Okay, how are Winter Olympic venues chosen?

I've been watching a bit of the games, just to see how it all looked over there...and I've been stunned. It looks so..mickey mouse and cheesy. 50 billion spent, and I expected to see a highly polished and professional appearance to the equipment and everything relating to the actual events. Instead, it looks thrown together on a short weekend for a rush job as much as not. What the heck?!

The most troubling thing I'm seeing though, is a lack of SNOW ... It's the winter games and the athletes are bundled up like buffoons while it's pretty obvious the majority of snow is there, only because man decided to put it there or insure it remained there from the last snow they had. Ummm... how...how...HOW?

(Source)

What genius came up with a venue for the Winter Games which averages High AND Low temps ABOVE freezing for the entire period the games are scheduled??

Am I the only one thinking Winter Games ought to be in a location with natural winter and real snow in abundance?

They must be preparing us for the future games in the post global warming world where there is snow nowhere, Dubai winter games in 100 years!

reply to post by Indigent


lol... Oh, why not. I can just see it. Dubai would build INDOOR venues and probably have better snow to perform on than Sochi does, too! How much would you bet they'd manage it?

Of course, the rest of us will just be beside ourselves with cries of authenticity to anything, anymore...but no matter, the games must go on ...in comfort and in places people like to vacation, eh?

politics and money...

Well, I was wondering myself... but tbh all the skiing competitions and bobsled and so on is 50km away from Sotchi in the mountain arround Krasnaja Poljana, there they have some snow.
In Sotchi you even have palms and a nice beach, but in the mountains you will find some snow for sure.
But still it is a weird choice, and not only because of the temperature, but also because of the region it is in. You could really think the Russians really want something to happen...

How are they chosen? Lots of bribes, wheels were greased and the Olympics are in Sochi.

reply to post by aLLeKs


I guess I've honestly not paid that much attention to know the distances involved here. I've flipped on the network channel running coverage a couple times to see it and that's where I've sat back and just kinda wondered...Huh?

The snow boarding and ski jump yesterday were good examples. The ski jump...maybe I'm just totally out of the times and all..but don't they normally ski down a ramp of snow ..and not artificial tracks to guide their skis for the jump? It seemed so....rigged.

Then I'd watch the background behind the performers as they''d make their way down the runs and notice...snow is patchy at best with more bare ground showing than anything. The surrounding hills have a wee bit of snow on the ridgelines, but everything else is beautiful forest ..and bare ground. Errr?

Not sure where you've got 'no snow' from? There was loads when we won a bronze this morning in the snowboarding. People fell over in it.

reply to post by khimbar


Ack... I hate this but I have to run for something I'm doing this afternoon. What I was watching last night was the U.S. authorized network coverage of the Sochi games and the events from yesterday. The Run, and lead areas DID have snow. The areas immediately adjacent to them..DID have snow. Looking out across the ridgelines and valleys around the venue? It looked like early spring, not winter.

The thing is, I can't find anything in the little time I have left. I checked Youtube and there is a ton of Sochi stuff...all dated days or weeks ago. Nothing I saw in a quick check from 24 hours and covering what I actually saw and viewed to form the opinion. Obviously, it has to be out there somewhere, and I'll do a far more careful check of images and specifics when I get back this afternoon.

My bad for not compiling all that in advance for a larger thread, but it was spur of the moment here.

Want to know where the money went? See this video...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

They were caught painting the grass green. That might be why it looked like early spring.

They (Russia) chose Sochi because Putin wanted to showcase what is essentially a Russian tourist destination, and he was hoping to make it an international tourist destination.

The mountain venues will have some snow, but the Sochi ones don't unless it's imported or created. I think most of the indoor sports are in Sochi and the outdoor ones are in the mountains, anyhow.

I imagine it would be similar to if they chose Denver although Denver itself actually does get snow although the mountains are not in the city proper. So you'd have all the indoor stuff in Denver, but they'd have to go into the mountains and out of Denver, say to Boulder or Golden or the outdoor events.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


just to state the obvious :

0 degree celcius surface temperature is not a pre-requisite for snow

Indeed

Ski Dubai is an indoor ski resort with 22,500 square meters of indoor ski area. It is a part of the Mall of the Emirates, one of the largest shopping malls in the world, located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was developed by Majid Al Futtaim Properties, which also operates the Mall of the Emirates.

Opened in November 2005, the indoor resort features an 85-meter-high indoor mountain with 5 slopes of varying steepness and difficulty, including a 400-metre-long run, the world's first indoor black run, and various features (boxes, rails, kickers) that are changed on a regular basis. A quad lift and a tow lift carry skiers and snowboarders up the mountain

Link

Regardless of what the event, worldwide or not, it is all about some people making money. An who makes that money is eco/political battle.

MonkeyMentat
How are they chosen? Lots of bribes, wheels were greased and the Olympics are in Sochi.

edit on 2 9 2014 by MonkeyMentat because: (no reason given)

That's gotta be it, because I just got some pictures downloaded from a couple of towns on the Yatkutsk Peninsula. NO sweat literally about snow out there, the fog from the motor vehicles is like a perpetual killer fog-- and in January hits about -50 F average. Most of the ladies out there hide their faces walking briskly from the bus to the shop doors; not as some consideration for appearances, but to keep one's face ON.

Since they have to keep their cars running all winter to keep the Ladas from transforming into Nadas(ROFL) I think tobogganers would need to layer up a tad more.
Can't upload any pics into the box, must be because I'm subhuman or redlisted...
hey, maybe BOTH.

My vote's for greed every time, the sports follow the money-- even the amatuers'.

Okay, I just got back.. sorry for not having more to look at in examples for what I'd meant. I'm linking here for simplicity and of course, because the Olympics people have 0 sense of humor about sharing ..and fair use is a term I don't think they've ever heard used before. Anyway....

It's not that there isn't snow, again..there is. Obviously, these are snow events. It's the amount of it, or lack of it, that got my attention. These are highlight reels so even here, it's not real easy to see what I'm talking about but the video here is the easiest perhaps.

Sage Kotsenburg's gold medal run in slopestyle

If you look carefully at not just the surrounding hills (below the ridgelines, which are covered in snow pack) but down lower, it gets spotty quick. I wouldn't have noticed that tho, but for areas much closer to see.

If you go to 1:08 in the video, where you see him coming airborne, look to the left of the ramp and you can see the hillside next to the run in a way most shots here aren't showing it...but the ongoing coverage yesterday was hard to NOT notice. You see more bare dirt and grass than any snow on top of it. That was common for what I was seeing all around that venue when the coverage wasn't selected for strictly highlights, as this was. This are some pic series and a little visibility of the same thing, but not much. Again, these aren't on the NBC site to show the landscape and scenery..and they don't. The vid shows much better, across the length of it.

Pic Set #1
Pic Set 2

Nothing dramatic, earth shattering or even news worthy. It was just an idle curiosity I had cross my thoughts in relation to the title and OP for this.

@Ignorant Ape

Thanks.. I'm pretty familiar with the science of freezing water. A life time trucking through winter seasons kinda makes it a life and death matter for learning. After 15 seasons..yup.. I know those basics. Thanks for the input tho. Someone else may not have.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Aw c'mon people, there are practical considerations to present inside the bid which no one has mentioned. One of the most important are the venue locations, specifically the distance between the alpine venues and the indoor sports venues, plus ceremonial locations, which can often be in a third place.

Austria said it had everything built and ready, but its luge/bobsleigh and skeleton venue would not be in Austria at all, but rather in Germany. As to whether they could or would probably build their own, one has to consider that their population totals only 8 million, so if the government was not able to back that aspect, then that could present different considerations.

In terms of alpine, indoor, and ceremonial venues, those who chose the winning bid had to consider distances and infrastructure within that triangle, transportation and the ring of security too. Some bids were tempting but really complicated.

See for yourself and make up your own mind. I would have voted for Sochi once they said they would build a rail system to connect the venues.

Scroll down page to see bids and their elements
link

I thought this might make for an interesting update on this thread for the weather conditions in and around the Sochi venues..

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Sochi Olympic organizers see no need to bring in stored snow to cope with the warm temperatures in the mountains — but are ready to do so if necessary.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the local organizing committee, said Tuesday that contingency plans are in place for covering slopes with snow preserved in reservoirs from previous winters.

It seems I wasn't imagining things after all.. Hmm... The story mentions they have vast reserves of snow available though. (25,000 Cubic Feet, to be exact). That may turn out to be good..

Temperatures in Sochi on the Black Sea coast have been rising, raising concerns about snow conditions. On Tuesday, temperatures reached 11 C (52 F) along the coast and 5 C (41 F) in the Alpine cluster in Krasnaya Polyana.

Sochi chief: No need to use stored snow _ yet

It is an interesting place for the winter games, to be sure.

I found something interesting I thought might fit as an update to the thread here.

Source

That comes from NASA's pic of the day gallery. Interesting how winter has gone around the northern hemisphere this year. Very hit and miss and really remarkable on both sides.