So far during the Winter Olympics, Vladimir Putin hasn't shown off his pecs, scuba-dived to a treasure site or engaged in any sort of the he-man stunts he's known for.

Since team ski jumping on the large hill was added to the Winter Olympics program in 1988, it's been mostly a European affair — Austria, Finland and Germany have won it twice each. Japan managed gold once — when the country hosted the games in 1998 at Nagano.

But the Japanese skiers, led by large hill silver medalist Noriaki Kasai, look to be favorites — this time on the road — going into the team competition on Monday, the sport's final Olympic event at the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center. Japanese ski jumpers filled four of the top 13 places in the large hill gold final on Saturday.

For Brazilians, not winning the World Cup would be bad enough.

Even worse would be bitter rival Argentina winning in Brazil where 200 million locals are expecting to celebrate.

French investigators said Monday that Formula One legend Michael Schumacher's ski accident in the French Alps was not due to safety breaches by the ski station or faulty material.

"There were no breaches by anybody. The accident occurred in an off-piste zone," said prosecutor Patrick Quincy, adding that the markers and other signs at the posh ski resort of Meribel "conformed to current French laws."

Manuel Pellegrini, the Manchester City manager, did not believe he had a point to prove over Jose Mourinho despite knocking him and Chelsea out of the FA Cup in a 2-0 fifth-round victory at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

City's Chilean manager had come under close scrutiny and had his tactical acumen questioned after losing to Chelsea at home in the league two weeks ago, the second time this season he had lost to Mourinho and the seventh defeat in nine career meetings between the pair.

Barcelona boss Gerardo Martino believes the first leg of his side's Champions League last-16 tie against Manchester City on Tuesday comes at the right time as he has a fully-fit squad to choose from.

The Catalans maintained their place atop La Liga on goal difference with a 6-0 thrashing of Rayo Vallecano at the Camp Nou on Saturday.

Washington's John Wall won the Slam Dunk Contest and Italy's Marco Belinelli captured the 3-Point Shootout in skills competitions on Saturday ahead of the 63rd NBA All-Star Game.

Before Sunday's showdown between elite lineups from the Eastern and Western Conference in New Orleans, players competed in a relaxed atmosphere for bragging rights in skills competitions.

Yuzuru Hanyu and Brian Orser were walking together along the Black Sea just over a year ago, a skater and a coach still getting to know each other.

"He just blurted it out: 'I want to win the Olympics. And I want to win the next Olympics,'" Orser recalled Friday, back in Sochi with Hanyu.

Ten grey-suited Buddhists crouch like leopards stalking a muntjac before barreling across the stage in an explosion of gravity-defying pivots, kicks and somersaults that would make an osteopath wince.

These are the warrior monks of China's fabled Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of kung fu which is spreading its gospel to Africa as part of a wood-smashing, sword-dancing, spear-balancing grab at global ubiquity.

Switzerland's Lara Gut looks to convert her World Cup super-G domination into Olympic gold on Saturday while the United States and Russia renew their titanic ice hockey rivalry.

Gut, 22, was third behind joint gold winners Tina Maze of Slovenia and teammate Dominique Gisin in Wednesday's dead-heated downhill, and she is desperate to take top spot especially having missed the 2010 Vancouver Games through injury.