Santa not to be forgotten in 2014 Sochi Olympics

This will be the first Olympic games that Santa will be included in

It would seem that Santa Claus and his elves are feeling a bit left out of this whole Olympic thing.

You would think that an event that is held in such high regard around the world would be a good fit for a jolly fat man who only wants to bring joy and good will around the world. Santa was so smitten with the Olympics and being a part of it, he even made a bid to be the 2014 Sochi mascot, but he was rejected.

Personally, after some of the strange little creatures that Olympic cities have choosen to be mascots over the history of the Olympics, I think Santa would have been a refreshing choice.

Finally, someone listened and Santa will be a part of the Olympic. Just do not look for him rushing through at break-neck speeds on the luge course, or gracefully twirling around on the ice skating rink. He will not even be found in the curling arena frantically brushing the ice, allowing his stone to make its way to its resting point and hopefully knocking the competitor’s stones out of place.

No, this Santa appearance will take place more in the form of the Olympic torch running prior to the start of the games.

The Olympic torch, the iconic symbol that has circled the world on its journey to each city that has played host to the games, has touched just about every corner in the world, save one - the North Pole. Santa has been relegated throughout history to sit and watch the torch make its way through the streets, cities and farmlands of everywhere accept his own backyard. This year will be much different, however.

Dmitri Chernyshenko, head of the Russian Olympic committee, announced this torch relay will be the most ambitious race ever. It begins in October and traverses across Russia before heading to the Pacific Port of Vladivostok. There it will cross the mountains and head to the North Pole for Santa and the elves to see.

So make sure you keep a close eye on the Olympic torch run for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, this go round you just might see a jolly old man with a white beard huffing and puffing right along with the chosen torch runner for the North Pole.

Russia and Singapore Make Airport Deal in Preparation for Sochi 2014


While this may seem like an unusually large investment for one event it is important to note that Sochi is hosting a few different events in the coming years.  Some of these include the Formula One and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.  This means that the airport will require significant expansion in order to cope with the number of international visitors entering Russia.

One of the biggest mistakes countries make when they are hosting a big event is being unprepared for crowds.  This often leads to long waits, overcrowding and inflated prices.  The fact that Sochi and Singapore are investing so much into this venture is a positive sign.  The total value of assets in this venture will be over $500 million.

The people who are investing into this project have made it clear that they are investors not airport managers.  They will want to see a profit within the next few years.  That being said they have also stated they want a modern, state-of-the-art transportation hub.  The Changi airport group is involved as they have seen the tremendous growth in Russian tourism.  Singapore Changi believe that the Sochi airport will be highly successful in the future.

Plans for Ice Skating Rink in London Scrapped

The organizers of the Sochi Winter Games in 2014 have been planning to build an ice rink in the middle of London.  They hoped that this rink would draw attention to the 2014 event.  Unfortunately this unique idea will not be put into action as it was turned down by city organizers.

If the idea had been approved, a rink would have been erected at the Marble Arch near the gates to Hyde Park.  Sochi had hoped to build a rink that was capable of accommodating 8000 people.  Russian figure skating stars had agreed to give classes to children in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics.  

There is no doubt that this attraction would have worked.  Families, couples and singles in London for the Olympics would have flocked to this attraction.  Not only would it generate buzz for the London Olympics but it may have convinced sports fans to head to Sochi for the 2014 winter games.

However Olympic organizers are simple unprepared to extra traffic to this area.  They fear that the attraction will cause overcrowding and congestion.  These fears can be understood and London will be experiencing an influx of tourists during this time.  The Metropolitan police have also stated that this area needs to be clear in case of emergencies.  They plan on using it as an evacuation route when events such as the triathlon and open water swimming are hosted at Hyde Park.

Sochi 2014: The Setup and Price of Event Venues

Can Russia make it happen?

China set the bar high when it comes to financing and hosting the Olympic Games, and it looks as though Sochi, Russia will not be left in the dust.

 

Some say that the 2014 Olympic Winter Games Project could be the costliest on record with an operational budget targeted in the range of $9 billion –and the Russian Government picking up most of that enormous price tag. Another $3.6 billion will be available from private and corporate sources.

These were the preliminary numbers.

Last fall, rumors began swirling that those early numbers would not even come close to the actual amount spent and now it could be a staggering $33 billion. Not only that, but the Russian Government is now having a tough time finding investors willing to help out with the additional costs.

The venues themselves are being carefully considered and constructed to provide the best and safest access for both competitors and spectators. The following is a list of the biggest venues so far:

  • Major Ice Arena – Ice hockey with room for 12,000 spectators
  • Minor Ice Arena - Ice hockey with room for 7000 spectators
  • Speed Skating Arena – Speed skating with room for 8000 spectators
  • Ice Palace – Skating, short track speed skating with room for 12,000
  • Curling Arena – Curling with room for 3000 spectators
  • Olympic Stadium – Ceremonies with room for 40,000 spectators

In addition, all outdoor events are to be held at Krasnaya Polyana, a rather large sky resort located about 90 minutes from Sochi.

There is also the Olympic Village for the competitors, media centers and the Olympic Oval.

One situation that is glaringly missing is where to house all the masses that will inevitably descend on Sochi. Currently no information has been released concerning this very real issue and should be looked at carefully. It is this sort of thing that can lead to poor quiet Sochi ending up with a black eye to the rest of the world when all is said and done.

Sochi itself is unique in that it is not the traditional winter resort town that is normally picked by the Olympic Committee to host the games. It is more of a summer vacation spot – yes, that is right a summer vacation paradise. This will be the first Winter Olympics that will take place in a subtropical climate. Summer temperatures typically rise about 80 degrees F, and rarely go below freezing in the winter.

So how many of you are like me? Every time the TV is on during the Olympics, you have it tuned into watch – no matter what the sport is. BTW, I also find curling a fascinating sport so that probably says something about my Olympic geekiness.

Olympic Hero Pees on Little Girl

So many people have such reverence for the Olympics. I think it’s obvious that I am rather contemptuous when it comes to the sports—or sports in general. Sure, I like a good ball game once in a while, but the way we idolize athletes has always bothered me. I don’t think playing a game is a good reason to be paid millions of dollars a year, and I certainly don’t think that a person playing a sport (see, it’s even called playing, not working!) should be seen as a hero. (I also don’t like the way these events create such ungodly amounts of waste on our planet; see the link above regarding that.)

Here’s the latest news regarding a potential Olympic “hero”: 18-year-old Robert “Sandy” Vietze, a hopeful for the U.S. ski team in Sochi, was recently kicked off the team for peeing on an 11-year-old girl. At first I thought it might be a case of bullying or sexual harassment, which would have been even more heinous, but don’t worry; the idiot was just drunk.

And his apology was so eloquent, too: “I was drunk, and I did not realize I was pissing on her leg.”

This comes from one of the supposedly best skiers in the country, who attends an all-skier boarding school for over $40,000 a year—more than my husband and I make together to support our family of four.

Yeah, he’s a hero, alright.

And I’m not saying that he is an example of all athletes, but he sure is an example of what a white, privileged, rich kid in America looks like—which happens to be the makeup of many Olympians, too. We definitely have a few stories about kids from poor backgrounds making it big, but most of us know that children who train for the Olympics are well funded by either sponsors or rich parents, which only fuels the whole rich/powerful/successful modus operandi that we have in this world: to be important or idolized, you must have money, and lots of it. And I won’t even start on what this sort of training has done to children in the past.

He’s being charged with indecency or some other garbage, but no one seems to be raising a stink about his underage drinking. Normally I wouldn’t care, except that this kid was supposed to be an athlete, whom many other young people look up to and aspire to become. I really don’t care what he does in the privacy of his home, but when a star athlete—any star athlete, no matter his age—steps out into public, he or she ought to at least earn some of those millions by modeling decent behavior for his or her fans.

Of course, Sandy was only on his way to becoming such a “hero,” and didn’t have the full status yet. Will his peeing incident blow over so he can fully take that chance? Honestly, I don’t give a fig myself, but my guess is yes. We let athletes get away with murder, rape, and plenty of other crimes in this country; why would peeing on a little girl be any different?

Possible Women's Ski Jumping in 2014

 

Women skiers, you may be in luck; women’s ski jumping is one of several events that may just be included in the 2014 winter games. According to ski federation head Gian Franco Kasper, the inclusion of the event is now down to simply a formality—though skiers are skeptical, saying they won’t have their hopes up until the deal is in print.

Several other skiing events are in talks as well. Some of these include ski slopestyle, figure skating team events, ski halfpipe, snowboard slopestyle, and luge team relay. If all goes well, we might just be witnessing a surge of skiing events in 2014—which is a dream come true for many skiers.

That said, the Olympics are about $200 million short of their sponsorship goal, and while they have a while to raise the funds, it could always mean making cuts—and new events could possibly get the chopping block before ones that were already budgeted for. The organizing committee is hoping to continue fundraising efforts to raise this amount before the time frame gets critical.

Spokespeople don’t seem concerned about this, however; they are confident that the rest of the budget will be made up in sales and merchandising.

So Much for Green Olympics

We keep hearing about how the 2014 Olympics are supposed to be the greenest sporting event in history, yet more and more evidence keeps mounting that supports the exact opposite. I’ve always maintained that the Olympics are one of the most wasteful events on Earth (and I’m definitely not alone in these beliefs), and it turns out that 2014, which has been foretold as being the “Greenest” Olympics Ever!, is already resulting in plenty of environmental destruction—so much, in fact, that Greenpeace Russia and World Wildlife Fund Russia are refusing to endorse their country’s claims of greenery.

Here are just a few environmental maladies that have been recorded so far…

-The logging of thousands hectares of trees, which were supposedly protected—and which included at least two red listed species

-The cutting of an actual national park (seriously, as big as Russia is, does a national park need to be gutted to host one event?) and a pipeline running through said national park

-A pipeline is or will be running through five protected areas of land

-Several more issues have been reported or are rumored to occur prior to the event

So much for all of the hoopla. Perhaps we should call Russia’s hosting of the 2014 Olympics the most green washed Olympics ever?

I think a protocol for the Olympics should be established, especially when they offer so much environmental damage, human rights abuses, and other concerns. Here are just a few things that should be considered:

-Olympic events should either all be held at one place, or one location on each continent could be selected for the event to rotate from. No more of this crazy “Let’s construct a whole new set!” every four years. That reminds me of The Hunger Games a bit.

-A strict environmental code should be had when constructing these areas, including no cutting of old growth forests or national parks, no harming of animals (especially protected species), and sure as hell no dumping, polluting, and other nonsense that’s happening in Russia—and has happened in many Olympic locations in the past

-A strict human rights code that doesn’t allow the displacement of any people for the Olympics, that doesn’t support fascist regimes that control other countries (such as Tibet), and doesn’t fund genocide or other abuses of human rights

- A code used during the Olympics to not allow water bottles and other wasteful materials, to call for renewable energy use throughout the event, and other environmental protocols (hey, if they can do it at a Jack Johnson concert, they can do it at the Olympics)

Help Choose the XXII Olympic Winter Games Mascot

XXII Olympic Winter Games 7 - 23 february 1079 days left

If you like to feel as though you are a part of something big, perhaps you should help choose the 2014 XXII Olympic Winter Games Mascot. There are a few really strange ones - like the OBVIOUS, " cracked out, overweight Twitter bird", Santa Claus, and the "floating, flaming head" but some of the others seems quite reasonable!

Help pick a good one!

Pages