The 22nd Winter Olympic games in Sochi are the first Olympic games held in Russia since 1980, since the existence of the USSR and the legendary Cold War. The Fisht Stadium in Sochi has been built for the purposes of the Olympic games, and an interesting feature is that its roof changes its colors.

The parade of the participants before the Opening Ceremony was led by the Greek team, as tradition has it. It started at 20:14 which symbolized the year 2014. After the parade the official opening ceremony began although with a small failure because one of the five snowflakes did not open to form the Olympic games ring symbol. This was overshadowed by the spectacular ceremony which represented a small story of Russian history and culture through many visual and sound effects, music and dances. Following were the speeches of Dmitrii Chernishenko and the president of IOC – Thomas Bach. Bach invoked people to embrace the values of non-discrimination and diversity. In the end, president Putin’s words declared the beginning of the games.

Amongst those who carried the Olympic flag were the first woman astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, as well as the two-time Olympic champion in hockey – Viacheslav Fetisov. In the grande finale, the Olympic flame was carried by the world-wide known tennis player Maria Sharapova, who actually grew up in Sochi. The flame passed through to Yelena Isinbayeva, the wrestler Alexander Karelin and the gymnast Alina Kabaeva. The flame was lit by the Russian former triple gold medallists Vladislav Tretiak and Irina Rodnina.

The most expensive Olympic games

Apart from being the most expensive Olympic games ever organized (more than 40,000 million euros, spent mainly on the improvement of communication and transport system in Sochi), the participants will compete in 12 new disciplines for both genders – like biathlon, ski-jumping for women, ice-skating for mixed teams, etc.

Altogether 98 competitions will be held in 15 different disciplines until the 23rd  of February. What is more, 88 countries will participate in the games with the USA leading in numbers – 230 participants, followed by Russians by 225 participants. Canadian participants are 220. Other countries with high number of competitors are as follows: Switzerland, Germany, Norway, France, Sweden. For the first time countries like the Dominican Republic, Malta, Paraguay, Zimbabwe are taking part. On the contrary, others like Columbia, Ethiopia, North Korea did not send any participants this year.

Furthermore, TV news about the Olympic games will be broadcast for 75,000 hours, which is by far 3,000 hours more than the Olympics in Peking. The mascots are The Polar Bear, The Hare, The Leopard, The Snowflake and The Ray of Light.

Anti-doping agency was shocked by the news of a new existing dope which makes muscles grow and cannot be traced by any doping test known up until now. Therefore, the tests are going to be far stricter and will count up to 2453 which is a record and increase by 14% in comparison with the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010.

Some interesting facts about the Olympics in Sochi

One of the youngest participants is 15-years old Julia Lipnitskaya and she became the youngest Olympic games champion in figure skating ever accounted. She astonished the public and even the tennis star Maria Sharapova posted a tweet about her performance –

However, the youngest participant in the Olympics is Gianina Ernst from Germany – a ski-jumper.

It has been 20 years since the first time Petr Nedved participated in Olympic games. In 1994 he won a silver medal in Lillehammer playing for Canada, but in Sochi the 42-year old competitor is going to play for his home-country – the Czech Republic.

The oldest participant is 55-years-old and this will be his sixth Winter Olympic game.

98 medals will be given away during the Winter Olympic games.

40,000 people will take care of the security during the Olympics.

Contradictions up until now in the sphere of politics

Concerning accommodation

Firstly, there are contradictions around a lot of complaints concerning accommodation and conditions of the Olympic game. Despite the huge amount of money spent mainly on the restructuring of Putin’s favorite resort into an Olympic games arena, many participants have raised issues about the accommodation. An American bobsleigher Johnny Quinn was trapped in his bathroom after taking a shower.

Apart from this semi-hilarious story, the UK bobsleigher Bex Wilson wrote about an open lift shaft she stumbled upon when she was walking out of her room.

Furthermore , a lot of complaints were documented by journalists such as unfinished hotel rooms, problems with water, and electricity supply.

However, this is one part of the story. For the construction of the buildings participated different foreign specialists amongst them – James Li, specialist in construction, who worked during the Olympics in London as well. With one word – the Olympic games in Sochi are offering the best which money can buy. According to the Russian Regnum news website Dmitry Kozak’s opinion of the case is that journalists are deliberately trying to sabotage the ongoing Sochi Olympics and video footage has shown that people leave their shower in the hotels running on purpose and leave for the whole day. After sharing this information, he asserted it was stated in the Wall Street Journal that now no video surveillance is present in the rooms, it took place only during the build-up of the hotels.

Issues around gay law

In short, another issue is the problem with Putin’s gay law - probably one of the most contradictory. It only shows how sport is actually very interconnected with politics and impacts the political life of countries. Calls for boycott of the Olympics by some gay activists go hand in hand with the absence of some political leaders in protest, partly because of gay issues. Despite the common belief of the “neglected gay rights”, the leader of the US delegation– Janet Napolitano is saying that gay athletes are welcome. Apart from this the gay-group TATU was invited to sing before the beginning of the opening ceremony.

Security issues

In terms of security, Russian authorities are still searching for the suspected bombers, known as the “black widow” bombers. There is a concern that one of them has slipped through the security in Sochi around 10 days ago. According to the participants, as well as country representatives, the security is at its highest level and there is, as Roger put it, a greater possibility for the bombers to strike somewhere outside the Olympic games ring, but this is what makes the terrorists dangerous.

Some basic results up until 10th February:

Country

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Overall

Canada

3

3

1

7

Netherlands

3

2

2

7

Norway

2

1

4

7

United States

2

0

3

5

Germany

2

0

0

2

Russian Federation

1

2

3

6

Austria

1

2

0

3

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About the author
Masha BM
La vocación de periodista me empujó a madrugar y a trasnochar. Recuerda que comunicarse es gratis. Lo que vale dinero siempre se puede comprar y vender.