Sochi Scene is a daily dispatch from Associated Press reporters about happenings in and around Sochi during the 2014 Winter Games. Follow AP journalists covering the Olympics on Twitter: http://apne.ws/1c3WMiu   The American women's hockey team was 3:26 seconds away from its first Olympic gold medal since 1998. Then everything went wrong.

Canada’s skip Jennifer Jones celebrates after delivering the last rock to defeat Sweden in the women's curling gold medal game at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Canada's skip Jennifer Jones celebrates after winning the women's curling gold medal game against Sweden at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) Canada's skip Jennifer Jones, center, celebrates with teammates Jill Officer, left, and Kaitlyn Lawes after winning the women's curling gold medal game against Sweden at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

8 Winter Olympics Demo Sports | Mental Floss

This year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia have added 12 new sports to the global competition, making the 22nd Winter Olympics the largest version of the event yet. But this isn't the first time the Olympics have attempted to introduce new competitions to the world. The event has long made both room and time to include “demonstration sports” during their run. These sports are played for promotional purposes and some eventually become official Olympic events. Most don't—but there are certainly some interesting entries here (including two that involve dogs). Sure, there are plenty of Olympic-level sports that the layman should not try at home, but few seem as primed for disaster as skijoring, a game that centers on being pulled by animals while on skis. Picture your goofy neighbor who likes to go skateboarding with his or her pup pulling them along. Then imagine that all happening on snow and ice. Skijoring involves one cross-country skier either being pulled by dogs (often from such go-get-'em breeds as Huskies, Malamutes, Samoyeds, and Inuit dogs) or one trick skier going over jumps and obstacles while being pulled by a single horse. Equestrian skijoring also includes cross-country style races, but most competitions involve the acrobatic elements. You can also skijor behind a snowmobile, but it's far less cute.

SOCHI, Russia -- Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen and Canadian women's hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser have been elected to the IOC. Bjorndalen and Wickenheiser were voted in by their peers Thursday for an eight-year term as representatives of the IOC athletes' commission. Bjorndalen has won two gold medals in Sochi to become the most decorated athlete in Winter Games history with 13 career medals, including eight gold.

SOCHI, Russia -- Almaty has most of the venues already in place to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and would spend only a fraction of what Russia invested in the Sochi Games, leaders of the bid from Kazakhstan said Thursday. Almaty, one of five candidates for 2022, is bidding for a second time after failing to make the cut for the 2014 Games, which went to Sochi. Almaty, the commercial capital of the oil-rich former Soviet republic in Central Asia, hosted the 2011 Asian Winter Games and will stage the Winter University Games in 2017.

Arirang News :: PyeongChang 2018 taking spotlight at Sochi 2014

The spirit of the Olympics is alive and well in Sochi, but just a few minutes after entering Olympic Park… you can also get a sense of what the 2018 Winter Games will be like."The PyeongChang House sits just before the main competition venues at the Olympic Park. Athletes and sports fans can get a preview of what the Winter Olympics will look like at Korea’s alpine city - four years from now." From learning about Pyeongchang's location on the Korean peninsula… and experiencing Korean medicine to watching cultural performances every day, visitors can get a better idea of the host city and nation of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games. The venue is especially popular among Russians who are curious about the city that will take the reins in four years. “I think it will be good Olympic Games and maybe even better than now. I hope I will be able to see the Games in Pyeongchang." And it’s not too early to think about Pyeongchang. Athletes who have already wrapped up their Games at Sochi are now setting their sights on Pyeongchang… and so are their families."We are parents of an athlete at these Games and I'm very impressed. Obviously they are quite ready for the Olympics, there's no question about that." After hitting the 100-thousand visitor mark on Sunday, PyeongChang House is rising as a must-see spot among Olympic fans. “Over 15-thousand visitors stop by at PyeongChang House a day, meaning one out of five people in Olympic Park drop by. They get surprisingly interested after viewing the exhibitions. More than 5-hundred Russians have already requested that they’d love to volunteer at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.” Visitor number 201,800 to the PyeongChang House -- 2018 with two zeroes on the end, will win a free flight to and from the Games, if the winner wants to volunteer at the 2018 Games. Song Ji-sun, Arirang News, Sochi. Reporter :

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MOSCOWFri Jan 17, 2014 8:26am EST Gold medallist Liu Xiaoyu (C) of China poses with silver medallist Yulia Efimova (L) of Russia and bronze medallist Rebecca Ejdervik of Sweden during the women's 50m breaststroke final at the FINA Swimming World Cup in Dubai, October 8, 2011. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, who won a bronze medal at the London Olympics, has failed a doping test, the Vedemosti newspaper reported on Friday.

STOCKHOLMFri Jan 17, 2014 8:55am EST STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Stockholm has surprisingly pulled the financial plug on its bid to host the 2022 winter Olympics with the Swedish city's ruling Moderate party saying on Friday that investing in the Games was not attractive enough. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in November that six cities, including former summer Games hosts Beijing and Stockholm, had launched bids to stage the 2022 event.