team, heidi kloser busted up her knee. she is a mogul skier and tore her acl and mcl and had an impact fracture of her thigh bone. when you watch the opening ceremony tonight, you are going to see an amazing sight because a among the 230 u.s. athletes, walking into that stadium tonight is heidi kloser. she is on crutches and she was followed by a wheelchair but she was there and in fact, her father said when she was in the ambulance yesterday, she looked at him and said, dad, am i still an olympian because i never got to make an official run? he said, yes, you are and she certainly is tonight. she is there with her u.s. team. >> that is so uplifting but at the same time heartbreaking. andrew weiss, i want to also ask about this extraordinary diplomatic flap between ukraine, russia and the united states where we had the overheard conversation crystal clear audio of veteran diplomat victoria nuland who is very -- has been very tough on russia and has difficult relationship with lavrov and other officials. there is this leake

. >> reporter: it had been a good ski season for heidi kloser, second at lake placid, fourth in world cup overall. she first imagined going to the olympics when she was just three, and now it happened. >> it was really cool standing at the top today. it felt like the olympics for sure. >> reporter: but thursday, just seconds into her moguls warmup, a terrible crash. as she was carried off the mountain, she says she knew the games were over for her before they began. and with the innocence of that young girl who wanted to represent her country for so long, she asked her parents, am i still an olympian? did you think you were not? >> i don't know. i just didn't know for sure. i felt like i had to start to be considered an olympian. >> reporter: her dad's posting on facebook brought a deluge of support, all echoing mike's answer to his daughter, of course you are. heidi had broken her right leg but wanted to walk in the opening ceremony anyway. when she tells you she was going to walk with all those injuries? >> well, i had had some reservations, but i know how strong she is. >> reporter

and in the same event, eliza outtrim also advanced to the next round, but american heidi kloser, whoher knee yesterday on the moguls, is out of the games. >>> time now for sports. here's a thought to warm you up. baseball spring training just six days away. next thursday. >> good sign. good sign. for your nba action, here are our friends over at espn. >> good morning, america. i mean it. he's stan, i'm neil. this is the "sportscenter" set in los angeles, california. >> you know, i just love these segments because i just want to see how you're going to bring us on. >> pac-12 basketball. >> yeah. oregon and arizona, that's brandon ashley out for the season. got injured in that loss to cal. >> kaleb tarczewski. >> the big tarczewski. >> t.j. mcconnell now up 2. ensuing possession, joseph young from oregon got a look but it's from way out there. >> joe was feeling it. >> he had 14 points but arizona back on track. they win it, 67-65. >> you know, jim brown, the hall of fame football player was an all-american lacrosse player. >> i didn't know that. >> they changed the rules for him. this

led by todd ludwick, in his sixth olympics with a determined heidi kloser on crutches after that crash in the moguls yesterday, tearing her acl. the most expensive olymics in history, $51 billion, kicked off with over a thousand performers. ballerinas performing a rendition of swan lake. an acrobat taking flight over 40,000 spectators. and an homage to the russian revolution. with president vladimir putin presiding over it all. there was that misfire, the snowflake failing to turn into one of the five olympic rings, this is what everyone in the stadium saw. but russians watching at home didn't see the glitch, they saw video of a rehearsal. and away from the pomp, in moscow, arrests as demonstrators challenged russia's anti-gay policies. but in sochi, the fireworks and olympic flame seemed at least for tonight to outshine the criticism of the games so far. and the grand your of the spectacle of the opening ceremonies will be replaced with the grit of the actual games. the hardware is going start rolling. five gold medals up for grabs. matt gutman, abc news, sochi, russia. >> matt, thank

on the sidelines will be heidi kloser. she's ranked fourth in the world. her knee thursday in a training run. in a moment of true grit, kloser walked into the opening ceremony last night and with the u.s. team she was on crutches and followed by a wheelchair in case she gets tired. i spoke to kloser earlier today and said now that she can no longer compete she has a different role at these games. >> i heard that a lot of people were inspired and i'm glad that i could do that. i'm just so happy that i got to come here and happy that i can be a part of the olympics. it has been a goal may whole life. hope reply i get to go to korea and actually ski there. >>. >> reporter: kloser will need stroyrnlg repair that damaged me and will have it back in the united states when she returns later this month. i'm anne thompson at the olympic mountain venues. now back to you. >> anne, thank you for that. >>> we are go to return to sochi in a bit for a look at the americans to watch in the pursuit of olympic gold. we are going meet a u.s. olympic ice dancing duo, brother

the moguls course claimed american skier heidi kloser yesterday. she was stretchered off. was worked on after american snowboarder shaun white dropped out of the event. others have also been tamped down. by this point the creature comfort problems that ooth let'ses in sochi have been well documented. now there's a twitter page for that. its handle @sochiproblems. part of its profile, quote, i'm a mess and not prepared for you. it has over 187,000 followers right now. and that's google's home page today. today featuring winter olympics sports in rainbow colors. also quotes from the olympic charter, part of which reads, every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport without discrimination of any kind. of course, we all know what that's a reference to, right? do we know? if you saw the google home page -- >> oh, sure. >> -- russia's anti-ga laws. >> of course. they are talking about the problems they have in sochi. it's not all that. we like to focus on the negative. i have a friend there now. he said his hotel is fine, no problems. but the few we see there ar

american skier heidi kloser took a nasty spill and broke her leg. rst 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

and that was heidi kloser who is the skier who shattered a knee before the games even began.i got injured before the opening ceremony? as someone who has dealt with injuries, what's your take on this story? what did you think when you heard that? >> of course she's an olympian. she qualified, you know, the hardest thing to do is just to qualify for the olympics. and i thought it was really amazing she walked in the opening ceremony. she deserved to be there. she is an olympian and, you know, she's going to be back and she's so young, she'll be back in the next four years. >> yeah. i just thought it was so nice that clearly that was so important to her that she be considered an olympian. i couldn't agree with you more. she is one, not only in terms of her physical ability, but also her emotional side, as well. lindsey, thanks so much for your input on this. we'll be seeing you a lot over the course of the next couple of weeks. >> thanks. oh, hey, by the way, you should probably never wear that hat you wore in the last segment ever again. from one friend to another. >> you didn

. >> finally women's freestyle skiing, 21-year-old american heidi kloser out of the competition afterher knee during practice. later, teammate hannah kearney pulling out a huge backflip earning the top score for the day, she and teammate eliza outtrim advance to the finals. now with the opening ceremonies just hours away, the athletes we spoke to couldn't be more pumped. >> we're here. we're ready to go. and good things are going to happen in sochi this year. >> reporter: some great things are going to happen in sochi tonight. 40,000 people expected to attend the opening ceremony, which will take place right over my shoulder in fisht stadium and we just learned some of the incredible events in store for this morning's opening ceremony. all, of course, kept secret until now. while we won't see the queen of england jumping out of a helicopter as we saw in 2012 we will see a troupe of elite russian ballet stars and an amazing 22 tons of fireworks that will bring the games to a spectacular and i think pretty loud start and an interesting addition to the program, the russian duo tattoo kno

we've all become familiar with your teammate heidi kloser who had to deal with the disappointment ofher leg in a practice run. what kind of encouragement has she given you? >> high d is a veeidi is a very individual. she sincerely supports her teammates and wants us to do well. it's odd because we're teammates but it's an individual sport. when heidi got hurt, i felt sick to my stomach. she can at least call herself an olympian. we walked in the ceremonies. we happen to share the same initials so i call her the little h.k. i blew out my knee and came back to win the medals so her career is quite far from over. >> i'm wondering if you're going to stick arounding go to other competitions. are you going to stay in sochi and attending closing ceremonies as well or are you getting on with things? >> i'm not staying. we have been here for almost two weeks. i have a competition in japan i need to prepare for. however, i have signed up for the usa women's hockey game and figure skating and ski jumping and some of the halfpipe events as well. now that my events are over i'm a spectator and su

american heidi kloser weren't down with a knee injury. >> downhill skiers were doing their thing in trialmerican star value i can't mancuso had the third best run among the women. the three time olympic medal winner and her teammates get to do it for real sunday. knee injuries will keep two time olympic medal winner lindsey von from being one of those teammates. the americans must adopt. >> we definitely miss lindsey. she's a big presence on our team and always the one to beat. you definitely feel that she's not here. i think also, it leaves a lot of opportunity for everyone else, too and to do your best. really we're always here to do our best and without having lindsey, it's kind of like we've adopted to it already, and we just can't wait for her to get back. >> besides vonn, another star missing the sochi olympics is henrik sedin, recovering from a rib injury that forced him to miss six games. this is a blow to letting gold medal contender team sweden, now missing sedin and franzen. >> two goons ago, most of the boxing world was convinced the judges who awarded timothy bradley an upset

then with the americans, skier heidi close kloser, i don't kno you have have been following her storyas on the practice for the downhill and tore up her acl, just during practice, the day before the games started. her dad said that on the way to the ambulance, she said to him, dad, am i even an olympian? of course she is. she crutched her way in walking with her teammates, really showing the olympic grit and spirit that these games are all about. >> there was also a little bit of controversy at the opening ceremonies, right? >> two moments, actually. one was when the ioc president spoke, gave his address. he specifically mentioned diversity, then went even further and said that he hopes that politicians take notice from the athletes present in the stadium and their ideals of tolerance. now, he didn't go any further, but we all have to assume this is a nod against russia's anti-gay laws that have been so controversi controversial. then there was another controversial moment toward the end. the woman chosen to light the torch tonight, always a big subject of speculation, well, it was ir

you had an olympic skier heidi kloser out of the olympics.as able to get on the crutches and crutch into the stadium with her teammates which is really good for all of them. a lot of good things happening around the stadium and a little bit of controversy as well. >> yeah, let's talk about that controversy. and there's big controversy since the announcement of sochi for the winter games. specifically with the lighting of the olympic flame. the torch. the person who lit it sparkeded a little controversy. what's that about? >> yeah, arena drucnina, a three-time figure skating champion. recently, she was voted the most recognizable olympic person in russia. certainly you thought might be light the flap along with the hockey hero. however, she's currently a member of the russian parliament. last september, she tweeted out a photo of president obama and his wife michelle with a banana superimposed over it. she did delete the tweet after she was condemned foreign wide including the u.s. ambassador to russia but she didn't apologize. when organizers

. >> finally women's freestyle skiing, 21-year-old american heidi kloser out of the competition aftering her knee during practice. later, teammate hannah kearney pulling out a huge backflip earning the top score for the day, she and teammate eliza outtrim advance to the finals. now with the opening ceremonies just hours away, the athletes we spoke to couldn't be more pumped. >> we're here. we're ready to go and good things are going to happen in sochi this year. >> reporter: some great things are going to happen in sochi tonight. 40,000 people expected to attend the opening ceremony, which will take place right over my shoulder in fisht stadium and some of the incredible events in store for the opening ceremony, all, of course, kept secret until now. while we won't see the queen of england jumping out of a helicopter as we saw in 2012 we will see a troupe of elite russian ballet stars and an amazing 22 tons of fireworks that will bring the games to a spectacular and i think pretty loud start and an interesting addition to the program, the russian duo tattoo known for their racy pop mu