The Skating Palace and Olympic Stadium construction site in Sochi, Russia. The city recently cancelled its plans to exterminate thousands of animals before hosting the 2014 Games. (AFP via Getty Images)

Sochi officials cancelled their plans to kill more than 2,000 stray cats and dogs prior to the 2014 Winter Games, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

The plans were originally conceived to ensure safety to visitors and improve the city’s image during the Winter Games. But the CEO of the Humane Society International criticized the plans, and no public bids were received to carry out the extermination. The city was prepared to pay about $54,000 for “work to catch and dispose of” the animals.

The city will instead seek alternate means of treating and sterilizing the animals, including plans to build an animal shelter.

From the RIA Novosti report:

The Sochi authorities also said an animal shelter would soon be built in the city, and a plot of land has already been allocated for the purpose.

“The animal shelter will be built and maintained by the Dobromir charity organization. All the required documents are currently being finalized,” the Sochi administration said in a statement.

Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones has made the U.S. bobsled team. (Franck Fife/Getty Images)

Less than a month after she reportedly tried the sport for the first time, Lolo Jones, an Olympic hurdler in 2008 and 2012, has made the U.S. bobsled team, according to a report Thursday morning from USA TODAY Sports.

Jones, 30, was named to the team as a push athlete, the member of the team tasked with pushing the bobsled at the beginning of the race. She will compete with the team in the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

GALLERY: RARE PHOTOS OF LOLO JONES

She had competed with 16 other potential “pushers” during the summer push championship, in which she finished seventh, and team races, which had wrapped up Oct. 24. She had finished second in a team race Oct. 20.

Jones was reportedly recruited by Todd Hays, the women’s bobsled coach and a 2002 Olympic silver medalist.

U.S. Olympian Simon Cho tampered with a rival’s skate. (Robert Michael/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. Olympic speedskater Simon Cho admitted to tampering with a Canadian rival’s skates, while claiming he was under pressure from his coach, according to the Associated Press.

“I am deeply embarrassed and sad to confirm certain allegations that have been made in the arbitration demand brought by a group of my fellow speedskaters against U.S. Speedskating and the coaches,” Cho said in a statement issued by his attorney Friday morning.

Cho’s comments confirmed one allegation made in the arbitration demand that seeks to permanently remove U.S. coach Jae Su Chun. Chun has denied any wrongdoing but is suspended.

A U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman emailed the AP calling the conduct “repugnant and antithetical to the values of the Olympic movement and inconsistent with Team USA’s commitment to fair play.”

U.S. Speedskating is expected to respond to the findings of an independent investigation of Chun later today at a scheduled press conference.

Cho’s admission comes after a dozen skaters accused Chun of abuse:

The skaters also alleged that he ordered Cho to tamper with Canadian Olivier Jean’s skates, and Cho all but admitted the act last weekend at the U.S. Short-Track Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval.

Cho hired an attorney to advise him through legal matters last week.

Olympic champion Evan Lysacek is returning to competitive figure skating. (Saeed Khan/Getty Images)

Reigning Olympic gold medalist Evan Lysacek will return to competitive figure skating with the goal of making the 2014 Olympic team, he announced Friday on the TODAY Show (via the Chicago Tribune‘s Philip Hersh).

Last September, Lysacek said he would try to make the 2014 Olympic team, but a contract dispute with U.S. Figure Skating stalled his comeback.

Hersh reports that Lysacek had changed agents in the interim, which helped him to work through his contractual issues. Now, he should have plenty of time to prepare for the Olympic Trials.

Freestyle skier Sarah Burke passed away today after suffering severe brain injuries last week during a training accident in Utah, according to the New York Post.

“Groundbreaking Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke passed away at 9:22AM January 19, 2012 at the University of Utah Hospital from injuries sustained in an accident on the Eagle Superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort on Tuesday, January 10, 2012,” her family said in a statement.

Burke had been in an induced coma for the past week following an accident that resulted in a torn vertebral artery. The torn artery caused bleeding onto her brain which sent her into cardiac arrest, the Post reports.

Burke is the winner of four X Games gold medals in freestyle skiing. She also won the 2005 FIS Freestyle World Championship.

Sarah Burke, a Canadian freestyle skier who was expected to excel at the 2014 Winter Olympics, was seriously injured yesterday in a 22-foot halfpipe in Park City, Utah.

Burke hit her head while attempting to land a trick and had to be immediately airlifted to University Hospital in Salt Lake City, according to the New York Times.

“Sarah sustained serious injuries and remains intubated and sedated in critical condition,” neurointensivist Safdar Ansari said in a statement.

Burke, a 29-year-old from Ontario, is a four-time X Games champion. She had successfully lobbied to add halfpipe skiing to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She was also expected to defend her X Games gold medal this month in Aspen, Colo.

“Sarah is a very strong young woman, and she will most certainly fight to recover,” husband Rory Bushfield said in a statement.

This sad news comes just two years after champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce sustained a similarly traumatic head injury, also in Park City, on Dec. 31, 2009.