Two days to go: Sochi still a work in progress
Posted February 5, 2014 8:39 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SOCHI, RUSSIA (NEWS1130) – Don’t sweat the small stuff? That doesn’t exactly work when you’re organizing a $50 billion international sporting event.
It’s the details — and a lot of them — that Olympic organizers are scrambling to work out in Sochi just two days before the opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Games.
There has been a flood of complaints as athletes, journalists and tourists descend on the Russian Black Sea resort town, though to be fair most of it is in the form of relatively good natured bewilderment over missing light bulbs, TVs, heat and hot water. Rumour has it that the hottest commodity on the black market in Sochi is shower curtains and there are more than a few manholes still missing their covers.
One of the topics getting the most traction on Twitter is the cloudy, amber-coloured tap water.
“My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, ‘do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous’,” Stacy St. Clair of the Chicago Tribune posted.
Other tweets give a behind-the-scenes look at the athletes accommodations, including tiny little beds crammed into rooms filled with what one called “left over Ikea furniture.”
The toilet situation is also, shall we say, cozy with some athletes rubbing thighs with their neighbour while asking to pass the TP.
There have been power outages, traffic jams are common and construction cranes and crews are still working to wrap up work on facilities with only 48 hours to go until the games officially open.
