Sochi, on the Black Sea, is the Pearl of the Russian Riviera, with a subtropical climate, palm trees, historic hotels and spas, and wide beaches. Just the place to hold the Winter Olympics!
Now Sochi has a trio of ugly mascots, couples toilets, rampant corruption, 70,000 gallons of borcht,and a torch that’s been to outer space, but but no garlic picking, booze, dogs, yoghurt or gay people. In Sochi, Olympic Corruption seems to be this year’s demonstration sport.
“Freezing Sochi: how Russia turned a subtropical beach into a Winter Olympics wonderland,” Duncan Geere, The Verge
“Meet the man who plans to ski down Sochi’s slopes in a mariachi-style suit,” Allison Jackson, GlobalPost
“Will Sochi Have Enough Snow?” Tim McDonnell, Rolling Stone
“Welcome to Sochi, would you like a ceiling in your room?” Alphonso Van Marsh, CBS News
“These are just some of the amazing perks athletes get at the Olympic Village,” Sarah Dougherty, GlobalPost
“First Event of Sochi Olympics: The Hotel Construction Sprint,” David Segal, New York Times
“What Is a Sochi? Everything You Should Know About the 2014 Olympic Site,” Adam Weinstein, Gawker
“For viewers, Sochi will be first ‘fully mobile’ Olympics,”Sarah Lane, University of Akron (press release)
“The curious case of the Sochi double toilets.” Aisha Gani, The Guardian
“A Primer on the Eight Olympic Events Debuting in Sochi,” Tuan C. Nguyen, Smithsonian
“Sochi or bust,” The Economist
“What Sochi Didn’t Learn From Moscow and London,” Andrei Voskresenskii, Kommersant via Worldcrunch
“Don’t Fish in the Toilet and Other Sochi Olympics Rules,” Colleen Curry, ABC News
“Charts: The Most Ridiculously Expensive Olympics Ever,” Jaeah Lee, Ian Gordon, AJ Vicens, and Katie Rose Quandt, Mother Jones
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Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-iG3
Image: Sochi Intourist Travel Brochure, 1937.
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Tags: Olympics, Russia, Sochi, Winter Olympics
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