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Every single olympics, there is dire warnings before hand, things will not be ready. There are guaranteed huge traffic problems, not enough volunteers or infras

• lisp-and-seo 13y ago
  Yeah, journalists can survive a few weeks without showers :D
  • erichurkman 13y ago
    Well, they won't survive long if there's a fire and the fire doors are locked.
  • untog 13y ago
    Less sure they can survive without water.
• pedalpete 13y ago
  You hear the run up of 'they aren't going to be ready', but you don't hear it days before the Olympics. In Whistler/Vancouver, our housing was completed months before. You didn't have incomplete buildings or event venues leading up to the day. Some of the venues may have cut it close (I don't really remember), but still, I don't think anything was left to a few days before. I really don't care about the journalists though. I'm more concerned about the athletes and the venues, particularly for their safety in many of these sports where (by the sounds of things) the competition will be essentially a 'trial run' of the venue. In Whistler, our Bobsled and Nordic Ski venues all hosted warm-up test events before the Olympics.
  • bri3d 13y ago
    The venue issue is already present: http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-02-03/why-extreme-nature-sochi-slopestyle-course-has-snowboarders-scared http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-02-03/why-extreme-nature-soc... . The main issue illustrated by this story is that the warm weather in Sochi is causing many of the venues to be built sloppily or incorrectly. In this case the slopestyle venue was difficult to build because of poor snow quality and the jumps are all massively overbuilt to try to compensate for high expected melting rates over the coming week.
    • magic_haze 13y ago
      OT, but damn, that is a very well designed website. And it's just a single dev, from their info page. Very impressive.
      • Ryanmf 13y ago
        Not so sure about that. http://www.palantir.net/experience/public-radio-international http://www.palantir.net/experience/public-radio-internationa...
    • pedalpete 13y ago
      We had similar concerns in Whistler regarding the Women's Downhill Ski Coarse in particular. That isn't what I meant when about being concerned about safety. This sounds to me like a very challenging course, that doesn't mean it is unsafe. Women on the downhill in Whistler were complaining that the course was too difficult. Olympic organizes also voiced concerns, but realistically, that's just how we do it in Whistler, maybe Sochi is a bit of the same. When I am concerned about safety, I do mean safety of the athletes, but I don't mean jumps being too big. I'm more concerned about poor fencing, inconsistent terrain, etc. A pedestrian pathway fell down just before the Commonwealth Games in India a few years ago. Those are the types of safety concerns I was worried about. As far as 'big jumps' go, I figure, if you're a professional athlete and your sport involves jumps, you need to know what speed you can safely take those jumps at. Contrast that to the tragic Skeleton accident on the first day of the Whistler Olympics. Everybody had said how challenging the track was, but nobody imagined anybody would fly off the track and hit a pole. The challenging track is acceptable, the pole is absolutely not. There was nothing the athlete could have done to protect himself once he came off the course. I don't know that the snowboard cross comparisons is that kind of dangerous.
      • bri3d 13y ago
        Point taken about challenging courses, Whistler, and Sochi. The bike park at Whistler is a pleasure every time and still the best in the world IMO, in no small part because Whistler aren't afraid to build big features. I certainly don't think that the snowboard cross course as reported so far is dangerous in a deadly way like an alpine course with flawed fencing design or a skeleton or bobsled course with solid obstacles in proximity, but the reasons that the snowboard cross course are bad are still very worrying. Based on what athletes said for example here: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sochi/safety-concerns-over-sochi-slopestyle-course-intensify-1.1669625 http://www.ctvnews.ca/sochi/safety-concerns-over-sochi-slope... , the snowboard cross isn't huge because the builders wanted to go big by design, but rather to anticipate extreme melting activity. And, like the Whistler courses, the slopestyle course was supposed to have been tested a year ago but was unable to be constructed due to a lack of snow. I certainly don't think it's a good sign.
• whbk 13y ago
  This one's a little different. Yeah every Olympics has this fear-mongering, but we're three days, not months (as is typically the case), from opening ceremonies. There was talk today that some event venues aren't even set up, when the games begin in 2 days.
  • whatusername 13y ago
    This was two weeks out from the last Commonwealth Games. Familiar story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11379020 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11379020 Or this one: http://www.smh.com.au/commonwealth-games-2010/comm-games-news/games-stadium-badly-off--track-with-just-hours-to-go-20101006-1676m.html http://www.smh.com.au/commonwealth-games-2010/comm-games-new... (although that was during the games fixing damage from the Opening Ceremony)
    • whbk 13y ago
      Sorry, those are a little off my radar :) Was just referring to Olympics.