July 4, 2007, the International Olympic Committee chose Sochi, Russia for the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. According to the many views of newspapers and journals, such as The New York Times, PyeoungChang, South Korea, had a bigger expectation for the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Moreover, PyeoungChang has failed to get the 2010 Winter Olympics which were awarded to Vancouver Canada, in 2003 in Prague. For the 2014 Olympics, the IOC members evaluated three cities: Salzburg, PyeoungChanng, and Sochi, which all wished to stage the Winter Games, PyeoungChang got the best score compared with the other two cities. In addition, PyeoungChang and Salzburg had prepared winter Olympic more than 10years, and Sochi was the latest runner of the election. This made the disappointment even greater.
Russian president, Vladimir Putin, played decisive role to achieve the goal. He showed Russians enthusiasm for the Winter Olympic, and provided actual and political power to the Russian bid-team. They showed their ability to hold the world festival by building a portable ice rink. Someone analyzed that this tactic ensured the IOC members that Sochi really didn’t have the ability to hold the winter games because they may not be able to build stadiums and fields. However, in the final presentation, Putin ensured IOC members with his sincere English and French speech. Finally, the IOC selected Sochi for 2014 winter Olympic stage.
Journalists worry that these IOC election campaigns are turned into financial competitions. The three cities used more than 10 million dollars overall in bidding for the 2014 Olympics. According to the AP, the amount of money used by these three cities is higher than the bid for the 2012 games by London, Paris, Moscow, New York, and Madrid together.
Despite the worries, perhaps Sochi can overcome it’s doubt and create a meaningful 2014 Olympics Game that will give pleasure to the world and pride to Russia
4 comments:
Sam,
Thanks for the summary. In your opinion, which location would have made the best fit? Did the IOC make the right decision?
When I read what Sam had written I was surprised. I do not keep up with a lot of sports, but with this class I am trying harder, and have been pulling all of the sports sections out of the paper. Ever since I had started hearing of potentail, and likely locations for the 2014 Winter Olympics it was always Korea. I don't even know when I began hearing about Sochi, Russia as a possiable location for the winter games. Unfortuntunatly, money and power often come into big business decisions, and we all know how much money is potentially available in sports, let alone the Olympics; the tourists in town for the games; the jobs for the locals to help run the shops and restuarants; and that's just to name just a few. I am sure the commity of people that choose the location for the Olympics has numerous questions they have to ask themselves, and comtemplate before choosing a single location for the games. Or let's at least hope so. I like to watch some of the Olympics since it's on so rarely, and Sochi may be a beatiful place to hold the games. We will all just have to wait and see.
I didn't know that the location for the 2014 Winter Olympics have already decided. It's about 7 years later. Anyways, I think Sochi is the good place for the Winter Olympics. Personally, I'm looking forward to watching moguls.
Mr.Pacchione, Thanks for reading my post. Because of my nationality, I wish Pyeoungchang were chosen as the site of winter olympics. However, every cities had possibilities to be a winter games site, moreover we cannot ignore political power or the level of their abiility in winter games(as you know, Russia is one of the most powerful countries in winter games).
I can surely say that PyoeungChang got highest score when the IOC member evaluated each cities. But, PyeoungChang had a disadvantage that South Korea has already gotten so many international sports games, such as 2010 world track and field championship(Daegue,S.Korea), 2014 Asian games(Inchoen,S.Korea). This fact probably played a bad effect role for 2014 winter olympics election.
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