Browsing Category: "Olympics 2014"

Quote of the day (Putin)

Olympics 2014 February 20th, 2007

«Russia is planning to spend huge amount of money to develop this region, around 12 billion dollars. Almost two thirds of it will go into infrastructure: roads, solving ecological issues, communications, to improve people’s lives. This money will be used to unite people from all over the world around sports. We will use this money not to buy guns, not to buy ammunition, not to buy combat aviation, not to buy tanks. We will use this money with one purpose, so the people from around the planet could gather here, in Sochi, on our territory, and extend hands to each other. We will do everything to ensure Sochi will become worthy capital of the 2014 Olympic Games.»

Vladimir Putin during meeting with the members of the IOC evaluation commission on their first working day in Sochi.

IOC begins their tour of Sochi

Development, Olympics 2014 February 19th, 2007

The biggest news in Sochi today is that IOC evaluation group, which arrived a day before, has begun their five day tour of the city. I guess we won’t get any on the results or even rumors, at least not ’till all three candidate cities are toured by IOC. The only kind of reaction from the evaluation group was that they were amazed by the mountains/sea view of Sochi’s during landing. Meanwhile the city will be “hit” by over 80 cultural programs  this week, most of which (if not all) will have “in support of Olympics in Sochi” slogan. Some of these events will be visited by IOC. They will also meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will probably confirm once again government’s financial commitments and promises of completing all constructions on time.

Actually this is the weakest point of Sochi’s bid – having everything done on time. That is because 80-90% of all Olympic projects must be created from the ground up. There were previous talks about hiring American and European companies to help Russian companies to manage all the construction, as Americans and Europeans have a lot of experience in managing projects this big.

New electric trains for Sochi

Development, Olympics 2014 February 19th, 2007

Thirteen new electricity-powered trains will operate in Sochi if the city will be selected as Olympics host. These trains will have three carts of different comfort levels, and they will travel with speeds of up to 140 km/h. New trains will have A/C, automatic temperature control, powered sliding doors inside, fire fighting systems, and a lot of other hi-tech cool stuff. These trains will operate between Adler and Tuapse.

Fears and hopes with possibility of the Olympics

Development, Olympics 2014 February 17th, 2007

This week has seen, probably, most heated arguments from opposers and supporters of hosting Olympic Games in Sochi. Not surprisingly, though, IOC officials will visit Sochi in a few days on their last tour of the city, before they select an official host in June.

So, lets take a look at both sides (long post) Read the rest of this entry »

All Olympic projects construction will comply with UNESCO conventions

Olympics 2014 February 11th, 2007

Aleksandr Zhukov, vice-premier of the Russian Federation and the head of organizational committee for Sochi Olympic bid support, pledged today during his meeting in UN Paris headquarters, that construction of all Olympic projects in Sochi will comply with the requirements of UN Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Meanwhile UNESCO had offered Sochi its expertise to help in evaluation of Olympic projects.

Second railroad track to be built in the event of Olympics

Development, Olympics 2014 February 10th, 2007

Railroad in SochiIt was announced that second railroad track from Tuapse to Adler will be constructed in the event Sochi will become 2014 Winter Olympics host city. “Vesti” news agency quotes head of North-Caucasus Rail Roads: “Today, the Tuapse-Adler track practically exhausted its carrying capacity and requires additionally financial investments”.

What we have today is this: a single track with a few “pockets” where trains can stop to let another train to pass by. This track is running along the sea shore, as you can see on the picture below, Read the rest of this entry »

Over 1200 volunteered to help during IOC visit

Olympics 2014 February 10th, 2007

Over 1200 people volunteered to help during upcoming visit by the International Olympic Committee. All these people will be accepted to volunteer during Olympics if Sochi gets the Games.

Source: yuga.ru

Sochi flag to go up to World’s top peaks

Olympics 2014 January 29th, 2007

A group of Russian mountain-climber is planning to raise Sochi city flag to the top peaks of World’s five continents. They’ll start with Aconcagua – tallest mountain of South America and all Southern Hemisphere, followed by expeditions to Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, and Everest. After that, they will bring the flag that was on the World’s top peaks to Guatemala, where, in July, IOC will name the official 2014 Winter Olympic host city.

Five minutes to competition venues

Olympics 2014 January 29th, 2007

Sochi 2014 bid team has confirmed their plans to locate all Olympic athletes close to the venues. Here’s few quotes from the press release:

“75% of all athletes at the Sochi Games will be housed within 5 minutes of their competition and training venues, for the first time in Olympic Winter Game history.”

“Sochi 2014 promises a more manageable Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, with all elements taking place in a mountain cluster and coastal ice cluster, only 40 minutes apart. While the functional compactness of the Sochi 2014 plan will provide maximum convenience for the Olympic Family, the media, sponsor guests and spectators, it will also greatly enhance the Games experience for the athletes, usually exiled to the farthest reaches of the Village and often forced to spend hours in transit each day.”

“Sochi’s Games plan will allow spectators to easily view multiple events in a single day, and give athletes the unique chance to attend events that they are not competing in.”

Olympic menu for Olympic guests

Olympics 2014 January 27th, 2007

Over 100 Sochi cafes and restaurants where selected to service IOC delegates and journalists during their February visit. All menus will be translated to English and stuff will prepare to service foreign guests. In addition to this, many cafes and restaurants are designing new “Olympic oriented” dishes. For example general manager of “Dan” restaurant gave some details on their preparations.

“Instead of simply giving our dishes names that symbolize the Games and sports, we decided to present a look back at the history: we found a lot of useful information about most popular items during past Winter Olympics over the Internet. By now we have designed three new items, and by the end of this week we’ll have twelve. Menus will include year of the Olympic games, host country, and course with description.”

Read the rest of this entry »

More Greek myths for Olympics bid

Olympics 2014 January 20th, 2007

I found following copy of an AFP article on gamesbids.com forums, but oddly enough I couldn’t find the original. Anyway, this goes together with my previous article about Sochi Bid team’s idea of using ancient Greek mythology during our Bid and Olympics.

PARIS, Jan 16, 2007 (AFP) – Russian Black Sea resort Sochi are hoping that their bid to win the rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics will be aided by an unlikely source – Greek mythological hero Jason and his band of merry Argonauts.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, the bid’s chief executive, told AFP there was a ship taking the same path from the ancient kingdom of Thessaly (in eastern Greece) to Sochi or Colchis as it was known then, as Jason did to pick up the Golden Fleece, as part of their bid to persuade the majority of IOC members at the vote in Guatemala City on July 4 that they deserved to host the Games.
“Basically the gold for the Golden Fleece was taken from the River Mzymmta,” said the charismatic 38-year-old Russian former advertising magnate, whose bid faces off against Austrian resort Salzburg and Pyeongchang in South Korea.
“It is not a bad thing to have such an historical link to the originator of the Olympic Games (Greece) and we have organised for a boat to sail the same route as the original ship the Argo did as part of our campaign to win.” ….

Investments into Sochi’s communications

Development, Olympics 2014 January 20th, 2007

15 billion rubles (~US $565 mil) will be spent on improving communications infrastructure in Sochi, if the city Olympics bid wins. If not, then 4 billion rubbles (~US $150 mil).

The completion of seven out of ten planned projects does not depend on IOCs decision on where 2014 Winter Olympics will take place. The remaining thee, most expensive ones, will only be completed if Sochi gets the Games. More fiberoptic lines, HDTV and digital radio projects, A Tetra mobile radio communication network for 100 Olympic family user groups (10,000 subscribers), and electrical and postal communications projects are part of program federal government is committed to. Read the rest of this entry »

Sochi’s Olympic bid improves

Olympics 2014 January 16th, 2007

Ves’ Sport” quotes Ed Hula, the Editor of the Around The Rings – american analytics agency, saying that Sochi’s bid, unlike Salzburg’s and PyeongChang’s bids, got a lot stronger due to better lobby on international level.

Past October’s Power Ranking by ATR looked like this:
1. Salzburg (87)
2. PyeongChang (76) tie
2. Sochi (76) tie

I wonder if they’ll post new ranking after examining the Bid Books, or they’ll wait for Evaluation Commission to tour the candidate cities…

By the way, here is Power Index their October ranking was based on:

ATR October 2006 Ranking

Read the rest of this entry »

Sochi 2014 Bid Books are available online

Olympics 2014 January 16th, 2007

Sochi 2014 Bid Books are available online in PDF format at sochi2014.com!

Will Prometheus bring Olympic fire to Sochi?

Olympics 2014 January 13th, 2007

Prometheus (clipart)The base for Sochi Olympic Games theme will be ancient Greek myth about Prometheus – the Titan who took fire from the gods of Olympus and give it to mortals for their use, for this he was chained to Mount Fischt near Sochi. This became know after IOC allowed the three candidate cities to make their Olympic plans public.

In Wikipedia, and many other sources, you’ll read that Prometheus was chained to Mount Caucasus, but where is this mountain today? Why do they think it is Fischt Mountain, near Sochi? Here is what I found on the internet: Read the rest of this entry »

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