Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's the same reason the previous winter games were held in Vancouver. The city of Vancouver itself is not reliable for snow at any time in the winter, but head to higher elevations (Whistler, BC), and there's usually plenty of snow. Of course it so happened that year that the winter was unusually warm and dry and there was a dearth of snow even at high elevations.
For good winter games, it has to be WARM with snow. I'm talking warm in relative terms, like 0 to -10 degrees Celsius. This won't be achieved in Siberia or Quebec in midwinter.
I find it strange that while Russia has endless frozen and snowbound land, they choose to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi, a beach resort with palm trees. That would be like the US hosting the Winter Games in South Carolina.
At the same time they held the 1980 SUMMER Olympics in Moscow. They should have done it the other way around with Sochi being the summer venue and Moscow being the winter one. Wouldn't that make a lot more sense??
No, SUMMER Olympic games in Moscow were actually a very good choice. Moscow has perfect weather in summer for sports most of the time - warm, dry air (+20 - 25 Celsius) and it's not too rainy. That's precisely what it was during those games as I recall, plus Moscow has enough of sport facilities and amenities in general to host such event. With WINTER Olympic games in Russia however, everything becomes more tricky, as ironic as it sounds.
Russia for the most part is a cold country, where winter sports were always traditionally popular BUT; not when it comes to downhill skis, ski jumping and things like that. Russians were never excelling in this kind of sports, nor they've had that kind of facilities of world class around the country as far as I remember. This kind of sports were traditionally popular among the Westerners with their Alps, not among Russians. Check the record - only twenty years ago they wouldn't even have Russian names probably on the list for such events. And they definitely didn't have such facilities in Moscow ( or rather they did, but they were of pitiful quality, even for a fact that Moscow doesn't have any real mountains in the vicinity.)
So bringing this kind of Olympic discipline, would mean looking for a location of resort quality ( because that's how it works in the Western world,) and the only resort area in Russia is really the Southern part of it, namely Caucasus. That it's the region with the long history of wars and military clashes is unfortunate, ( some periods in history were better than other,) but it is what it is. How wise it is to hold the international events so close to the dangerous zone ( or even to build a world-class resort in such area) is a question yet to be answered.
I think this is the worst choice to have the Olympics. The spirit is over-shadowed by the threat of terrorism and the hatred of homosexuals. I have no idea why they chose Sochi. It will be interesting considering this will be the most expensive Olympics in history.
I'm surprised this is even more expensive than Beijing. I wonder why. I know China spent a lot of money on new construction and the 2008 Games had a lot to do with Communist propaganda. If the US held the games and spent as much money I would be outraged over the wasting of my tax money. Sochi has far fewer venues being a winter Games so I find it interesting they are spending even more money than China.
It's the same reason the previous winter games were held in Vancouver. The city of Vancouver itself is not reliable for snow at any time in the winter, but head to higher elevations (Whistler, BC), and there's usually plenty of snow. Of course it so happened that year that the winter was unusually warm and dry and there was a dearth of snow even at high elevations.
For good winter games, it has to be WARM with snow. I'm talking warm in relative terms, like 0 to -10 degrees Celsius. This won't be achieved in Siberia or Quebec in midwinter.
Why must it be warm? As long as theres already good snow cover it doesn't matter, and there are snow machines. Quebec could be a good winter Olympics destination if it had some higher mountains.
I'm surprised this is even more expensive than Beijing. I wonder why. I know China spent a lot of money on new construction and the 2008 Games had a lot to do with Communist propaganda. If the US held the games and spent as much money I would be outraged over the wasting of my tax money. Sochi has far fewer venues being a winter Games so I find it interesting they are spending even more money than China.
Exactly! My gf has some family in China and there were a lot of people upset because much of the stadiums etc they built are now empty.
I never thought a Winter Olympics would out spend a Summer Olympics. I'm curious to see where the money went in Sochi.
The reason it's not in Moscow is because Moscow is on a plain. Sochi's got mountains, which are necessary for the winter games.
And the mountains are not that far away either. One thing to consider is that some of the events are going to be held in Krasnaya Polyana, which isn't that far from Sochi.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
