♪ ♪ >> good d morning. spectacle in sochi. a grand kickoff to the olympic games with thousands of performers. ♪ and proud athletes representing the nations of the world. the olympic spirit in full display, and even with one technical glitch, the sights and sounds of the opening ceremony, a wonder to behold. this morning the competition is fully underway.

>> woody allen, his daughter from more than two decades ago. >> moving on up. >> i'm going to be missing your tv at 12:37. the battle for late night ratings and my fierce rival with ferguson and the veggie commercial. >> an emotional and humorous farewell to late might, and now he is setting his sights an hour earlier getting ready for his takeover of "the tonight show." today is saturday, february 8th, 2014. from nbc news, this is a special edition of "today" at the olympic winter games with lester holt, live from olympic park in sochi, russia, and erica hill live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. good morning. welcome to a very special edition of "today" on this

saturday morning. i'm lester holt in sochi. great to see you, ladies, holding down the fort in new york city. the opening ceremony last night was really something. seven years in the making. you could really tell that a huge amount of time and effort went into making it. the spectacle that it was. did you guys happen to stay up late enough to watch most of it? >> i did see some of it. i saw you, lester, and was glad to see you were part of the coverage. it was quite the spectacle. >> you know, stephanie is over there in russia, and she said to me, you know, it went pretty good. >> are you crazy? they haven't even started yet. >> mine hours ahead. >> there is that time difference. >> right, but they were spectacular. >> you have got to take a look at it right now. we want to tell you it's already been a pretty exciting day so far this first, you know, full day of competition here in sochi. a quick spoiler. if you don't want to hear about the competition, we'll ask you

to turn down your volume and turn away for 45 seconds. i did say only 45 seconds. team usa won its first gold medal today. snowboarder sage kotsenberg leading the charge during the slope style event. the american women's hockey team beat finishland 3-1. disappointing news for the ski team. another freestyle skier is out. 15-year-old maggie boyson hurt her ankle on friday. she will not be competing. a pretty amazing recovery for the indian luger who fell off his sled during a practice run and managed to get right back on. pretty cool stuff. here's your medal count so far. norway leads with three medals after picking up two in cross-country ski-athalom. team usa has one medal. we noted it was a gold. spoiler alert is over. come back. let's bring in kier simmons for a look at the opening ceremony. >> hey, lester. good morning.

swaggering, extravaganza. some words being used to review last night's opening ceremony. as ever with these games, it was not without controversy. there was controversy over the glitch that you talked about and also accusations of racism. one of those had the privilege to take part in what, after all, was a big night. >> reporter: fireworks and the face of a little girl opened an immense and often intimate opening ceremonies. for a moment it seemed too ambitious. >> it looks like we have a little bit of a glitch leer. one of the snow flakes not quite cooperating and turning into one of the five olympic rings. >> reporter: the teams entered the arena brimming with enthusiasm. team usa even taking pictures back stage. julia mancuso and shaun white

posted this selfie. highly closer on crutches, determined to be here despite crashing out of the competition. jamaica's bobsledders cool runnings in the back. some countries with very excited teams of just one. dwarfed by russia's athletes. their arrival a celebration. then came a journey through russian history. this was vladimir putin's moment, and he showed little emotion. while one of those carrying the torch, an olympian, rumored to be romantically linked to the president, though he is not confirming. another torch bearer has been accused of racism for a doctored photo of president obama she tweeted last year. sochi has been frought with controversy, but what mattered most on the night was the olympic spirit represented by this flame. the 22nd winter olympic games is open. and for russia with billions

watching the festivities represented a new confidence on the world stage. >> some of that confidence may have been manufactured. there were a couple of things that you didn't see last night, lester. one of them is what the russians didn't see. that glitch we talked about on russian tv, they cut to rehearsal where the olympic rings did illuminate. can you see the two pictures there. that's what the russians saw. another thing you didn't see last night, m rehearsal tsh in the warmup to the event itself was this russian police band singing daft punk. i don't know what to say really except that they would be on today on monday morning. that surely will be something to see. >> i hi they sold it. it was a little out of character there, but i thought they were very good. >> i like the guys in the back looking just a little bit more -- >> are you sure you want to -- regarding that glitch, i was back stage with all those huge moving pieces coming in, and i

know it's unfortunate it didn't open up, but what a technical masterpiece it was. to have just one glitch is amazing. i know they struggled with it during rehearsal. thanks very much. great to see you. the athletes in these games spent a lifetime preparing for this moment, but for one, as we noted, her dream was cut short just days before her competition. american skier heidi kloser took a nasty spill and broke her leg. her first words to her father, am i still an olympian? you couldn't help but cheer for heidi when she walked on her crutches during opening ceremony last night. heidi is a few miles away from us right now. heidi, good morning. how are you feeling? >> good morning. i'm okay. how are you? >> i am well. talking about your leg, how is it feeling this morning? >> it was pretty sore when i woke up, but i have a great team here with me, and they helped me manage the pain and get it

moving a little bit, so it's good now. >> well, i want to talk to you about that moment m opening yesterday. first let's talk a little bit about that training run thursday. you were second into the mogul run when you crashed. your father said it looked like you just caught an edge and it would be okay. tell me what happened. >> i was -- i went off and thought i was maybe going a little faster than i was, so i stepped a little less on the back through and tried to pull it through. i did go pretty big, and i landed with a lot of speed, and i was going through the moguls really fast, and it all happened so fast. i'm not sure entirely what happened, but i hit like the fourth or fifth mogul really hard trying to slow down a little bit, and my knee kind of just went back behind me and twisted and i heard a pop and i started sliding down the mogul course. >> i know it's a crushing disappointment. did you really question the fact that whether you were an

olympian or not? >> i kind of did. when i was laying on the course, i'm, like, oh, no. man, i don't get to compete in the olympics. am i still going to be considered olympian? at least i made it to here, so i'm happy that i got to make it to the olympics and everyone has been questioning the fact am i still an olympian, and i have gotten so many positive response on faes book, twitter, instagram, all the social media things, and everyone is telling me that i am an olympian, so i am -- >> you are. heidi, i hope you know how loud we were all cheering for you when you walked into that stadium last night, and i say walk. you got out of the wheelchair on the crutches. was that planned? were you originally going to wheel in? was it planned you would get on your feet? >> i think the doctors kind of wanted me to stay in the wheelchair, but i felt like it would be a bigger moment for me and make me feel more independent and less hurt if i

was able to actually crutch through the stadium, and we had todd, our nordic skier, carrying the flag, and he set a pretty fast pace, so i was trying hard to keep up with that. radio we'll see you in korea, four years from now, right, that's the plan? >> yeah. i'm definitely hoping to go to korea. i think i can do it there. hopefully i'll get a medal there. >> well, heidi, hope you'll get a medal there. you are an olympian. thanks for spending time with us here, and heal quickly, okay? >> all right. h thank you for having me. there's been a lot of talk leading up to the winter games about how secure the olympics would be, and so far so good, but the first event, opening ceremony, going off without a hitch. there was a big scare on friday when authorities say a man attempted to hijack a plane and ordered the pilot to fly to sochi. chief foreign correspondent richard engel has been keeping a close eye on all of this. what exactly happened? >> while you were watching this

opening ceremony and the world was watching with such concern, and there was such a security bubble here, this hijacking situation was underway. a flight was in the air from the ukraine to turkey. a man sitting in one of the front rows, second row, got up, and told the cabin crew that there was a bomb on board and that he wanted the plane to be diverted to sochi. the cabin crew by all accounts was very calm, very cool, very well trained. they didn't fight with him. the pilot said no problem. we will go to sochi, and the passengers all thought they were going to sochi, and they turned off -- the cabin crew, that monitoring system that is in the back of the seats that lets you know exactly where you are, and since they were flying over the black sea, by the way, this flight wasn't very far away. we're right on the black sea here, and it was flying over the black sea. it was very close. since they were flying over the black sea and the -- that system was turned off, people inside

the plane really didn't know where they were going. they eventually land in istanbul. the hijacker doesn't know where they are. even the people on board didn't know where they were. they thought they were in sochi. it was only when they turned on their cell phones and they saw that they weren't roaming on to a russian carrier they thought why are we getting turkish cell phone? ah, we must be in turkey. turkish commandos were brought on board. eventually the turkish special forces tackled this guy and took hem into custody. >> was there any real threat? >> there was no bomb. no weapon was found. today a turkish official said he was not drunk, but that he may have been on some prescription medication. they're investigating him, but so far no links to any terrorist organizations. >> i would think it was a chance for the communication -- >> they were aware of it here, according to a senior official. russian official this morning. they were concerned about it. if this plane had gotten anywhere near sochi, this would

have been a major international incident. 110 passengers on board. don't forget, there's a lot of anti-aircraft batteries just all around here for exactly this scenario, so the pilot, the cabin crew acted very well, textbook training, as we've been told by security experts, and avoided what could have been a very different situation. >> thank you very much. we want to go back to morning. let's get a check of the overnight headlines. jenna is standing by. >> good morning to you, lester. we have new details this morning about kenneth bay, the american who has been held in north korea for 15 months. he was moved from a hospital to a labor camp. the transfer that u.s. officials say deeply concern them. they are urging north korea to release bae on humanitarian grounds. we also have an update on the man who said he survived 13 months drifting in the ocean. a diplomat from el salvador met

friday with jose on the marshall islands where he washed ashore. the official said he is very frail and his physical condition must improve before he can leave the island. for now he remains in seclusion in a hotel. a florida judge has ruled that the man who shot a fellow movie goer to death in florida last month must remain behind bars. in a bond hearing on friday prosecutors showed surveillance video of the incident where you see the two getting into a brief altercation over text messaging. hard to see there. retired police captain curtis reeves is charged with second degree murder. he claims he shot the man to death in self-defense. yank yes third baseman alex rodriguez has given up his fight against major league baseball. a-rod dropped his lawsuits against mlb, the commissioner bud selig, and the players union. he wanted a federal court to throw out his 162 game doping suspension. another milestone for arizona congresswoman gabrielle

giffords. she drove a car for the fifth since she was shot three years ago. she posted the video on her facebook page saying 2014 will be a year of many wins for me. moments when i do something i thought i might never be able to do again. finally, a good-bye but really a so long and eventually a hello and then a welcome back. you got all of that, right? after five years in the host chair last night, jimmy fallon said farewell to late night, but on february 17th he will be back taking over for jay leno on "the tonight show" at a new time slot. >> this is the last episode of "late night" and i'm going to really miss being on the tv at 12:37. especially in this battle for late night ratings and my rival ferguson and the vej yes chopper infomercial. >> i dvred it one time when i was watching fallon. >> he ended his hour singing

with the muppets and he walked 12 feet down to his new home straight down the hall. that is the news. now back to erica. >> all right. and dillon. >> we'll turn it over to dillon who has a check of our forecast. >> much needed rain out in california. we finally have this system that is setting up and producing lots of rainfall through california. we have an area of high pressure right here. combine that with an area of low pressure further to the west, and right here down here is hawaii, and this is the pineapple express. this is going to pull in all that pacific moisture, and it's going to be a steady stream on shore in parts of california. you can see over the course of the next 48 hours the rain continues through central and northern california. we've got heavy mountain snow. that's always good. when it melts come summertime. we are looking at perhaps several inches of rain. we could end up with four to six inches of rain, and perhaps as much as two feet of snow m 6:16 as you know it's been

raining all night long. the heaviest totals, mt. tam over seven inches of rain and just in the past 24 hours. we're expecting to add an additional 3 to 4 inches north of the golden gate bridge. you want to travel cautiously. we'll let you know when the rain will let up as we head throughout the next 15 minutes. stay with us. >> and that is your latest forecast. erica. >> all right, thanks. up next from sochi, forget the runway. this is quite a stage. we'll talk to the super model about her olympic role leading her country in the opening ceremony, but, first, this is "today" on nbc. ♪

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hit before the opening ceremony. we showed you them a bit ago. meantime, if the woman leading the russians during the parade of nations last night looked a little familiar, that's because she's appeared seven times in the "sports illustrated" swimsuit issue, including on the 2011 cover. it was russian supermodel irina shayk. irina, good morning. great to have you here. >> hi, good morning. thanks for having me. >> you were smiling like a school girl when you walked in with that sign in front of the russian team. the crowd went crazy. describe what that moment was like. >> well, for me, it's a big honor to be here, first of all, you know, the olympic games, and finally, it's in russia. 2014 is our year. and to be part of the parade, athletes parade, it was a pleasure for me, you know. i was very emotional because i have to be elite and walk first and all the sports behind me. so, it was scary, you know. >> were you prepared, though, for the screaming and just the ovation? >> well, we did the rehearsal.

i arrived six days before the opening ceremony, so we did rehearsal, we tried costumes, so we're kind of ready for it. but anyway, it was very emotional, and i was a little bit afraid. >> you grew up in a little town 1,100 miles east of moscow. and obviously, you've come a long way. how do you compare this honor to all the things you've done now as a supermodel? >> well, i grew up and i was born and raised in a very small village in the middle of nowhere, and to be here today, you know, having an interview with you guys, it's such a pleasure. to be in "sports illustrated's" swimsuit issue, nine years, actually, not seven. >> nine years! i stand corrected. >> yeah, it's a big pleasure for me, you know. life change, life change, and only for better. >> i know you are immensely proud of your country right now, as you should be. irina, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> nice seeing you. we're back right after this. [ female announcer ] neil lane designs for hollywood's biggest stars. let's have a look. who is it for? it's for becky.

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good morning to you. looking live at san rafael, one of the spots in the north way that's just getting walloped with this round of rain and we have team coverage from our meteorologists this morning. thancts so mu thanks for joining us. we've got a look at your forecast. >> good morning, kris, and to you at home. if you don't have to head out and about it's probably a good idea to stay put especially in the north bay, we've got heavy downpours rolling through. widespread rainfall across the greater bay area and will be the case for most of the day, so go ahead and make those indoor plans and we'll take you to futurecast and show you what we're expecting. all of this yellow, the heavy to moderate rainfall will move over the peninsula south of 92, over

the next hour and watch for that. as we head throughout the day we'll see the heavy waves of moisture particularly up in the north bay. we stopped the clock at 2:30 and you can still see that heavy rain persistently and localized flooding is in the forecast, take it easy out on the streets where we've got poor drainage all across the bay area. here's the deal. we stick with this pattern well into sunday and finally getting a break from the heavy rain as you wake up on monday morning. but we could tally up potentially 10 inches of rain in the places that accumulate the most. this is no joke. back to you, kris. >> christina is here with us all morning, but meteorologist jeff ranieri will join us for storm coverage at 7:00? san jose place are looking for an imposter, a man who investigators say pretended to be a police officer in order to pick up a woman who he then sexually assaulted. here's a sketch of that man. investigators say flashed a fake

badge and identified himself as an officer. investigators say he forced the woman into his car, and drove through a parking lot and assaulted her. detectives say he drove off in this dodge durango which was caught on a surveillance camera. coming up this morning on, today in the bay" we go live to sochi where janelle wang will give us her perspective on the opening ceremony and why people without tickets to the event are still having the time of their lives. and it is there the olympic flame. all the day's news and the storm coverage with two meteorologists this morning all coming up at 7:00.

>> we are back on a sort morning. it is february 8th, 2014, and are you looking at what appears to be a gorgeous day in sochi. that is the seaport of soech where i. meantime, back here at rockefeller plaza, we have a hard where i group of friends out there who stopped by to say hello. looking forward to saying hello to them in person in just a few moments. i'm erica hill along side genwra wolf and dillon dryer. lester is in sochi this morning, and we will have more in just a few minutes. we want to get you caught up on some of the morning's top stories. family, friends, and fellow actors coming out on friday to say good-bye to actor philip seymour hoffman. hoffman died last week of an apparent drug overdose. also, congresswoman gabby gef orders is marking a new

milestone driving a car for the first time since she was shot more than three years ago. also, power problems persist this morning for more than 100,000 people on the east coast while the west coast cleans up from a big snowstorm. and still to come in this half hour of "today" snowboard er sage kotsenberg is pretty -- i'll catch up with the men of the u.s. bobsled team. they still have a few days until their big race. they'll tell us all about it. >> looking forward to all that, lester. meantime, with one match already under the belt, the women on the u.s. hockey team are on to their next hurdle, being led by their new coach. i had a chance to meet up with her before they made their trip to sochi. i'll bring you more on team usa and katie stone, the winning coach in women's ncaa hockey. >> ourp the ice and you were

playing, and you guys were check, and you were -- >> they were, like, can you come and play? >> i got to hold out the fort at 1a with my girls. >> that was the time? >> thanks for the memory. >> of course. are you kidding? before we get to all that, though, we begin this morning in new york with woody allen speakinging out for the first time since his daughter dillon farrow broet an open letter to the "new york times" alleging child abuse by woody allen. here's more on the letter that allen wrote responding to the accusations. good morning. >> good morning, erica. this is a fight playing out in a very public way from the "new york times" to social media, but both sides lashing out now some 21 years after the alleged abuse. >> reporter: in his letter to the "new york times" woody allen fires back answering the abuse charges, claiming his former lover mia farrow was behind their daughter's accusations in the midst of the custody battle. allen calls the accusations

ludicrous and writes, "i hadn't molested dylan, and any rational person would see the ploy for what it was. commonsense would prevail. after all, i was a 56-year-old man who had never before or after been accused of child molestation." >> each side is arguing in the court of public opinion its strongest arguments. >> reporter: the decades old wounds were reopened recently when allen received a lifetime achievement award at the golden globes. first a tweet from his estranged son, roman, now a host on msnbc. he wrote, "missed the woody allen tribute. did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after annie hall?" then the letter from dylan last week going public. also in the "new york times". with the now 28-year-old saying when she was 7 her father led her into a closet-like attic writing, "he told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother's electric train set.

then he sexually assaulted me." woody allen points out the allegations were investigated at the time, and no charges were filed. he suggests his relationship with mia farrow's daughter outraged mia as improper despite the fact she had dated a much older frank sinatra when she was 16. >> no one has ruled what is central to the case, whether he molested her or not. wronk any court err will. >> i reached out to mia farrow. dylan released this statement saying allen's op ed is the latest rehash of the same legalese dis orgss and outright lies he has levelled at me for the past 20 years. for his part allen concluded his piece saying this will be his final word on the matter. we've reached out to reps for allen, and as expected, they had no comment. erica. >> kristen, thank you. we want to head outside. dylan has a final check of the weather for us. good morning. >> good morning. what a crowd we have out here on

the plaza this morning. on a saturday morning. this is fantastic. thank you, everybody, for being here. we're looking at pretty decent weather in the northeast today, although it is a little bit chilly. we've got rain down in the southeast too. much needed rain on the west coast. a couple of inches possible with feet of mountain snow. then tomorrow a little bit of icing, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem through parts of arkansas into tennessee. lighter snowshowers in the northeast. maybe a quick one to three inches. that's actually in new england. happy saturday morning to you, look at what is on the radar this morning. we have a lot of rain. it's going to stream in all day long. make the indoor plans. we'll let you know coming up in 15 minutes the areas we're watching for flooding and we'll tell you how much snowfall is on the way to our ski resorts in tahoe, so stick with us right here on nbc bay area as we've got a lot more rain on the way today and tomorrow.

just to make sure we get everybody in this morning, i'm going to walk over here to send it back to you, erica. >> all right, dylan, thanks. a newborn baby is safe this morning and an iowa police chief being hail aid here wroe for finding this child outside of a gas station after he was snatched in the middle of the night. joe pryor has more on the story. >> reporter: the temps were in the single digits. the baby just six days old when he was found friday morning behind an iowa gas station. >> the weather the way it was, the baby was surprisingly healthy. >> reporter: mike, the police chief in west branch, heard the baby's cries and found little cayden powell wrapped in totes. >> it was a very, very great day to find the baby alive and apparently well. to be honest with you, that's not what i expected. >> thursday morning the newborn's parents reported the baby missing from their home in beloit, wisconsin wishgs near

the illinois border. >> i had -- >> also gone the baby's aunt, kristen rhodes smith, now charged with kidnapping. when police arrested smith in iowa thursday, she didn't have the baby, but according to court documents, officers say they found baby clothing, a car seat, and a stroller inside smith's car. they also found a prosthetic pregnancy belly and say a search of her phone revealed messages where smith claimed she was pregnant. then friday 500 yards from where smith was arrested an alert police chief found cayden ending the one-day hunt for a week-old baby. up next on "today" we are heading back to sochi to meet one of slope style's daredevils. lester takes to the mountain with sage kotsenburg. every need. every age, every stage. we care about as much as you do. assortment of premium foods, his specific needs price guarantee. of health and happiness. at petsmart®.

little karen debuted a haircut she did all by herself, a couple on their first date agreed to a second date next week, and roomates filled up before their final leg to yellowstone, and that was just at one table in one day at one chili's. more life happens here.

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♪ we're back now on a saturday morning with "today's athlete to watch." snowboarder sage kotsenburg is one of the stars of the slopestyle event. sage is not afraid to try anything. in fact, he prides himself on always doing something new on the mountain. i caught up with him just a few weeks ago out in aspen. ♪ if you thought the snowboard halfpipe was extreme, welcome to slopestyle. >> slopestyle involves jumping and rails. >> when you say rails, you're talking about the board is coming across the metal. >> i'm talking -- yep, metal and your board sliding on it. >> for the first time, slopestyle is an official olympic event. it features tricks and jumps on a course filled with ramps and rails.

sage kotsenburg is on the u.s. team. hard to believe that just 12 years ago he was a kid watching olympic snowboarding for the first time in his hometown of park city, utah, during the 2002 games. >> so, i went to snowboard halfpipe and a couple other events, and me and my whole family went. we were like, wow. we had just started snowboarding. >> what made you think you could do that? i'm not talking about just sliding down a mountain, but the extreme angle of it? >> when i was 14, i really, really thought i could do it, but before that, i did it for fun. >> reporter: slopestyle is about pushing the envelope, doing something the other guy hasn't. think skateboarding on a mountain. >> i'm at breakfast, i'm just like, what trick can i do that's new that no one else has done or a grab i can do with a double or triple cork, you know? so, there's definitely a point where it's like, man, is this even possible anymore? >> you won't catch sage sitting still for long, except maybe for

this ride up the chair lift. to prepare for our interview, i took a snowboard lesson. thanks to my instructor, tomas rodriguez, it was enough to look respectable around this olympian. >> oh, look at that! nice, you nailed it! >> yeah! >> at least for a few seconds at a time. thankfully, sage still remembers what it was like to learn how to ride one of these. this is a humbling sport. it really is. >> it's pretty crazy when you just get on it. it's a crazy learning curve. >> what do you tell people who want to start this sport? >> don't expect anything the first day or the first few days. >> of course, the aches and pains of that first snowboard lesson are nothing compared to the risks of slopestyle olympic competition. >> it's a new sport and it's super dangerous what we do. every day we take risks, and you can easily get seriously injured or, you know, even die doing it. >> yet, the ready smile on his face says it all about this

young, first-time olympian, thrilled to be pioneering the event he loves on the world's biggest stage. are you going to do something in these games that we haven't seen you do before? >> yeah, i have a couple tricks in mind that i would love to do in sochi. i have a lot of different grabs that no one's ever seen, and i haven't really landed some of them yet, so, hopefully, i can start them this week and get them on lock. >> you can watch sage and more of team usa in action tonight during nbc's prime time coverage. it starts at 8:00/7:00 central. up next here this morning, erica talks to coach katey stone of the u.s. women's hockey team. but first, these messages. let's say no... to so-so. and turn on a faucet of ideas. let's pick... this or this. try that. let's soak it up here. save it there. then, let's jump in... with both feet.

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finland 3-1. the team is led by a woman with a very impressive resume. she has made history multiple times before this team even stepped on the ice, but she's continuing to make history in sochi. i caught up with coach katey stone and her team before they all left for russia. katey stone is no stranger to the world stage. >> that a way, that a way! >> reporter: she's coached the u.s. national women's hockey team since 2010, all while continuing to head the women's program at harvard -- >> middle, middle, middle, middle! >> reporter: -- where she set ncaa records with more than 400 wins. >> okay, listen, our first game -- >> reporter: but coaching this team is different. >> it's a little crazy, i've got to be honest. >> okay, come on now. >> but it's awesome, and it's getting a little bit more exciting every day. >> reporter: team usa prepared for sochi by playing practice games like this one against the northern cyclones, a men's

hockey team. >> we may or may not win all these games, but when we get to sochi, we know that we've played against better competition, that we should be able to dominate anyone that we play. >> reporter: you're the first woman to coach the women's u.s. team. is it a big deal? >> it's a huge deal. i just hope i'm not the last. >> reporter: do you think men and women coach differently? >> no question. >> reporter: and your players must see a difference. >> i'll bet they do, yep. i bet they do. there are just different conversations they have. there are different ways of motivating them and connecting with them, and i think that's important. there's never a time i don't step on the ice where i don't feel prepared. every instance that happens in a game, in split seconds they have us prepared for, and i've never been coached like that before, and i love it. >> reporter: stone chose this olympic team carefully, focusing on more than just their skills on the ice. >> whether it's their character and their work ethic, their willingness to block a shot, we have each one here for a different reason. >> reporter: there's also a mix

of experience, which helps to balance the team. 31-year-old julie chu is the oldest. sochi will be her fourth shot at olympic gold. 19-year-old lee stecklein is the youngest. she was just 3 the last time the u.s. won gold in the sport's 1998 olympic debut. what's your main focus heading into sochi? is it a gold medal? >> it's first playing our best hockey. we're not working this hard to be second. we're working this hard to try to be first. >> yeah! whoo! >> and of course, to get there, they will end up playing team canada. that is their biggest rival. and who knows, maybe the two teams will end up in that gold-medal game. we will be watching. up next here on "today," the men of the u.s. bobsled team stop by on their way to preparing for their big event. but first, this is "today" on nbc. [ mom ] hi, we're the pearsons, and we love chex cereal. so we made our own commercial to tell you why. first, chex makes lots of gluten free flavors.

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♪

we're back on a saturday morning from sochi with a group of men who really know what the word teamwork is all about. nick cunningham, justin olsen, johnny quinn and dallas robinson will all compete in the same four-man sled for the bobsled event. guys, thanks for stopping by. great having you here. nick, does it ever get old walking in the opening ceremony? >> no. that's definitely what keeps us coming back, knowing that we all have one name on our back, and it's usa, and it's the pride and the sacrifice that goes into it. you know, we're all happy to definitely be here. >> justin, you raced in 2010, got a gold medal in vancouver. what are your expectations here? >> nothing's changed. the game plan's the same. just a different set of guys here. so you know, we're after the medals, and let it be known. >> okay. a nonsledding question for johnny. you tweeted a picture out this morning. you had to bust out of your shower. explain that one. >> well, it was an unfortunate situation, but i got out safely. you know, could have happened to anyone. the nice thing is that the venue here has been phenomenal. the russians have done a great

job with the venue. and so, unfortunately, though, it was -- i got locked in this morning. >> yeah, that's a great picture. looks like conan the barbarian burst through there. you're the push man, right? >> well, yeah. >> we know that now. >> bobsled athletes are bigger individuals, so i had to make sure the hole was brig enough to get out. >> dallas, >> whaz the experience been like? >> it's unbelievable. just honored to be here representing the u.s. army, our team, our country, and the stae of kentucky. it's fantastic. >> it's been great having you guys here. when are you guys -- >> 15th, 16th and 22nd and 23rd is four-man. >> your headed up to the mountains. gorgeous up there. >> unbelievable. unbelievable. everything. >> thanks for coming on. nice to have you here. reminder once again, the primetime coverage on nbc begins tonight at 8:00, 7:00 central. erica, that's it for us now this morning from sochi. we'll send it back to you in new york. >> what a crowd.

talk about the crowd we have here. tomorrow on "today" we have a wrap-up of the day's olympic events. plus, lester hits the ice, get this, with the u.s. women's curling team. right, lester? >> i thought he was going to take the ice. >> we know there's more to it hand that, right, lester? >> it's not an easy sport. it takes a lot of abs here, core strength and balance. none of which i have. >> that's all right. we're still pulling for you. we have faith. >> we'll see you then. have a great day, everybody. [ female announcer ] you've got finding time for what matters,

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these stunning bridal brands and more, together in one place -- kay jewelers. ♪ every kiss begins with kay good morning, i'm kris sanchez. coming up next on "today in the bay" the olympic games are off and running and we'll go live to sochi and our own janelle wang in the middle of all of that excitement. and we've got two meteorologists working on storm coverage for you this morning as the much-needed rain wallops the bay area. we'll show you how long the storm clouds will be over your neighborhood this weekend. and we'll track where driving could be more difficult if you are headed out and about. ♪

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through all eight speeds of a transmission connected to more standard horsepower than its german competitors. and that is the moment that driving the lexus gs will shift your perception. ♪ this is the pursuit of perfection. we need the rain and, boy, are we getting it this morning. looking live from san jose to palo alto, fremont, and dublin, everyone's getting a little taste this morning. some people more than just a taste. thanks so much for joining us, i'm kris sanchez and we have live team storm coverage for you this morning with two meet rolts wo meteorologists tracking the wind and the rain and jeff ranieri is live for us in sra