So, I wrote yesterday about the generally negative tone of western media coverage about all things Sochi and these specific Winter Olympic Games. I might even suggest that the same was mentioned about other prominent sports events that were held outside of western nations, such as the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, the upcoming World Cup in Brazil in 2014, and the Euro that was shared between the Ukraine and Poland.
You almost get the impression that the only ones that "know" how to cope with such huge events would, in fact, be those western nations themselves.
Yet, I recall many people being quite annoyed with the 1994 World Cup, when Americans asked if they could essentially change the rules of football (known as soccer in the United States) by breaking the game up into four quarters, rather than the traditional two halves, in order to allow, predictably, more commercials. That level of presumptuousness was embarrassing for us American fans who had felt excited about the prospects of this sport, and the World Cup event in particular, coming to America in such a prominent fashion. It rather cast a shadow on the tournament, and some suggested that the US did not deserve the games that year.
And I was disappointed with the London games when the Olympic flame was held within the stadium, and not in a prominent place where people on the outside could see it. I thought that was rather cheesy, and frankly, it is not surprising that it would be either Britain or the United States where that kind of thing took place. It is obviously not that friendly to the passive fans, to those interested spectators who would be curious to see the grounds, but perhaps who cannot afford the outlandish expenses of tickets. It is friendly to the idea of exclusivity to consumers (in this case, to paying ticketholders), who suddenly become privileged in getting to see the Olympic flame. I just don't think that was in the proper Olympic spirit, either, and suspect commercialism and a desire for making big money behind that move. Hopefully, we will never see the Olympic flame hidden from public view like that again.
That said, there were some opportunities to learn more about the host city, the region, and the country that hosted these Olympic games.
I will share two of them that I found yesterday, while doing some research. What had particularly intrigued me was the description that I heard repeatedly that Sochi was "semi-tropical". I had long suspected that such an enormous country as Russia would have some warm areas, but it is still hard sometimes to think of Russia during the winter as anything but an icebox. Obviously, these games should change that image a bit.
Here are links to two interesting articles that elaborate on Sochi and the surrounding area:
"Why Sochi is, ironically, the perfect place for the winter Olympics" Feb 5th 2014, 23:50 by A.O. | MOSCOW:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/02/economist-explains-2
"Sochi and the wider region" by Ivana Kottasova and Inez Torre, CNN, January 27, 2014:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/27/world/sochi-region-interactive/index.html
And if you, like me, have been wondering about just how warm it seems to be in Sochi (while we here in eastern North America have been getting absolutely pounded), here is a like to an article that shows some surprising cities that Sochi is warmer than. I knew that Sochi was warmer that what most people (myself included) tend to think about when Russia comes to mind, but some of these were really surprising:
http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/five-cities-you-won-t-believe-are-colder-than-sochi-presented-by-carnival-cruise-lines-1392170773-slideshow/
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