Mikaela Shiffrin, Nolan Kasper and others will be big skiing names at the Sochi Olympics. You can thank Burke Mountain Academy.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh0zjXlnnPQ&w=600&h=315]

Even though I don't completely understand why a city would pay for the Olympics, they do start up in a few days -- and that's somewhat exciting, if only for my misguided feelings of nationalism. (I jest.) I've started trying to figure out the key events and who to root for -- this is akin t…