The IOC has just announced to the world from Guatemala that the site for the 2014 Winter Olympics will be Sochi. Huge cheers and dancing in the street. So who actually has any idea where Sochi is? Even locating Guatemala can be a bit of a stretch.
However, fans of “The Charge of The Light Brigade” will all know where the Crimean Peninsula is and a quick Google will show Sochi approximately 300kms East across the waters of the Black Sea. So, if you’re thinking of attending the Games, take advantage of a quick tour of the Crimean War sites (Florence Nightingale, Lord Raglan and all that) before embarking on a scenic ferry trip to Sochi. Sochi is a scenic spa town of 400,000 nestled on the edge of the Black Sea and a haven for Russian holiday makers. Think of Wollongong getting the summer Olympics and you will get the idea.
So how did Sochi pull off this coup? First eliminated was Salzburg. The Sound of Music and Gluwhein. Ho Hum. Next. Next was expected to be another geographically challenging destination, and the stand out favorite, namely Pyeong Chang in South Korea. Pyeong Chang had been working on its bid for eight years but had reckoned without the personal intervention of Russian Commissar and well known democrat, Vladimir Putin.
Now one of those nasty urban myths has instantly surfaced that the reason Sochi won was a promise by Gazprom, which has ambitions to the first listed company to be worth one trillion dollars, to provide a one billion dollar advance to the IOC. As if the IOC would be a party to anything like that, but then again to a company that owns a quarter of the world’s gas reserves a billion would be not that much. However, the real truth is that when Putin turned up in Guatemala that old KGB persuasiveness, delivered in English, French and Russian, worked its magic on the IOC delegates and pretty soon they were voting 51-47 for Sochi.
Sochi actually looks like it has a great climate for winter ports with the blessing of reliable snow and high altitude mountains, even though it is on the same latitude as Nice and the Gobis Desert. It boasts Mt Elbrus, at 5,642 mtrs the highest mountain in Europe. It is also Putin’s personal favorite ski resort so it must have something.
The fact it currently has no ski facilities worth talking about matters not since the Russian Government has committed to spend $US12 billion, yes, that’s 12 billion, before 2014 on a bit of an upgrade. That should build the odd ski jump. The ski areas are actually close by in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage site which includes 200,000 hectares of unspoiled forests, part of the Caucasus State Biosphere Reserve. Environmentalists are already blanching about what $12 billion of bulldozers might do to this pristine environment.
The City itself is also renowned for its green spaces and botanic treasures and it appears there are some beautiful traditional buildings amongst the gardens. However the other side of Sochi is the skyline which is dominated by a cluster of high rise apartments best described as Soviet Utilitarian. If you’ve seen the less salubrious end of Hong Kong you’ll get the picture. The thought of watching crowds of spotty faced skate boarders in tracky pants and beanies confronting the bemused locals (in tracky pants and beanies) would be worth being there for. If the skate boarders have stopped in the Crimea they might even have picked up a genuine Balaclava.
Do not be alarmed about security or terrorism. Sochi is expected to be a low security venue. The Russian security forces will know just what to do with any vodka soaked Anzacs staggering around after introducing the locals to two up. You have been warned.
The bidders web site describes Sochi as the “Russian Riviera” so dust off the skis and start planning for a Dacha in Sochi and don’t forget to pick some 150 year old cartridge cases or a Balaclava in The Crimea on the way. It could be the winter holiday of a life time with some smashing souvenirs to show the folks at home.
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