Snoozed your way through Sochi? Take our Olympic crash course
SOCHI, Russia — It will all come to an end this weekend, when the circus pulls up stakes and rolls off to its next stop, its next payday.
The Sochi Winter Olympics — which have reportedly cost the fine people of Russia many, many billions — will end with a flurry on Sunday, with three medal events, including men’s hockey.
There has been no shortage of stories to follow to this point, and some of them have even had to do with sports.
Here’s a look at the main talking points heading into the home stretch:
So what about those
black widows?
As The New York Times put it, on Feb. 5: “For the first time in history, the Olympics are being held on the edge of a war zone.” Islamist militants, part of a long-running battle for independence, pledged to make a statement in Sochi. Suicide bombers struck a bus and a train station in Volgograd in separate attacks in December, killing 34 people.
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Days before the mass of visitors began arriving in Sochi, there were reports a potential suicide bomber — a black widow, generally so named because they were married to men who have been killed — slipped past safety nets and into town.
So far, it has been safe. Security presence has been obvious without being overwhelming. Unlike the London Olympics, it has been difficult to spot dour men carrying big guns. Here, those men are just dour.
How are the hotels?
This was the storyline that took over after everyone arrived safely. One story involving a German photographer was the most dramatic: He reportedly found construction debris in his first hotel room, a sleeping construction worker in the second and a stray dog in room No. 3. For the most part the other issues were — in relation to the German photographer, anyway — relatively minor: Missing curtains, missing shower rods, a temperamental hot water supply and other absent details.
As the Games have progressed, though, organizers have caught up. Towels, curtains and fixtures have been appearing, sometimes daily. The place should be finished by the time the Games close.
And the stray dogs?
Anecdotal evidence suggests the news is less than rosy for the stray dogs, which became a secondary storyline in the early days. There do not seem to be as many on the streets as there were in the first few days. The International Olympic Committee confirmed the dogs were being rounded up, but that healthy dogs had nothing to fear.
“Dogs that do not pass a health check are being destroyed,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “Healthy dogs are being relocated.”
There have been reports of a Russian billionaire trying to save dogs, and some participants have pledged to do their part. Gus Kenworthy, the Coloradan who won silver in ski slopestyle, pledged to adopt puppies that had been living in a tent.
How is Canada doing?
There is mounting evidence Canada will not match the 26 medals it won four years ago in Vancouver, when it also led the way with 14 gold medals. Canadians had won 14 medals by Monday afternoon (four gold, six silver, four bronze), and some are projecting a finish in the neighbourhood of 24 medals. That is not to say those who have won medals have not been feel-good stories: Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe won gold and silver in the women’s moguls, providing one of the most memorable photos of the Games so far. Skier Jan Hudec won Canada’s first alpine medal in 20 years despite having undergone seven knee surgeries. Gilmore Junio, a 23-year-old speedskater from Calgary, gave his spot in the 1,000 metres to Denny Morrison, who went on to win silver, before adding bronze in the 1,500 on Sunday.
“It’s going to be in my memory forever,” Carol Morrison, Denny’s mother, said. “It’s one of the best Olympic stories that I’ve ever experienced, and I’m happy that my son was part of it.”
And the reality check?
Russia welcomed the world to its door months after enacting a controversial law limiting freedom of expression in the gay community. The law, which prohibits the spread of loosely defined gay “propaganda,” was a major talking point before the Games, before it drifted out of sight once the athletes became the focus.
On Saturday, Michael Lambert, the 27-year-old snowboarder from Toronto, raised the issues to a reporter with the Olympic News Service. “A perfect Games isn’t someone who blows the budget through the roof for no reason, has people suffer, shuts people up,” Lambert told the reporter. “How is that a perfect Games? Spends ungodly amounts of money and then we are all going to watch it rot over the next 10 years.”