Russian Olympic Committee

Alexander Bolshunov, the Russian skier who is the odds on favorite to win Saturday’s 50-kilometer freestyle marathon at the Beijing Olympics, may have more on his mind than a momentous ski race: A potential Russian invasion of Ukraine will likely pass near to his childhood home in the rural village of Podyvot’e, in Russia’s Bryansk region.  Bolshunov grew up in Podyvot’e where his father taught him to ski on a pair of green wooden Malyshokas...