They really ought to be firing at Putin. In a country that includes freaking Siberia(!!) it seems utterly idiotic to hold a Winter Olympics in Sochi. The meltdown was so avoidable!
As far as I can tell from history the Russians, since the time of Ivan The Terrible have been trying to fight off and kill everyone to the east. You know, Mongols, Chinese and such.
At the same time, again starting from Ivan, they wanted to be part of the western civilization. Doing trade and exchanging culture. About the first ever embassy in the world was the English Embassy in Moscow.
Years later, during the industrial revolution, we have St Petersburg doing trade with England and English guys installing the new steam power technology there. It was a very European place.
Of course that all went down with the revolution, the world wars and the cold war.
But basically Russians would rather look west than east.
Ergo, winter Olympics in Siberia is not on the agenda.
At least that's my reading of the situation.
Also, you know how damn cold it is there ? Just last week I checked the weather map and they were reporting minus 50 something Centigrade".
I used to live in sochi around early 80s and can say for sure, Russians(ethnos), never was major habitant there, it was very multiethnic, with south caucassian races, such as Armenians and Georgians prevailing. For the weather, that particular stripe along of the black sea is truly wonder. You can have bath in milk-warm black sea, and see in close range, with naked eye glacier mountains, where snow never melts. The black sea curvature at particular area and high mountains form quite interesting microclimate - actually there's a bit warmer than in more south laid areas.
And regarding the siberia, my uncle was in Vorkuta (This is not even Siberia, it is much closer to Moscow, you can check on map) for a while, and even in summer, frozen soil never melts! so they build a houses in quite interesting way - deliver the solid concrete blocks, which are laid on flattened frozen soil, and house is built on it. So it has ability to slide a bit.
Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting the Olympics be held in Siberia. But in a country as vast as Russia, there has to be a happy medium. There are probably 10^4 locales where you could hold a decent XC race or build an acceptable half-pipe. Sochi was all about big-budget back scratching.
All the more reason not to hold the Winter Olympics in the warmest spot of your huge nation. To engage in such a grand meterological Smile shoot, you must have had some pretty big ulterior motive(s).
To get to 'hoth'...
You take the plane to Norway, then jump onto the train to 'Finse'. When the train stops in a huge snowdrift, or you happen to see a stormtrooper uniform, you know you've come to the right place...
They picked Finse because it was the 'cleanest'( place without disturbing buildings, power lines and other stuff not belonging in the film) that was close to mass transport and with a certainty of snow...
(The train transporting the crews got stuck in the snow... )
Most of the non-speaking roles was filled with locals. and quite a few manage to keep their uniform or at least part of it, and some of that stuff has ended up on walls in the hotels and restaurants in the area.
Now, a Winter Olympic also has to be situated where there's mass transport and now. But they also has a third and fourth requirement...
They need to accommodate A LOT of people. In addition to the athletes, you have every nation's support crew*, there's functionaries, security, news crews and reporters, audiences...
Norway's cross-country team has (I think) something like 50 people supporting them, with anything from chef's to meteorologists and ski preparation experts and masseurs...
(They have a double-decker tractor-trailer with more than 100 square meter floor space for prepping)
Maybe a bit of an extreme example, as there are even nations with just a single athlete in cross-country skiing, who does his own prepping...
(Not the Swedes, though, as they bought Norway's old trailer... And the Russian is almost as large, too)
Anyway, just assume at least 4 supporting persons for each athlete and well...
That means a lot of hotel rooms or other housing.
(During the Lillehammer Olympics, a lot of people were housed in smaller cabins and these were later sold, dismantled and moved to other places)
The fourth issue is the stadiums...
Winter Sports stadiums are expensive.
sure, a cross-country trail may not be all that expensive, but a hockey rink... Or a ski jump... A good jump may easily cost a Billion dollars if you don't have a perfect hill to build it into.
In other words, a lot of expensive architecture, and you want to get your money's worth out of them, so reuse is important.
That means putting them somewhere where a lot of people will be able to use them.
So, a large city, preferably with a lot of hotels, lots of open space and nature nearby.
And if they already have a stadium or two that can be used(or upgraded), that wouldn't hurt, either...
A lot of Russian cities has most of those requirements filled, but then there's the reuse bit...
To actually USE these resources afterwards will out of necessity cost money. That means they have to target a city where there's a lot of people with 'disposable income'. Sochi is a tourist spot, so yeah, there's a lot of people there with money.
A pity they forgot about the necessity of a decent winter weather...
Then there's the alledged drug lord being 'in the loop'...
Sports activities such as slalom is a good way of whitewashing money.
(Who actually count the people buying day-passes on the ski lifts? or if all the rental equipment is rented out as often as the books claims... )
The fact that the Russian Mafia got a lot of bribes during the construction isn't an issue here. They'd have gotten that no matter the location...
erco
Posts: 20,256
Comments
The Hoth scenes are really from Norway, quite a distance from Sochi.
Frankly, I would welcome a couple of AT-ATs if they come, blasting everything in their path, if Oslo gets the 2022 Winter Olympics.
As far as I can tell from history the Russians, since the time of Ivan The Terrible have been trying to fight off and kill everyone to the east. You know, Mongols, Chinese and such.
At the same time, again starting from Ivan, they wanted to be part of the western civilization. Doing trade and exchanging culture. About the first ever embassy in the world was the English Embassy in Moscow.
Years later, during the industrial revolution, we have St Petersburg doing trade with England and English guys installing the new steam power technology there. It was a very European place.
Of course that all went down with the revolution, the world wars and the cold war.
But basically Russians would rather look west than east.
Ergo, winter Olympics in Siberia is not on the agenda.
At least that's my reading of the situation.
Also, you know how damn cold it is there ? Just last week I checked the weather map and they were reporting minus 50 something Centigrade".
And regarding the siberia, my uncle was in Vorkuta (This is not even Siberia, it is much closer to Moscow, you can check on map) for a while, and even in summer, frozen soil never melts! so they build a houses in quite interesting way - deliver the solid concrete blocks, which are laid on flattened frozen soil, and house is built on it. So it has ability to slide a bit.
That's right, and on a glacier no less. Don't ask any non-Norwegian to pronounce the name, though.
You take the plane to Norway, then jump onto the train to 'Finse'. When the train stops in a huge snowdrift, or you happen to see a stormtrooper uniform, you know you've come to the right place...
They picked Finse because it was the 'cleanest'( place without disturbing buildings, power lines and other stuff not belonging in the film) that was close to mass transport and with a certainty of snow...
(The train transporting the crews got stuck in the snow... )
Most of the non-speaking roles was filled with locals. and quite a few manage to keep their uniform or at least part of it, and some of that stuff has ended up on walls in the hotels and restaurants in the area.
Now, a Winter Olympic also has to be situated where there's mass transport and now. But they also has a third and fourth requirement...
They need to accommodate A LOT of people. In addition to the athletes, you have every nation's support crew*, there's functionaries, security, news crews and reporters, audiences...
Norway's cross-country team has (I think) something like 50 people supporting them, with anything from chef's to meteorologists and ski preparation experts and masseurs...
(They have a double-decker tractor-trailer with more than 100 square meter floor space for prepping)
Maybe a bit of an extreme example, as there are even nations with just a single athlete in cross-country skiing, who does his own prepping...
(Not the Swedes, though, as they bought Norway's old trailer... And the Russian is almost as large, too)
Anyway, just assume at least 4 supporting persons for each athlete and well...
That means a lot of hotel rooms or other housing.
(During the Lillehammer Olympics, a lot of people were housed in smaller cabins and these were later sold, dismantled and moved to other places)
The fourth issue is the stadiums...
Winter Sports stadiums are expensive.
sure, a cross-country trail may not be all that expensive, but a hockey rink... Or a ski jump... A good jump may easily cost a Billion dollars if you don't have a perfect hill to build it into.
In other words, a lot of expensive architecture, and you want to get your money's worth out of them, so reuse is important.
That means putting them somewhere where a lot of people will be able to use them.
So, a large city, preferably with a lot of hotels, lots of open space and nature nearby.
And if they already have a stadium or two that can be used(or upgraded), that wouldn't hurt, either...
A lot of Russian cities has most of those requirements filled, but then there's the reuse bit...
To actually USE these resources afterwards will out of necessity cost money. That means they have to target a city where there's a lot of people with 'disposable income'. Sochi is a tourist spot, so yeah, there's a lot of people there with money.
A pity they forgot about the necessity of a decent winter weather...
Then there's the alledged drug lord being 'in the loop'...
Sports activities such as slalom is a good way of whitewashing money.
(Who actually count the people buying day-passes on the ski lifts? or if all the rental equipment is rented out as often as the books claims... )
The fact that the Russian Mafia got a lot of bribes during the construction isn't an issue here. They'd have gotten that no matter the location...