Olympic officials said Sochi can be proud of the progress that is being made for the 2014 Games. The winter event is still a few years off, but the groundwork is well underway, as the IOC has been discovering.
It’s the forth such visit by the IOC’s coordination commission.
“Sochi Olympic preparations are now halfway through, but the progress the city has already made is impressive,” said the head of the IOC delegation, Jean-Claude Killy.
He added that Olympic buildings have already “started shaping”.
Russia’s deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak, who showed the delegation around, echoed Killy. “107 Olympic buildings are currently under construction,” he said, adding that 50 of them “will be finished by the end of the year.”
The delegation members stressed that environmentally-friendly measures were being taken in the construction of the facilities.
“Sochi can be proud of great success in the following areas: marketing, operational planning, education, environmental protection and of course sporting facilities and infrastructure,” members of the IOC concluded.
Meanwhile, the President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Aleksandr Zhukov, stated that preparations are now entering a new phase. “Starting from 2011, 74 sporting events, including 29 international ones, will be held in Sochi,” he said.
There is also concern among the organizers and sport fans over whether Sochi will have enough snow to hold the Games, with the city being in a subtropical area. For that, the organizers have a plan B involving artificial snow production. They are also working on ways to store natural snow.
On Tuesday morning, snow started falling in Krasnaya Polyana, the area where most Olympic events will be held. Making use of this opportunity, the President of Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, once again tried to reassure those fearing unsuitable conditions for the Games, saying that “snow is guaranteed.”