Summary The Sochi Winter Olympics in brief on Monday:
SOCHI, Russia, Feb 03, 2014 (AFP) - Pretorius out with unlucky break
Canada s ski jumper Alexandra Pretorius has been ruled out of the Olympics after re-injuring her surgically repaired anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
Pretorius, who initially injured her ACL in July 2013, was named in Canada s Olympic team on January 26, but suffered a further injury during a pre-Olympic training camp.
"Although this is heartbreaking news I will be cheering on all Canadians and I look forward to having my chance at the next Winter Olympic Games," she said.
Taylor Henrich and Atsuko Tanaka will still participate for Canada in the inaugural women s event on February 11.
Like jumping out of a building
Canadian slopestyle snowboarder Sebastien Toutant admits the course at Krasnaya Polyana presents a stiff challenge.
"They definitely have the slope. We have big air time but it s air time dropping down. It is like jumping out of a building. I should put on my Canadian flying squirrel suit."
Biathlon s band of brothers..and sisters
Three Swiss sisters, Ukrainian identical twins and a brother and sister competing for different countries are among the seven sibling combinations who will compete in the biathlon.
Selina Gasparin, who is 29, Elisa Gasparin, 22, and 19-year-old Aita Gasparin from Switzerland will compete together for the first time in an Olympic competition.
Identical 27-year-old twin sisters Valj and Vita Semerenko are both medal hopes for Ukraine.
Anton Shipulin and Anastasiya Kuzmina are brother and sister but will represent Russia and Slovakia respectively.
At Vancouver in 2010, Anastasiya won Slovakia s first Olympic Winter Games gold medal when she took the women s 7.5km sprint.
France has world number one Martin Fourcade and brother Simon competing at the same Games for the first time.
Then there are the Berger and Boe siblings from Norway. At Vancouver in 2010, Tora Berger became the first Norwegian woman to claim Olympic gold in biathlon when she won the 15km individual.
Her older brother Lars, 34, plans to retire after Sochi. Brothers Tarjei and Johannes Thingnes Boe are up and coming stars of the Norwegian squad.
Italy boast brothers Dominik and Markus Winisch.
USA twins Tracy and Lanny Barnes were primed to compete together in Sochi, but Tracy gave up her place to her sister after Lanny fell ill late in the season and could not compete in the final qualifying events.
Help! Babushki are singing Beatles songs
A group of singing and dancing Russian babushki, or grandmothers, who perform Beatles hits, will be one of the headline acts at the Sochi Cultural Olympiad.
The band of eight women called Buranovskiye Babushki (Buranovo Grannies, from the village of Buranovo in Udmurtia, near the Urals) gained a worldwide following when they finished second in the 2012 Eurovision song contest in Baku.
The women are aged between 45 and 78 but most are in their 70s.
Dressed in traditional red outfits, silver jewellery and headscarves, the all-singing, all-dancing babushki perform most of their songs in the Udmurt language of the region, with some sections in English.
While their programme for Sochi 2014 remains a secret, their repertoire includes cover versions of The Beatles Let It Be, The Eagles Hotel California, and Deep Purple s Smoke on the Water.
