Sochi, Russia, a city famous for being Russia’s largest resort destination and the site of this year’s Winter Olympic Games. Competition began on Thursday February 6, but the opening ceremonies were held on Friday. While the big news initially was whether NBC host Bob Costas would be able to continue broadcasting with an acute case of pink eye, other stories have quickly developed.
Unfortunately, the prevailing topic of conversation amongst American social media sites Twitter and Buzzfeed has not been so much the Olympic games and the athletes, but the problems the host city has encountered in preparing for the games. A twitter account has cropped up (@SochiProblems, with over 350,000 followers) purportedly run by Canadians, which is dedicated to promoting these issues.
With broken elevators, exposed wires in bathrooms, missing shower curtains, grossly impure water, hotel rooms that when opened are already occupied and in use, massive culling of stray dogs, toilets without stalls, athletes having to force their way out of locked bathrooms, and not-quite-paved roads, the city did not quite look ready leading up to the games. Then came the opening ceremonies and the missing Olympic ring, which was allegedly scrubbed out of the Russian telecast of the event. Needless to say, Sochi had a rough start.
At least one Olympic historian (see David Wallechinsky and his interview in The Christian Science Monitor) thinks that this is really nothing other than standard operating procedure where the Olympics are concerned. In fact, a current school of thought is growing that the hyper-sensitive focus on the problems and failings of the Sochi games has more to do with opposition to Russia as the host country rather than issues with Olympic facilities themselves.
Many point out that Athens had similar issues leading up to their summer Olympic Games in 2004, but the issues with Sochi are much greater than merely a case of bungled infrastructure. Leading up to the games, it seemed that Vladimir Putin and his organizers in Sochi were trying to enrage or at the very least exasperate the international community with bizarre statements regarding homosexual persons.
The Olympics have started, though. Hopefully the prestige of these international competitions that only occur every two years will provide enough excitement and enthusiasm to overshadow these larger issues. After all, what kind of person wants to see the Olympics fail? So the torch has been lit, and victors have been crowned, or rather given medals.
Sage Kostenbury of Couer d’Alene, Idaho achieved the great distinction of winning the first gold medal of these games. He defeated Staale Sandbach of Norway and Mark McMorris of Canada in Slopestyle to climb the podium first. However, Kostenbury’s fame was quickly eclipsed by what has been identified as the great Olympic Meme of this year, Ashley Wagner’s reaction to her figure skating score. Wagner took fourth in the event behind a competitor who fell during her routine. Needless to say, Wagner did not receive the score she anticipated and everyone around her knew it. Deadspin.com has already named Wagner’s reaction its “Moment of the Olympics.”
The most thrilling part of the Winter Olympics, though, is always the fierce competition between the curling teams. Both United States teams have struggled early on against European powers, the men falling to Norway by a score of 7-4 and the women losing to Switzerland by the same score. In fact, for American fans of curling, it’s been a rough winter Olympics thus far. The men have only succeeded against Germany and Denmark, while the women’s team has only defeated Japan through round-robin play.
Ice hockey has gone significantly better for both the men and the women. In the preliminary games, the woman defeated Finland 3-1 but lost to arch-rival Canada 3-2. The women got back on point against Switzerland, shutting them out by a score of 9-0. The men had no issues with Slovakia, finishing them off 7-1. The excitement for the men’s team came against the Russian Federation, when T.J. Oshie scored the winning goal for the US in an extended and gripping shootout. The men’s team cruised to a 5-1 win against Slovenia the next day.
As of the writing of this article, the United States is in seventh in the total medal count with four gold medals, four silver and 8 bronze medals. The US trails Germany (7 gold, three silver and two bronze), the Netherlands (five gold, five silver, and 7 bronze), Norway (five gold, three silver and 6 bronze), Switzerland (five gold, one silver and one bronze), the Russian Federation (four gold, 7 silver, five bronze) and Canada (four gold, 6 silver, four bronze).
John McMackin is a sophomore history and Theology major. If you would like to contact him you can find the door in Keenan Hall with a stag head on it. Alternatively, his email address is jmcmack1@nd.edu.
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