Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2298754

Cancelled
Original poster
Jun 21, 2010
4,890
941
article-2552200-1B3955E900000578-974_634x757.jpg


article-2552200-1B39D63E00000578-61_634x788.jpg


article-2552200-1B39D63A00000578-469_634x928.jpg


----------

http://gizmodo.com/sochis-olympic-village-is-half-built-and-full-of-trash-1512657018



----------


http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/05/world/is-sochi-ready/

(CNN) -- Never judge a book by its cover -- and never judge a major sports event before it has begun. Just ask Delhi, India, which was rocked by some dismal headlines on safety and infrastructure ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games before recovering to win praise from the head of the quadrennial event.
Still, with just under two days to go before the opening ceremony, preparations for the Sochi Winter Olympics are looking far from complete.
From hotels that don't appear to be finished, to ongoing security concerns, to reports of officials poisoning stray dogs -- none of this will be what Russian President Vladimir Putin would have hoped to see when he arrived in Sochi on Tuesday.
So, what are the biggest concerns? Four issues have been grabbing headlines this week for reasons that have nothing to do with the upcoming sporting activities.
Security
The most important duty of any host nation is surely to ensure the safety of athletes and visitors, but simmering tensions in the nearby North Caucasus region of the country -- where Islamic separatists have conducted a string of deadly attacks -- have meant that the threat of terrorism has loomed large over Sochi. Indeed, Doku Umarov, who has named himself emir of a self-proclaimed entity called the Caucasus Emirate, last year called on jihadists to do their "utmost to derail these satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors."
Tens of thousands of police and troops have been dispatched to the area to create what Putin has described as a "ring of steel" protecting the games.
But questions were raised about the ability to protect soft targets when Russian officials released photographs of three "black widows" -- young women whose husband purportedly were killed by Russian forces -- who allegedly were planning to bomb the Olympic torch relay. There was particular concern about a fourth suspect, Ruzanna Ibragimova, who officials said might be in the Sochi area.
Ex- IOC official: Judge Sochi later Hotel conditions in Sochi are sketchy Advocacy group targets Olympic sponsors Maria Sharapova's defends Sochi Welcome to Sochi: City of contrasts
On Wednesday, Russian media announced that police in Dagestan had killed the alleged mastermind behind twin bomb attacks in the Russian city of Volgograd in December. The bombings killed 34 people and injured 100.
Those attacks, along with a pair of January incidents in the restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan -- a restaurant bombing that injured at least five people and a shootout that left three policemen and four militants dead -- underscored fears that terrorists might look to strike outside of Sochi during the Games, when all eyes will be on Russia.
"The Russians' task is complicated by remote, forested and often mountainous territory in the North Caucasus, as well as a devolved structure among jihadist groups, organized into autonomous military units known as jamaats," noted CNN's Tim Lister. "Terrorism analysts believe that some among the growing Chechen diaspora in Europe may also be raising funds for the insurgents."
Also Wednesday, a law enforcement source told CNN that the United States has advised airlines with direct flights to Russia to be aware of the possibility that explosive materials could be concealed in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes.
The source emphasized that there was no known threat to the United States, but the notice to U.S. and international carriers is based on new intelligence information ahead of the start of the Olympics.
Airlines warned about possible toothpaste tube bombs ahead of Olympics
And on Tuesday, Matthew Olsen, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, warned that the United States was tracking a number of "specific threats of varying degrees of credibility."
"[W]e're working very closely with the Russians and with other partners to monitor any threats we see and to disrupt those," Olsen added.
The United States already has dispatched at least two warships off the coast of the Black Sea city in the event that an evacuation is necessary, while a number of athletes have reportedly asked relatives to skip attending the games.
Americans apparently have noticed such concerns -- a CNN poll released Wednesday showed that 57% believed a terrorist attack on the Games is likely.
Infrastructure
If the security of athletes and spectators is the biggest issue for the organizers, then ensuring that facilities for both competitors and guests are up to scratch is surely the next concern.
After all, athletes have been training for years for this event. For some it will be their only shot at Olympic glory. Is having somewhere comfortable to sleep, perhaps with a fresh glass of water by the bedside, too much to ask as you prepare for the biggest two weeks of your life?
In Sochi, according to numerous accounts on social media this week, the answer might just be yes.
Bleacher Report has been highlighting some of the early reactions to the accommodations on offer, and draws particular attention to the size of the beds (Canada's men's hockey team may have been hoping to have a bit more space), the bareness of the rooms (reports of missing TVs, chairs and shower curtains) and, perhaps most troubling of all, the sign one reporter snapped warning that toilet paper should not be flushed down the toilet.
To cap it all, The Chicago Tribune's Stacy St. Clair reportedly complained that she had been warned about the hazardous water in her hotel room, and a picture she tweeted, showing two glasses of yellowish liquid she said were from the hotel, went viral.
Competition conditions
Setting aside the accommodation issues, will athletes be safe when they start competing? The withdrawal of U.S. snowboarding star Shaun White from one of the events could be a troubling sign. White didn't give a specific reason for his withdrawal, but even if a mere wrist injury is the only reason, Sochi organizers are said to have "faced fierce criticism over the layout at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, with competitors claiming that it is too dangerous to host the event."
Of course, one thing that the organizers have no control over is the weather, and after complaints about the lack of quality snow in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, some had worried whether Sochi's climate could provide enough of the white stuff.
With such concerns in mind, Russia reportedly brought in state-of-the-art snowmaking equipment. But according to the Wall Street Journal, this won't be necessary.
"The weather for the upcoming week at all the Olympic venues will be just wonderful," the paper quoted the head of Russia's Hydrometeorological Center as saying this week. "Enough snow has fallen, the situation is completely relaxed. Nature has given us everything we need."
Warning to U.S. athletes: No Olympic uniforms outside Sochi venues
Those stray dogs
Yet, while issues like infrastructure and security seem destined to be perennial concerns at major sporting events -- just look at the controversy surrounding Brazil's efforts to prepare for this year's World Cup -- sometimes a story will appear out of the blue and make international headlines for all the wrong reasons.
On Wednesday, CNN correspondent Ivan Watson reported that Russian authorities have been rounding up and poisoning stray dogs in the city.
"They always poison the street dogs here," Watson quoted one Sochi resident as saying. "But in December it got terrible...they began poisoning the animals terribly before the Olympics."
Olympic officials, though, have a different take.
"All stray dogs that are found on the Olympic Park are collected by a professional veterinary contractor for the well-being of the people on the Park and the animals themselves," the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee said in a statement this week. "All healthy animals are released following their health check."
Sochi's organizers will no doubt be relieved when the focus is on the competition and not the venue. At around 8 p.m. local time Friday, perhaps they'll get what they're hoping for.

Someone please remind me again on why Russia deserved to host the Olympics? Especially over Salzburg, Austria or Pyeongchang, SK?

:eek::eek:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If what I've seen the past few days from athletes and journalists arriving, this Olympics will be a huge fail.
 
Russia shouldn't be holding these Olympics...

How embarrassing. I've seen those pictures and tweets. I'm very confused as to how Sochi was awarded (and even selected to be a potential candidate) to host the 2014 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics. I'm not sure how they'll manage to clean up the mess in time. Salzburg would've been the best choice.
 
Wow, I feel bad for the athletes. How are you supposed to compete when you have living conditions like that?
 
How embarrassing. I've seen those pictures and tweets. I'm very confused as to how Sochi was awarded (and even selected to be a potential candidate) to host the 2014 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics. I'm not sure how they'll manage to clean up the mess in time. Salzburg would've been the best choice.

Don't be naive. These are the most expensive (by far) olympics ever. They are just an excuse to divert huge sums of public money to a select few private pockets (regime-friendly oligarchs and mafia) and to speculate with land and infrastructures.
As to why Sochi was chosen, I'd guess a few bank accounts in some fiscal paradise have recently been credited with tens of millions coming from Russia.
 
Last edited:
Makes sense that NBC is televising these games, they are good at broadcasting train wrecks.
 
Don't be naive. They are the most expensive (by far) olympics ever. They are just an excuse to divert huge sums of public money to a select few private pockets (regime-friendly oligarchs and mafia) and to speculate with land and infrastructures.
As to why they were chosen, I'd guess a few bank accounts in some fiscal paradise have recently been credited with tens of millions coming from Russia.


Who's "they"?
 
How embarrassing. I've seen those pictures and tweets. I'm very confused as to how Sochi was awarded (and even selected to be a potential candidate) to host the 2014 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics. I'm not sure how they'll manage to clean up the mess in time. Salzburg would've been the best choice.

Even South Korea would have been fantastic! The Koreans would have gotten this stuff done in advance. Months ago.

----------

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/themar...-at-the-finish-line-as-horror-stories-emerge/

more lols

6MdLV.png


6MdMN.png


6MdNx.png


6MdOb.png


It’s not just the hotel horrors. Olympic officials are also scrambling to make last-minute changes to a slopestyle course after some athletes are calling the course too dangerous.
Those criticisms intensified Tuesday, when two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White fell and injured his left wrist. He later called the run “a little intimidating,” saying, “The consensus so far from everyone is that there are changes that need to be made.” White later withdrew from the event.
Finnish snowboarder Merika Enne also crashed on the course, hitting her head. She was carried off on a stretcher.
Norway’s Torstein Horgmo, a medal favorite, broke his collarbone in a crash Monday, ending his shot at the winter games.
The whole slopestyle course runs 650 feet, with a final jump at over 70 feet high – that’s six school buses.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
And that doesn't include the bribes that I'm sure were paid out to the IOC, because other than that, I have no idea how Sochi was awarded the Olympics.

These Olympics are going to be one huge fustercluck.
All the IOC does it take bribes, this is how they operate.
 
As the Internet laugh at the Olympics in Sochi
Original post was Translated with Google Translate help ;)

b56e5a6-650.jpg.pagespeed.ce.iB65YXkx6d.jpg


Winter Olympics in Sochi has not yet begun, and in social networks are already discussing serious issues in preparation for its implementation. With each passing day the network appear next photo repeated failures organizers of the Olympic Games, which immediately grows jokes and become the subject of internet trolling.

INSIDER collected the most interesting memes upcoming Olympics.

Toilets twin

The biggest buzz in the network caused a photo of the urinal in the press center "Sochi-2014". BBC correspondent Steve Rosenberg posted a photo booth, where there are just two of the toilet.

After that, each team considered it his duty to make the picture of the twin toilets.
a21676b-6.jpg.pagespeed.ce.lJAbUqx-yB.jpg


Later spokesman Olympics Elena Greenberg reported that the famous toilet altered in a utility room, replacing toilets tables. But even then, the scandal had not subsided. Athletes have found somewhere another similar toilet and now photographed in it.

Lost in Translation

Stebut and translation listings of plates and restaurant menus in English.

For example, Rustem Adagamov photoannouncements posted in places where artificial snow sprinkled. The authors of the poster on a very strange English call cherish "our treasure - Olympic snow."
c6e678b-1.jpg.pagespeed.ce.sr92dmjGWT.jpg

The Telegraph writes sarcastically in the caption to the photo: "We could comment on that, but our Russian is not so good."

Errors occur even in advertisements in Russian. For example, the BBC Russian Service correspondent Rafael Saakov posted on Twitter a photo directory in Sochi hotel with phones "Dolphinland" and "dentistry."

Suffered and street names. On the eve of the Olympic Games in Sochi them translated into English so that, for example, the street "Shotgun" was transformed into "Street Shotgun", and the street "Renaissance" turned into "Revival Street".

Especially translators have tried over the street Blue Dali became Blue Dali Street. But more often than not lucky street "50 years of the USSR": on neighboring houses appeared Inscription "50 years USSR", "50 let SSSR" and "50-letiya USSR", writes Km.ru.
f24036c-14.jpg.pagespeed.ce.dny591oMmj.jpg


Housing Problem

Especially a lot of the complaints received by the living conditions in which they live Olympians and guests of the competition. Sochi Hotels and base clearly had to be well prepared.

Canadian snowboarder Sebastien Tutan posted a Twitter posting that found in the bathroom of his hotel. Pictured above is the correct way to use the toilet.
3bc6fae-3.jpg.pagespeed.ce.VaQ-Bz05Kk.jpg


Sochi hotels Features: socket under the pillow and the battery under the ceiling.
53c19be-2.jpg.pagespeed.ce.ZyZYbxyNEv.jpg


In Sochi fixed acute shortage of pillows.
63ee87e-9.jpg.pagespeed.ce.TxfG6LJnaS.jpg

The old form and "chocolate medal"

Got internet trolls, and to form the Russian team, and before the Olympic flame, and even to transport that move athletes.

Russian Olympic gave the old form, tabbing her emblem in 2014. Photos posted Russian skater Artem Kuznetsov with the words: "The shape of the 2012 sewed another year and we were given." His post immediately commented: "The medals will be chocolate)."
78add47-8.jpg.pagespeed.ce.l0ucG3CE8w.jpg



Over the weekend in Sochi passed test ignition of the Olympic flame. If before the Olympic flame in the hands of Russian officials and athletes are constantly went out, now on it Black smoke. Ukrainians network joke that it maydanovtsy got to Sochi and burn tires.

a79337d-10.jpg.pagespeed.ce.6rpHZiJ0es.jpg


Putin skater and barbed wire

Russian Olympics became the object of mockery and the world press.

The American weekly The New Yorker and The Economist magazine English put on their covers similar cartoons in which the Russian leader is depicted in the form of a figure skater

2e25d8c-16.jpg.pagespeed.ce.r705gEvbfd.jpg


American magazine The Time was also released with a cover devoted Olympic Games. Olympic rings on it are depicted as barbed wire.

072cae0-time-the-economist.gif.pagespeed.ce.P3milfoRNx.gif

lol lol
 
Last edited by a moderator:
According to a post on Reddit, this is what Sochi really looks like:

http://imgur.com/a/I06yQ?desktop=1

...and the pictures that sparked controversy are from one area of the city and thus should not represent the entire city.

Anyway, I'm currently watching the opening ceremony and thought I'd share this.
 
According to a post on Reddit, this is what Sochi really looks like:

http://imgur.com/a/I06yQ?desktop=1

...and the pictures that sparked controversy are from one area of the city and thus should not represent the entire city.

Anyway, I'm currently watching the opening ceremony and thought I'd share this.
There should be no controversy this close to the open, they spent 50 billion dollars everything should have been finished.
 
seriously who designed the living spaces here? Its not like they had no notice of the whole world gathering to compete in their city, they had 7 years notice!

Some events in 2007:
first iPhone released
final book of harry potter series released
call of duty modern warfare released
virginia tech massacre
bob barkers last episode of the price is right
the boeing 787 was NEW


.. and they can't even put an outlet somewhere other than where your head goes to sleep!
 
This stuff is being blown way out of proportion by some coddled, whiney journalists. I bet 95%+ of the facilities are fine.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.