Three years to Olympics 2014: mascot to be chosen and test competitions to be held this February.
Only three years are left for Olympic preparations and President Dmitry Medvedev declared that the final stage of preparations has begun. According to his official statement, 85% of funds have been allocated to social, energy and transport infrastructure. The 14 sport facilities that are to be built for the 2014 events are divided into 3 groups. The facilities of the first group will continue to serve their sporting purpose after the Games, those of the second will be relocated, and those of the third group will be transformed into facilities for different purposes.
According to the head of the Olympics organizing committee, Dmitry Chernishenko, the year 2010 became a sort of ‘equator’ for preparations for the Games. Mr Chernishenko assessed the three previous years of preparation as a success. 1,050,000,000 dollars have been allocated to the project by the Committee so far, so they managed to do without state donations in 2010. However, proceedings have been instituted on corruption charges against several members of the ‘Olympstroy’ company, which is responsible for Olympic construction.
One of the most important events of the last year was the ratification of a memorandum on environmental protection, signed by the Committee, the administration of Sochi and construction companies. Despite that, the WWF and the Russian Greenpeace office accused the companies and UN representatives who survey the construction of ignoring the damage to the Caucasian ecosystem that Olympic construction causes.
Mr Chernisenko also pointed out that interest in the Olympics among Russian citizens is growing, and that this is a positive factor. A lot of potential mascots were proposed, and now the choice has been narrowed down to a top 10: a hare, a dolphin, a bear, a leopard, a bullfinch bird, a snowflake, a Father Frost and several others. Art projects were proposed by people of all ages, from small children to elderly people. This February the mascot will finally be chosen. After that, test competitions in alpine skiing - the European Cup - will be held.
Pavel Martynov, exclusively to VK
