The Sochi Olympics

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Have you watched the Sochi winter Olympics this year? I love watching them mainly because of the snowboarding and skiing events. The things the Olympians can do are almost superhuman, and I aspire to be able to do that one day, though it’s probably unlikely. There is a concern over the winter Olympics this year because of the nature of the courses in Sochi. Some of the courses are notoriously hard and even dangerous. Previous gold medal Olympian Shaun White refused to participate in a freestyle event because of the icy nature of the course. Numerous injuries have occurred so far with Olympians brave enough to compete on the icy courses. For an event as popular and important as the Olympics, I believe this is unacceptable.

There is a board of people who decide the placement of the Olympics. To avoid having competitors drop out because of poorly made courses, I believe the way they pick the location should be revised. They should have professionals or previous Olympians test out every single course to check conditions. This, I believe, would solve the problems that face the Sochi winter Olympics.

Another thing I find disturbing about the Sochi placement is how Russia made the residents of Sochi move to make room for hotels. This is cruel, and should never have happened. Yet another reason why the board who chooses the location needs to conduct more research before making a decision.  Other than that, the Olympics are a joy to watch and boost the economy of wherever they take place. Here is to hoping that the 2018 winter Olympics don’t face the same problems that Sochi does.

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3 Responses to The Sochi Olympics

  1. Nicole Franks says:

    I agree with what Chris said here, but I also think finding a “solution” is a lot easier said then done. The Olympics has turned completely political with countries fighting for a location bid several years in advance. Bribes to the Olympic board are becoming more common and on much greater scales. Russia spent somewhere around $60 billion to host this year’s Sochi Olympics, with an estimated almost half of that being spent bribing the Olympic board chairs before they were ever granted their bid. At this scale I think people will have a very hard time changing this process anytime soon if ever.

  2. Annaliese Zlogar says:

    I agree with with the comments about the dangerous courses. From what I’ve read, Russia has been totally unprepared for the olympics. I watched some of the men’s snowboarding halfpipe and saw many athletes falling because of the slushy conditions of the snow.

  3. Christopher Depman says:

    This is a very interesting point. I agree with you that olympian safety should be first and foremost when choosing a location for these events. The 2018 olympics will be held in South Korea which unfortunately I envision will present the same problems as this olympics.

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