Will Sochi Olympics be a disaster?

[skiberg]

I have been to the past few Winter Olympics, but there was absolutely no way I was going to Sochi. I am willing to bet these will be amongst the worst games ever, even if there is no terrorism. The tidal wave of public media discontent is starting to gain steam. I only believe it will get worse once more westerners show up. Putin can control the media in Russia, but he can not control the rest of the Western world media.

 

[ScottySkis]

I hope it not. I think it be ok .

 

[deadheadskier]

Hard to say. With all the negative publicity surrounding it, Sochi might actually do well financially. More people tuning in to see the proverbial train wreck.

Personally? I hope Russia loses their shirts financially.

I just pray that everyone who attends remains safe and it is a violence free games.

 

[skiberg]

No one makes money from the Olympics. I think Salt lake was the only game's to even come close to breaking even in the recent past.

 

[dlague]

My guess is they will pull it off! It seems like every Olympics there seems to be a lot of buzz around what is not complete like at the games in London. In the end, everything worked out fine as far as wee know. I also bet that Russia will try to curb any negative info because of the time difference there is plenty of time to potentially police before for we see it. As usual there will be many warm and fuzzy clips about the athletes and about the games over all and the larger media companies will respect the country and not be too hard.

 

[BenedictGomez]

No one makes money from the Olympics. I think Salt lake was the only game's to even come close to breaking even in the recent past.

Exactly.

Your town "winning" the right to host the Olympics is a terrible thing for the taxpayers of said town/state.

 

[drjeff]

My hunch is that as long as the competition venues are in good shape, the athlete's and their individual performances will be the main story of the games.

Any secondary story that NBC chooses to portray about the non competition experience of the games will likely not be the main story. If Shaun White, Kelly Clark, Julia Mancuso or the Women's Hockey Team win a gold medal, that, baring a terrorist event (and I sure hope that there isn't!!!) will linger on in people's memories far longer than 3rd rate accomodations, massive security "inconvience's" getting into venues and social protests

 

[MadMadWorld]

I for one am really concerned about something happening. Hopefully the US is prepared to protect its athletes even if Russia won't. Sadly, the World Cup in Rio could end up even worse.

 

[from_the_NEK]

I think there are going to be a lot of people questioning the IOC over choosing Russia when this is over. I understand the IOC wanting to spread the Olympic out over more parts of the world. But I think they tried to diversify a little too quickly as evidenced by upcoming locations between the summer and winter games.

 

[drjeff]

I for one am really concerned about something happening. Hopefully the US is prepared to protect its athletes even if Russia won't. Sadly, the World Cup in Rio could end up even worse.

I'm guessing that with Putin well aware of how bad it would make Russia look if a terrorist event happens during the games, that he will instruct the military to lock Sochi down to unprecedented levels to ensure that none of the islamic militant groups who have threatened to disrupt these games will be able too. I'm guessing that they'll be more invasive body searches and racial profiling than one could imagine to ensure that the games go off without a hitch. My guess is that you're more likely to hear about some groups trying to make a social protest say that the level of scrutiny and security is all about preventing them from voicing their opinion to the world (and there may be some minor truth to that) when in reality it's just there to ensure games themselves are the focal point of the world's attention

 

[SIKSKIER]

. My guess is that you're more likely to hear about some groups trying to make a social protest say that the level of scrutiny and security is all about preventing them from voicing their opinion to the world (and there may be some minor truth to that) when in reality it's just there to ensure games themselves are the focal point of the world's attention

Agree.I will say though if some crap does occur I think it will probably be far away from the athletes and the venues.

 

[drjeff]

Agree.I will say though if some crap does occur I think it will probably be far away from the athletes and the venues.

Agree - my guess is that if something happened it wouldn't be at a marquee venue during an event, but more likely to be say out in Sochi proper where the athlete's and spectators would be congregating after hours

If that did happen, I think it's safe to say that there'd be a bunch of Russian missiles and attach helicopters and war planes heading right for one of the islamic territories and inflict some serious retaliation

 

[fbrissette]

I have been to the past few Winter Olympics, but there was absolutely no way I was going to Sochi. I am willing to bet these will be amongst the worst games ever, even if there is no terrorism. The tidal wave of public media discontent is starting to gain steam. I only believe it will get worse once more westerners show up. Putin can control the media in Russia, but he can not control the rest of the Western world media.

Pretty hard to imagine a huge success when you pick a city with palm trees and no snow. Mind boggling.

 

[deadheadskier]

Pretty hard to imagine a huge success when you pick a city with palm trees and no snow. Mind boggling.

The skiing venues are what? 30 miles away? How much snow do they get?

 

[from_the_NEK]

I'm guessing that they'll be more invasive body searches and racial profiling than one could imagine to ensure that the games go off without a hitch.

Racial profiling has to be very difficult at a major international event like the Olympics. I think the phrase "papers please" is going to be heard A LOT by people attending the games.

Unfortunately, I think the Alpine events are going to be the most exposed to any kind of attack. It is one thing to create a secure zone in a portion of a city, but how do you secure a mountain?

 

[bigbog]

Pretty hard to imagine a huge success when you pick a city with palm trees and no snow. Mind boggling.

+1
Maybe they'll find out that the leftover from exploding shells on the alpine course will harden up the snow, on the softer spots, on the mountain...y/n Guess that spells No Show...on the hill for interviews from Costas....will be stayin' in his library, with fireplace & roaring fire. Maybe a spark or two can ignite a curtain...

 

[drjeff]

The skiing venues are what? 30 miles away? How much snow do they get?

They've got about 450 SMI fanguns of various sizes and automation levels to handle the needs of snow for the alpine venues. Then to spread it all out an maintain the slopes, and supply the on hill viewing venues and TV needs, they also have around 50 Prinoth groomers of various sizes and front and rear attachment setups. Those slope will be in great shape, unless it's about 60 and raining, and even then they'll be no chance of a melt out, just some soft snow that they'll treat with some salt, and that assumes that the likely multiple times they've injected that snow with water to harden it to world cup standards even softens up in some warmth!

I'll never forget in 2002 when I went out to Salt Lake City about a week after the Olympics ended. The sheer amount of snow that the competition venues that I skied on at both Snowbasin and Deer Valley was mind boggling! (Think about 8 to 10 feet average of machine made base) And the number of groooming vehicles at each resort was massive! It almost looked like the factory storrage lot for Prinoth (then Bombardier)

 

[from_the_NEK]

Where'd you hear that was the SkierX course? That picture is from the blog I linked to in one of the other Sochi threads. It doesn't say anything about skierX. The blogger is one of the guys hired to build the Skier/Boarder X course but I'm pretty sure that is just a picture he took showing ongoing construction in a public area. http://johnniebalfour.tumblr.com/post/74167601887/better-hurry-up-i-love-that-the-construction#notes

 

[MadMadWorld]

Where'd you hear that was the SkierX course? That picture is from the blog I linked to in one of the other Sochi threads. It doesn't say anything about skierX. The blogger is one of the guys hired to build the Skier/Boarder X course but I'm pretty sure that is just a picture he took showing ongoing construction in a public area. http://johnniebalfour.tumblr.com/post/74167601887/better-hurry-up-i-love-that-the-construction#notes

Yea that would make more sense lol.

 

[bdfreetuna]

On the news they were calling Putin's security response to potential terrorism the "wall of steel".

Hopefully the main stories will be the athletes #1 and #2 how sheisty Russian construction standards are