LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Sochi working hard to make 2014 Games ‘best ever’
For the fi rst time in history, Russia will host
an Olympic Winter Games, when Sochi wel- comes the world on Feb. 7, 2014. And according to Mitch Moyer, senior direc-
tor of athlete high performance at U.S. Figure Skating, the athletes and fans attending the Games are in for a treat when they fl y into the resort city that is situated along the Black Sea coast.
“I think the big thing is that all the venues
are going to be new. Figure skating, speed skat- ing, hockey and curling will all be located in the coastal cluster,” said Moyer, who traveled to Sochi in early October with other U.S. Olympic sports offi cials to meet with the Sochi organiz- ing committee. “You are going to be able to walk from the [athlete] village to the competition arena, which is great. The training arena is next door to the competition venue. You aren’t going to have long bus rides or get caught in traffi c. They will have some small transportation inside the village, between the venues in the cluster.” The International Olympic Committee se-
lected Sochi to host the Games on July 4, 2007, and the Sochi organizing committee has spent the last fi ve years building all-new venues, roads, hotels, communication infrastructure and a high-speed train to transport people to the mountains for the ski events. “It’s still one, huge construction zone,” Moyer
said. The primary venue for fi gure skating and
short track speed skating, however, is near completion. A preliminary competition at the 12,000-seat Iceberg Skating Palace, the Federa- tion Cup, took place in early October. The Iceberg Skating Palace features a blue
glass exterior and cost $43.9 million to build. The 2012 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final will be held at the Iceberg Skating Palace in early De- cember. There are three Olympic villages. Figure skat-
ing athletes will stay in condo- type housing in the coastal cluster, which is right on the water. Two other Olympic villages will be in the moun- tains. There’s a Russian version of a SuperTarget
store located in the vicinity. There are also sever- al small retail shops in the general area. Sochi, with a population of more than 400,000, is about a two-hour fl ight from Mos- cow and is Russia’s crown-jewel summer resort destination. Sochi, on the southern edge of the country, has a humid subtropical climate, with average summer temperatures in the low 80s and average winter temperatures in the low 40s. The nearby mountains enjoy perfect snow con- ditions and the ski season runs from October to May. Palm trees and beaches dot the landscape. Sochi will be the warmest city to have ever host- ed a Winter Olympic Games. “January and February is the rainy season
there,” Moyer said, “while the mountains receive a lot of snow at that time. It’s a similar climate to northern California.” Moyer’s assessment of Sochi’s transforma-
tion into an Olympic city was shared by IOC chief inspector Jean-Claude Killy, who arrived a week after Moyer to evaluate the construction prog- ress.
“The athletes will be in excellent surround-
ings,” he told reporters. “In my view, these will be the best conditions, compared to other Winter Olympics.” A total of 98 events in 15 winter sports will
take place over three weeks in Sochi. An ambi- tious test schedule is also planned leading up to the Games, with 47 events scheduled in the new venues this winter. When the Olympic Games end on Feb. 23,
Sochi will inherit a world-class tourism infra- structure that includes 27,000 new hotel rooms. The diff erent sports venues will also be repur- posed, with the Iceberg Skating Palace likely to become something other than a skating arena. “There were so many cranes, so much con-
struction,” Moyer said. “I’m looking forward to the next year when everything is completed.”
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4 NOVEMBER 2012
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