Gay At The Games: Weir's Braided Statement, Pussy Riot's Shoutout to Gays

Twist Lift
NBC commentator and figure skater Johnny Weir is not hiding anything in Russia, and his latest fashion statement is directed at the people of Ukraine.

As the country is embroiled in mass violence, Weir said he was wearing a traditional Ukrainian braid Wednesday to show support for the nation's people. According to USA Today, Weir has worked closely with Galina Zmiecskaya, the coach of two Ukrainian skating stars, Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko.

"I was planning, before I came, on doing braids because it's the style here," Weir said. "I wanted to do it today because everything is going so rough over there."

She Could Be Finnished
The goalie for Finland's women's Olympic hockey team says she will probably retire from the sport if she isn't allowed to begin playing in a competitive league after the Sochi games, and she's not ruling out the male leagues.

Noora Raty explained that she's "24 years old, out of the college, single, and the money doesn't grow [on] trees."

Raty called on the U.S. or Canada to put together a competitive league for women's hockey, since she said the sport can't grow without either country (or both countries together) launching a pro league.

"That is the next critical step that our sport needs to take or our sport will never be respected like it should be," she wrote in an open letter, according to BuzzFeed. "Asking players to work full-time and then training like a pro athlete at the same time is just too much and unfair."

Riot Rock
You may remember video of the members of punk-feminist performance group Pussy Riot getting shot right near Sochi earlier this week. Well, the music video they were filming for the song "Putin Will Teach You How to Love" is out today. The first lines in the song, translated from Russian, are "50 billion and a gay-driven rainbow / Rodnina and Kabaeva will pass you those flames / In prison they will teach you how to obey / Salut to all bosses, hail, duce!"
Enjoy!


Lone Wolf
Kate Hansen, an Olympic luger, shared video of a wolf -- yes, a freaking wolf -- roaming the halls of the dormitories in the Olympic village.


Jumping Into History
Sarah Hendrickson, the first female ski jumper in Olympic history, says she's proud that she got to compete and hasn't seen or experienced any problems in terms of equality or LGBT expression.

UESE IN SOCHI - Interview with Sarah Hendrickson from UESE on Vimeo.