Russia ramps up 2014 Sochi Winter Games bid

MOSCOW — Russia launched an international campaign last week to push its bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, saying hosting the Games in Sochi would serve as a catalyst for the country’s continued economic development.
    The Winter Games have never been held in Russia, despite the country’s tradition as a winter sports power. President Vladimir Putin’s government is putting its full support behind the candidacy, which is competing against bids from Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea.
MOSCOW — Russia launched an international campaign last week to push its bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, saying hosting the Games in Sochi would serve as a catalyst for the country’s continued economic development.
    The Winter Games have never been held in Russia, despite the country’s tradition as a winter sports power. President Vladimir Putin’s government is putting its full support behind the candidacy, which is competing against bids from Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea.
    “I think the decision to hold the Olympics in Russia would be recognition … of the changes that have taken place in our country in recent times,” Deputy Prime Alexander Zhukov said. “Of course, thanks to the Olympics a very serious economic impetus will be received not only by the city of Sochi itself but by the economy of all of southern Russia.”
    Russian officials sought to address concerns that recent Olympics have been huge drains on host countries resulting in expensive, underused facilities and little long-term economic benefit.
    “For our people, for the Olympic movement, it’s necessary, it’s needed not only for the Olympics but for the continuation of our growth and our civilization,” said Leonid Tyagachev, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee. “In the last 13 [Winter] Olympics in which Russia participated, more than 270 of our sportsmen became heroes … [but] our country has never received the Olympics.”
    Oct. 2 marked the start of international promotion campaigns by the three bid cities. The International Olympic Committee will select the host city at its session in Guatemala City in July 2007.
    “I know that all Russian athletes are waiting with impatience for the possibility to demonstrate their mastery on their native soil,” Olympic figure skating gold medalist Evgeni Plushenko said.
    Sochi appears to have much greater high-level political and financial support than Moscow did during its failed bid for the 2012 Summer Games. Moscow finished last in the five-city vote, which was won by London.
    “The Moscow bid had its ups and downs, maybe more downs than ups,” Russian IOC member and former Olympic swimming champion Alexander Popov said at a Sochi presentation in London. “We have learned from our mistakes. We now have vertical support — from top to bottom.”
    The Sochi proposal has been well-received because of it comparative compactness and the region’s exotic and picturesque geography. Sochi is wedged between the Black Sea and soaring mountains, a view encompassing both snowcaps and tropical palm trees.
    The proposal foresees conducting all indoor sports in a cluster of facilities near Adler, where the airport for Sochi is also located, with double-track rail connections being built to the ski areas about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away. Visitor accommodations would primarily be in Sochi town, which has long been a popular resort for Russians but is little known outside Eastern Europe.
    Although Sochi itself has little experience conducting large sports competitions, Russia in recent years has hosted major events including the world figure skating championships and it will hold the world hockey championships next year.
    “It’s not just Sochi that would be conducting the Games, but the whole country,” said Vyacheslav Fetisov, a former NHL star and head of the Federal Sports Agency.
    Sochi is located within the Caucasus Mountains, an area that in recent years has seen a significant rise in violence believed connected to rising Muslim resentment of Russian authorities. But officials declared that security would be tight if Sochi gets the Games.
    “The security of all is guaranteed,” Zhukov said.