check. I was named the youth voice at then-Governor George Pataki’s tobacco advisory council, representing teens across the state. I was doing big things, and it felt great.

Tobacco was a great place to get my feet wet, so that when I got to college, I was ready to keep doing something.  I was the victim of a hate crime at Seton Hall University in October of my freshman year. I chose to call for a town hall meeting, with the mandated attendance of all resident students, and I asked to speak. There, in front of almost a thousand students, I talked about my experience, about the place where I had grown up. I was unfamiliar with locking my doors at night, or taking the keys out of the car at the store, and had been blindsided by what had happened.

And it was there that I chose to come out to my fellow classmates. Because what had happened to me was bigger than me, it had happened before to students. And if one of us was being targeted, then all of us were being targeted.  This hate crime hadn’t happened because I was a Devils fan, it had happened specifically because I was gay.

Life went on, the Devils won the Stanley Cup that year, more students suffered what I had gone through. I thought I had done something brave that would help others, but it was clear that talking wasn’t enough.  We needed to stand up together. I created an organization called T.R.U.T.H. (Trust, Respect, Unity at The Hall), a group where students could be safe, engage in dialogue about these kinds of issues.

Seton Hall, a private Catholic academic institution, rejected our proposal for club status.  They wouldn’t give us recognition.  And then I sued them.  We took Romeo v. Seton Hall University all the way to the State Supreme Court, and we lost.  But, at least I had done something.  My experience is taught as case law around the country, and although I had lost, I had refused to be quiet.  I left Seton Hall to pursue an education without the distractions of the press, students pointing fingers during lunch, and the like.

Oh, and I got this letter from Harvey Fierstein.

And so now, we can finally flash forward to present day. I’m happy, I’m married, I’m still playing hockey. The Devils aren’t winning quite as much as they used to, but they’re still better than the Rangers, so you take the small victories just as happily as the big ones.

This year has shown momentous and irreversible progress for people like me. Federal marriage benefits, however limited in scope, are a huge validation.  States winning marriage at the ballot box, defeating real-life villains like Maggie Gallagher. It’s a terribly exciting time.

And then, as a hockey fan, an even bigger reason to be excited! A full hockey season, and the Winter Olympics! Even Gary Bettman can’t put a damper on this! I wasn’t sure how to pronounce it, and couldn’t find it on the map, but suddenly I couldn’t get enough of Sochi.  Sochi this, Sochi that, could we name a pet Sochi, can I order Sochi on a menu, is Sochi a good name for a child?

Well, leave it to Russia to take all the fun out of the equation. 

With the passage of Russia’s anti-gay laws (and calling them anything else is inaccurate, truly), a dark cloud now sits over the Olympic Games. I don’t need to go into what the laws say, enough has been written about the flagrant violation of civil rights, marginalization of human dignity, and degradation of spirit that these laws represent and enact.

And I feel, rising again within me, that need to do something. I have seen countless online petitions to move the Games out of Sochi. I haven’t signed them, because I recognize that Putin isn’t logging onto the internet to be swayed by petitions. (Perhaps his AOL CD is out of minutes?)

But I recognize that everyone has their own high heel. People are upset, they’re angry about Sochi, and if they need to stand outside their grocery stores for hours and hand out pens, then I respect and appreciate that. Mocking passion only discourages people from using those voices they’ve earned.

Where does that leave the rest of us? I want to help because I’m an athlete. I want to help because I’m gay. I’m an activist, I want to help. Hell, I want to help because I’m a human with two eyes and a heart.  I just don’t know how.

Flights to Sochi aren’t cheap, and the thought of being locked up in a Russian jail is more terrifying than anything I can imagine.  (Except Insidious 2, that looks scary!)

It breaks my heart that I want to help and just don’t know what I can do to affect change.  And so I’m plucking out words on my Mac, keyboard activism at its finest. Because it makes me feel like I’m at least doing something, even if I’m not doing something.

Hey Mr. Fierstein, want to go cause a scene with me in Russia? I’ve got some extra Romeo goalie jerseys you could wear. Or maybe you’d prefer a heel?

We’ve been mostly keeping our powder dry on the Putin pogrom and Sochi, leaving the heavy lifting to our contributors. Until now. Over the next month or two, we’ll post Q & As with hockey and sports journalists who are headed to Sochi to cover the Games. We begin with Slava Malamud, no stranger to those who follow hockey or his especially cheeky and often barbed twitter feed. Slava brings the Russian perspective to the debate and with that, the country’s culture and history. Slava apologized for the length of some of his answers, comparing them to Dostoyevsky. No apology necessary and we thank him for his time and interest. Dasvidanya.

PB: Some biographical background: When and where were you born? What got you interested in hockey? When and why did you come to the US? And please, explain your love affair with Buffalo.

SM: I was born in Moldova, which was the former Soviet Union’s version of Alabama, in 1974. The town I grew up in had two bus routes (to the city and from the city), one ice-cream kiosk with two flavors (vanilla and cigarettes), three languages of everyday use, one football team in whose youth system I had played for a bit, and zero hockey in any way, shape or form, other than on a black-and-white TV screen.

That is how I was first introduced to the game. All I remember is that I was five years old, so it must’ve been early in 1980, and that we (USSR) lost the game and everyone was sad. That probably narrows it down to exactly one game. I still can’t watch Miracle all the way to its tragic, dispiriting ending. There’s my love affair with hockey explained, as well. Football, quite uniquely for my home region, never fascinated me to nearly the same degree.

I came to the United States in the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist and the people of various ethnicities inhabiting Moldova, for the lack of better career and entertainment options, decided to start killing each other. Thankfully, the United States government had no qualms about accepting Soviet refugees.

I resided in Western New York (a happy coincidence which has nothing to do with my purely philosophical love of the Bills and Sabres) for about a decade before a successful, if somewhat long-overdue, job search landed me in Maryland. This happened when I was already a journalist but well before I could support my family with that job alone.

The love affair with Buffalo is the easy one. Since Buffalo sports teams do objectively represent all that is good and sacred in the affairs and tribulations of man, I can’t in good conscience root for anyone else, now can I? It is not often that life gives you an opportunity to be on the side of the objective good and one must use it whenever possible. With all the inevitable heartbreak and tragedy that ensues, I am afraid. I get this question often. I also find that few people are asked to explain their love for the Yankees, Barcelona or the Russian Federation. But Buffalo… “For the love of Deity of My Choice, why?” Well, now you know.

PB: Besides Sport – Express and NHL.com/ru, what other outlets have you written for?

SM: I began in journalism in 1995, starting off with Novoye Russkoye Slovo, the national Russian-language daily, where I was their resident expert on American Football. Please, don’t laugh. Translating the outrageously complicated rules and terminology of the game into Russian was a monumental task. I am not sure how many readers became converted Bills fans as a result, hopefully, millions upon millions. My faith in humanity rests upon this hope.

Sport-Express offered me a job in 1999, after I got involved in an online discussion with one of its star reporters. I have been their regular contributor since and was given a staff position in 2006, as Foreign Correspondent in North America. I have contributed to the Washington Post and currently run a weekly column about the KHL for Journal de Montreal and the Toronto Sun. Yes, my hilarious English gets translated into even more hilarious French.

PB: What does working for NHL.com/ru entail? Are you a league employee, contractor, freelancer? What restrictions are placed on you because you write for a league-owned property?

SM: Strictly speaking, I am NHL’s contractor, which is the same thing as a freelancer. Except I can’t really call myself a freelancer, being on the staff of a major national Russian publication. The league has pretty common-sense guidelines on the content. Obviously, the articles on the official website can’t criticize the league and its officials and any criticism of the players’ performance must be factual and restrained, without emotional opinion and opinionated emotions.

Of course, I am perfectly free to spout all that in my main publication, but I actually happen to like the NHL, so everything works out pretty well. I can’t say that my style of writing has never caused me problems. My use of Twitter has not generated universal acclaim, I understand. Oh, well…

I imagine, there are Caps fans who think I am the worst person who was ever born. I can assure them that I have no animosity towards either their team or any other team at all whatsoever. Except for FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. I hate them with every fiber of my soul.

PB: What are your Sochi coverage plans?  

Yes, I am credentialed for Sochi. This will be my fourth Olympics, both Winter and Summer. I don’t expect to be doing anything other than hockey, since Russian media outlets will have enormous representation there and narrow specialization is likely. Other than that, no definite plans have been drawn up yet. I can venture a guess that I may write rather a lot about USA and Canada teams.

PB: It’s been said that the Russian public is 80% behind Putin on the anti-LGBT legislation. Is that number right? And what about the Russian hockey fan base?

SM: No, I don’t think this percentage is right. In my personal estimation, it’s somewhere on the other side of 90%. Kick it up another few percentage points for the hockey fans.

But I should be more precise here. Russians are generally quite cynical about their laws. There is a saying in Russia about this. “In Russia, the strictness of laws is compensated by the lack of necessity to follow them.” I would say that many Russians do take this particular law for what it is – a naked attempt by the government to usurp the populist agenda and to marginalize the opposition by painting them as “f****t-lovers.”

However, if you ask an average Russian whether they think that gay people represent a danger to their children and whether it’s possible to “convince” a minor to become gay by subjecting them to gay culture, the answer will be a resounding yes at least 9 times out of 10.

I should also note that the support for this law has only risen in the past few weeks, as the West has paid more and more attention.

PB: Historically, Russian leaders for the last several centuries have defined their nation and values as a contrast to the European West. What’s the relationship between growing acceptance of homosexuality in Europe & America and what looks like declining acceptance in Russia?

SM: Not all of the leaders. Peter the Great was a big Westernizer, right down to compulsive beard-shaving among the Russian nobility. Czar Paul I reformed the military in the Prussian style. In the XIX century the small Russian educated class, the “intelligentsia”, spoke French and expressed disdain for the unwashed masses.

And of course, Perestroika brought in a prolonged love affair with the West and with America in particular. The love affair was quite one-sided and ended in heartbreak, thus the current hostility. I think, nowadays, Russians associate the poor living conditions and the drop of self-esteem they experienced in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, with their erstwhile love of the Western values. And nowadays many of them don’t miss an opportunity to discredit said values or to point out the easily available examples of Western hypocrisy.

So, we have the current situation, when the very idea of democracy is no longer attractive to many (“The kind of democracy America brought to Iraq, you mean?”) and words such as “tolerance” and “political correctness” have become favorite Russian verbal piñatas. Many Russians, it seems, don’t want to live in the society where minorities are treated the same as the majority. They are afraid that such a society will end up hurting the majority’s rights.

“We don’t want to be like America, where you are not treated as a human unless you are a gay, black, one-legged woman on crack” That’s a very widespread conviction in the Russian society. Life without second-class citizens to look down upon isn’t worth living for many.

PB: Has Russia been historically this homophobic or have we seen a spike with Putin’s agenda? What role does the Church play?

SM: Russia has always been very socially conservative. This concerns not only gays, but also women and ethnic minorities. People in America don’t realize that the Soviet Union (at least after the 1920s) was a social conservative’s paradise. It was a monolithic society, with one, religion-like ideology uniting everyone, in which women were expected to know their place, abortion was prohibited, loud fashions scorned, modern music resisted, pornography criminalized and gays imprisoned.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993, but the people’s attitudes haven’t changed much. The recent mass reintroduction of the Russian society to the extremely conservative Orthodox Church didn’t help, of course. But it merely gave the already existing hatred an ideological basis.

As for Putin, his ratings are lagging, his opposition is becoming more organized, so he is looking for “hot button issues” around which he could garner popular support. Homophobia and religion are such issues… Incidentally, Russia has also just passed a law which effectively makes it illegal to be an outspoken atheist. Strangely enough, nobody in America has so much as raised an eyebrow at that one. Probably, because being an outspoken atheist won’t get you too many fans here, either.

PB: How monolithic is Russia when it comes to homophobia? Do the urban areas differ from the rural ones? Are there similar attitudes across the region – Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia?

SM: Quite monolithic indeed. But here is a caveat. An average Russian will tell you that he or she doesn’t care what people do in their bedrooms and doesn’t support imprisoning people just for being homosexual. What they are against are public manifestations of homosexuality. Those public manifestations are usually envisioned in the form of pride parades during which people go about naked and/or engage in public acts of same-sex lovemaking. But as nothing of the sort has ever happened in Russia, their fear winds up being directed at people demonstrating for equal rights with rainbow flags. Or merely at two men holding hands. Or kissing. This, for most Russians, is abhorrent, disgusting and a step down a slippery slope to public gay sex in parks, schools, bus stops and at the foot of the Motherland Calls statue. All of it, of course, resulting in their children’s deciding to follow the path to gaydom en masse.

Now, of course, there is quite a substantial amount of genuine gay haters. People who’d like to hunt down homosexuals and exile, imprison, kill, or make them undergo mandatory castration. But for the most part it’s not the haters, but the homophobes (in the exact meaning of the word – people who are afraid) who, being ignorant and unwilling to learn, are the driving force behind these laws.

Obviously, cities tend to be much more cosmopolitan than the rural area. You won’t find too many gay clubs in rural Arkansas either, will you? As for Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia et al, there is no appreciable difference in their attitude. We all grew up within the confines of the same culture.

PB: NHLrs are increasingly commenting on Russian LGBT law and Sochi. How is the issue playing over there, if at all?

SM: Not well. After the Russian pole vaulter Elena Isinbayeva spoke in defense of the anti-gay laws and was criticized in the West, Russian media and the Russian public had a collective fit. “The West is Hounding Isinbayeva”, “Our Heterosexual Heritage is Under Attack” was the tone of most headlines. People view Western criticism as an attack on Russian culture and on the idea of free speech.

You’ll hear people say things like, “See, this is how “democratic” the West is! They wage war on us for our opinion.” Of course, nobody seems to realize that you’re having an opinion doesn’t immunize you against people having their own opinions about your opinion. But the debate in the West does feed nicely into the already formed national idea of “Us vs. Them.”

Imagine now if Russian NHLers get criticized in the Western media for their views on the law… Things will get ugly.

PB: Ovechkin, Kovalchuk and Datsyuk got headlines by responding to LGBT questions and reactions have varied: Ovi was given a pass for saying nothing, while Pavel and Ilya took some heat for being more declarative. What pressures do Russian NHL players live under, on and off the ice?

SM: You are assuming that Russian hockey players don’t share the prevailing opinion of the rest of the Russian society. This is not a good assumption to make.

But, talking strictly hypothetically, if a Russian hockey player did speak out against such a “hot-button” law, he could expect repercussions. Hockey is closely followed by Putin and the KHL has strong ties with his inner circles. And as the Olympics are always a big political event, people are bound to be extremely cautious to prevent any kind of embarrassment for the government.

The smartest thing a Russian player can do right now is what Ovechkin has done. Say it’s not your business to comment on political issues and speak about hockey. There isn’t much to gain from saying anything else.

PB: Is making Russia and Putin anti-LGBT pariahs productive and could they become more entrenched?

SM: Whatever it is that topples Putin, if anything, you can rest assured it won’t be LGBT issues. For all the fuss in the media right now, most Russians don’t really give them much thought and would prefer to go on just so. As a rule, I don’t think any free thought is useless and I personally don’t have any problems with the Westerners calling out Russia on the bad things it does. As long as they don’t forget bad things other countries do, up to and including their own countries.

PB: If we really wanted to see a more tolerant Russia, what’s the best way forward and what can the average person do?

SM: Countries pave their own path to tolerance. America’s own path was a long and bloody one. I hope Russia’s remaining journey isn’t too long. But it’s an evolutionary process.

PB: You have strong opinions about Russian politics and your twitter feed is a great read. How do this play back home and among your readership?

SM: Not too well, I suppose. At least not on this issue. But I can’t well disown my opinions if they don’t happen to correspond with those of the majority. It is what it is. Many people also don’t like me because I am an atheist or ethnically Jewish, or from a small town. Or live in America. Or like the NHL. Or root for the Sabres when not working… As they say in Russia, “I am not a 10-rouble note to be liked by everyone.”

PB: In all fairness, you’re plenty critical of American politics and culture. Your #SlavaBaffledByAmerica is a favorite hashtag of ours. What else baffles you about America?

SM: The fact that some people apparently can’t believe that I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter isn’t butter.

PB: Your son is a goalie. You’re cool with that? Was he born that way? How’s his team looking this season? You still the travel reporter for them?

SM: No, I am most definitely not cool with that, even though I myself was a football goalkeeper. Goalie’s father is by far the worst job in sports and I won’t wish it on my worst enemies. What’s even worse, now my younger son has expressed a troubling affinity for the same lifestyle, which has gotten me afraid (even phobic, one may say) that my children have succumbed to some form of nefarious goalie propaganda prevalent in Western society.

His team is looking like it will ride roughshod over the opposition this year. Unless, of course, their opposition turns out to be, you know, pretty good. Whatever the result, I am sure to once again lose a few years off my life watching it. And yes, I will try to report on the proceedings for the benefit of those parents who can’t make it to the games and the extended families. The kids usually love this, too, and it may be among the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had as a journalist.

PB: Give us some Sochi hockey predictions: Gold, Silver and Bronze.

SM: I will be extremely surprised if Russia doesn’t win gold. It’s a do or die sort of thing. I’ll pick Sweden for 2^nd place and, what they hey, USA for the bronze. North Americans are yet to win a single Olympic medal on non-North American soil in the “NHL era.” This may be the first.

PB: What are your thoughts about the Olympic Jerseys? Russia best?

SM: Love the Russian red jersey, even if all the gold is somewhat immodest. But we don’t really do modesty or subtlety, as you may know, so it’s pretty appropriate. The white jersey is certainly a little too much for my taste. I am conservative in my uniform preferences, and that’s why the understated American jerseys are quite fine with me, even if this particular shade of blue has always struck me as unnecessary gloomy.