Your Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics anticipation thread!

Expect MASSIVE doping/illegal equipment scandals around the Austrians, who received no medals whatsoever in London and will respond the best way they know how.

The fact part of the complex is built on Circassian burial grounds has caused a few protests in the UK as well. It does raise the prospect of the world's first haunted Olympics, though.

Sochi is kind of a strange place to hold it all round. Should be fun, however.

I have to admit i had never heard of Sochi til this.

Or the Circassian ppl.

So how much of a clusterfuck is this going to turn out to be, at this rate.

us should boycott

we should boycott

http://thedroidyourelookingfor.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/linguo.jpg

lol

summer and winter olympics should each just have 4 cities that they rotate through

I nominate New York, London, Paris and Munich.

oh that'd get me to move

At this point between the IOC and FIFA, I think maybe we should just staty away in droves. Maybe that would show them.

I'm not convinced that any official national boycott would be all that useful. An 'organic' social rejection would be more culturally irrefutable.

Was the US wrong not to boycott the China games?

so the official US delegation to the Games will not include the POTUS or Biden, but some out gay former athletes, as well as glass-closet cases like Brian Boitano and Janet Napolitano. A half-measure very typical of the leader of the Free World Democratic Party.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2013/12/white-house-announces-sochi-delgation.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/sochi-2014-ioc-jeopardized-safety-of-athletes-and-fans-in-awarding-games-to-putins-russia/2014/01/22/3c5427a8-83aa-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html

IOC officials have long collaborated with plunderers, and treated human rights abuses as acceptable if it meant good commerce, regardless of the harm: In Beijing, dissidents were arrested and tortured for refusing to support the Games. But the IOC's amoral stupidity and avarice finally may have peaked in Sochi. Activists have been jailed; homeowners evicted without compensation; 25 construction workers have died at stadium sites; illegal dumps of toxic construction waste have ruined local drinking water and caused homes to sink; and Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister, alleges up to $30 billion has been stolen in preparing for the Games. Now we can add $3 billion in security costs to the price of hosting this festival of malevolence and greed.

I liked Dave Zirin's article today in the Nation on all this: http://www.thenation.com/article/178053/lgbt-movement-takes-aim-sochi

How about those disastrous US unfiforms, huh

They're really horrible! May be to discourage people from wearing them outside the Olympic village on security grounds.

I kind of like the ludicrous patterns the Russians are using:

http://i.imgur.com/dazZDQ3.jpg?1

Though I suspect they have been designed so they're difficult to counterfeit.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2014/snowboarding/story/_/id/10406292/2014-winter-games-shaun-white-withdraws-olympic-slopestyle

Dead dogs.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2exr0co.png

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/02/04/journalists-at-sochi-are-live-tweeting-their-hilarious-and-gross-hotel-experiences/

Judged on whether bathroom tap water is drinkable, hotels are free of ongoing construction work and you can flush toilet paper, plenty of Moscow wouldn't be "ready for the games" let alone Sochi. Good case for journalists stopping being such big fucking babies (or sending ones who had been to disadvantaged countries before).

they're less being fucking babies than wondering what $50 billion and seven years of preparation translates to

It doesn't translate to replacing an entire Soviet plumbing system.

Well then perhaps they shouldn't have gone out to host the games, and the IOC shouldn't have given them the honor.

Yes, all major events should clearly be given to countries with the most superior plumbing.

Reports from the athlete village and more importantly arenas and slopes suggest everything that really matters (from a technical standpoint) is in top shape. I mean have at IOC's cowardice and obviously the horrible politics of the government but when I saw moaning about 'put toilet paper in the bin' signs I'd had my fill of 'lol russia' comedy from the brave journalists.

For real, though, these aren't just North American journalists/athletes/etc making complaints. Everybody coming from everywhere expected a certain baseline for quality of living to be established and it appears that it's not even close to being met.

complaining abt trash cans for TP = dud

complaining that only one of the eleven rooms you booked back in May is available = pretty understandable

the whole "no manhole covers" thing doesn't seem so good

There's also the whole Shaun White thing.

The whole "exterminating the stray dog population" thing doesn't either.

Provides a nice bit of context for Putin's choice of Sochi as the location for the Games:

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/feb/05/why-sochi-russia-olympics/?insrc=hpbl

Sochi has also been the no.1 domestic summer holiday resort for middle-class Russians for decades. It has good transport links, plenty of hotels and a hospitable climate in the winter. I don't think many people would enjoy a winter Olympics in minus thirty weather elsewhere in Russia. Krasnodar Krai has been very lightly affected by unrest elsewhere.

There's always been something symbolic in Russians putting a stamp on former Circassian lands but this isn't anything new and some of the thinkpieces are being massively overthought.

slopestyle qualifying is fun. glad for this to start.

aren't a lot of these issues due to hotels/new facilities being located outside Sochi in an undeveloped area?

Yes, I think some of the biggest costs, after corruption, were associated with developing the mountain sites outside of Sochi proper.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in understanding a bit more about the region and the history of the Circassian people, Oliver Bullough's Let Our Fame Be Great is a good starting point.

There's always been something symbolic in Russians putting a stamp on former Circassian lands but this isn't anything new and some of the thinkpieces are being massively overthought.

At least in the NYRB piece, the Circassian history was mentioned it seemed more as a historical footnote rather than as the center of the piece. The main thrust was about Russia's more recent troubles in the Caucasus generally - especially in Chechnya. It's interesting in terms of Putin's personal biography since the launching of the 2nd Chechen War was instrumental to his coming to power. It's an interesting and very complicated region, of which I know little. I guess it's mostly known in the West now as a hotbed of terrorism.

Grozny is a 500 mile drive from Sochi. It's also a world away in terms of political context. It's a peaceful, thriving tourist destination and has been unambiguously under the Russian thumb for over a hundred years. They aren't really many legitimate parallels to make with the situation in Chechnya and there are plenty of far more plausible reasons for choosing it as the Olympic site.

Good case for journalists stopping being such big fucking babies (or sending ones who had been to disadvantaged countries before).

Don't remember there being such an issue during the last World Cup, and that was in South Africa.

They aren't really many legitimate parallels to make with the situation in Chechnya and there are plenty of far more plausible reasons for choosing it as the Olympic site.

Fair enough. It makes sense if the area was already known for summer tourism that they'd want to develop it for winter tourism as well.

Here's an interesting article from 2005. Apparently even then the area was known for having Russia's best skiing although the lack of infrastructure kept it fairly exclusive, although it was apparently popular with some oligarchs and Putin himself:

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2005/oct/09/wintersportsholidays.wintersports.russia

Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, reflected the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi's big debut out of bias against Russia. "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. "We're doing a tour of the media center," the aide said.

Haha, cameras in the showers

The mayor just announced there are no gay in Sochi, thank goodness.

so they're actually filming people in the shower? or terrible at making things up? or both?

in my country, shower takes you

I did lol at this: https://twitter.com/bishopk/status/430735620089339904/photo/1

lol i saw that and the second macklemore showed up i was like that....is not where i thought this piece was going

The final biathlon men's relay essentially turned out to be a duel for top position on the overall medal standings - Russia vs Norway, and Norway's Svendsen, in the lead on the final shooting, collapsed, giving the gold and overall lead to Russia.

Ha! I had Russia at 9/1 to win most gold medals.

GG

Now the FS gala with its wonderful absence of judges.

Finland with easy men's hockey bronze win over US 5 to 0

Both USA teams chokers, men much more so.

http://i.imgur.com/7t0TZd0.jpg

Russia 1-2-3 in the 50km means they can't be caught at the top of the table (and that I win my bet).

Another gold in the four man bob for good measure.

And the sporting events of the 2014 OG are over!

http://i.minus.com/ji8F8Dy0VQClC.jpg

Closing ceremony on in 10 mins

http://i.minus.com/iS3ryuB2Emq4L.gif

Loved the fifth-ring self-parody choreography

GB got their best medal haul since Chamonix 1924. Go GB!

ok - so what the hell is that creepy-ass gif?!

bear say bye to me

the tear appears to be scarring it's face.

I hate when the Olympics are over.

the cross-country "marathon" was pretty exciting. russia sweeps! i feel bad for norwegian dude.

the american guy, who was not remotely expected to metal, did surprisingly well, esp. in the 1st half. interviewed afterward, he had a real good attitude about it too.

what did people think of the french ice dancing couple's dirty dancing moves in the figure skating gala?

Am I wrong or did Adelina get tangled up in her props during the gala?

medal, not metal

French pair (Pechalat / Bourzat) were my favourites!

Also really liked Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. It's a cliche but they do skate with more soul than Davis / White.

yeah the french duo's gala performance was delightfully tacky, esp. when they switched to the remix.

Is that a dancing Dostoevsky in the closing ceremony now?

K-pop now because the next winter Olympics are in South Korea

The crying bear again...

I love listening to Bezic & Hamilton-- you can almost hear her patting Scott's head when he gets excited.

― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Friday, February 21, 2014 7:37 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

those two are very good imo, they have just the right tone and timing for announcing figure skating -- it sort of reminds me of hearing margaret juntwait announce opera over the radio. but i do prefer weir and tara -- i think the mcenroe comparison is pretty spot-on

preferred finale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV4JNUu02ro

i thought of the leningrad cowboys when NBC briefly featured the Russian Policeman's Choir

remind me what the dia de los muertos imagery is all about

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/sports/russia-doping-sochi-olympics-2014.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/271/69/69271/1391788153-0.jpg

wow thats big

just putin being putinesque