The base for Sochi Olympic Games theme will be ancient Greek myth about Prometheus – the Titan who took fire from the gods of Olympus and give it to mortals for their use, for this he was chained to Mount Fischt near Sochi. This became know after IOC allowed the three candidate cities to make their Olympic plans public.

In Wikipedia, and many other sources, you’ll read that Prometheus was chained to Mount Caucasus, but where is this mountain today? Why do they think it is Fischt Mountain, near Sochi? Here is what I found on the internet: Continue reading →

German Gref, Russian Minister of Economics and Trade, will now have an assistant whose sole job will be realization of the federal program to turn Sochi into year-round resort.

Also, three “layers” of control over how money, allotted for preparing Sochi for the Olympics, are used: (1) Minister of Economics, who will personally oversight the money flow and lead the board of directors (I guess that’s why he’d need an assistant dedicated for these tasks :); (2) a supervisory board consisting of well known public figures will be created; and (3) and Accounts Chamber of Russian Federation.

A high-level delegation from Sochi 2014 arrived this morning at the International Olympic Committee Headquarters in Lausanne, two days ahead of schedule, to deliver their finalized Candidature File, Sochi’s visionary proposal to host a technically excellent Winter Games.

According to Sochi 2014, 150 people worked nearly 70,000 hours over a 17-month period to produce a “highly comprehensive and technically excellent plan”.

Russian TV channel NTV had a nice video clip talking about the event. I’ll post a few screenshots below. Continue reading →

When I started this blog, I was wondering if many people in my target audience would want to see Sochi hosting Olympics if Olympic Games were to be this year and why, what people know about Sochi, and what do they think about other candidate cities’ advantages and disadvantages over Sochi. So, I’ve posted my question on a few travel boards and got a few answers. One thing I noticed is that many Europeans would prefer Austria’s bid over other’s for the reasons of convenience – geographical proximity means cheaper travel, no visa requirements, etc. And I can relate to all that. But I couldn’t help myself thinking how short-sighted this line of reasoning is. And, I think, partly this comes from lack of information.

Here are my thoughts on how Olympics in Sochi will benefit Europeans over Olympics in Salzburg. Continue reading →

As part of the action “Your Olympics – your voice”, post boxes with Olympic symbolic will be placed on the city’s busiest streets and squares.

This Sochi officials’ initiative is designed to receive feedback from city residents and guests about making the resort a better place to live in and to visit, as well as to hear people’s ideas and concerns related to city’s ongoing preparation to host the Olympics.

“Preparation for the Olympic Games – is a common cause of all residents of our city. That’s why we would like to give every Sochi resident and guest an opportunity to share their opinion with city’s officials and officials of the “Sochi-2014? campaign.”

Source: interfax.ru