In society

We will not stand for money

February 26, 2007 Anton Oresh

On Saturday, Sochi was left without gas and warmth. Sochi was lucky. Not because he was left without heat and gas, but because he was left without them on Saturday. The VOC evaluative commission flew out of the city. If this happened a day earlier, the Olympics in the city would end, without starting. I have repeatedly wrote about the Olympic epic and I will say what I said before: the visit of the evaluative commission is important, but the wedge did not agree on it. Now, if the visitors were left without heat and gas ... And maybe no one will know anything outside our country, and the country was absorbed in the celebration of the next holiday.

I do not want to talk about the political and criminal interests of the initiators and executors of the Sochi application. It is better to talk about the application itself and how the arrival of appraisers from the IOC influenced our chances. To begin with - we incorrectly appreciated the commission itself. She was accepted as "tall guests." So we are used to - karavai, kokoshniki, Cossacks. This is not good and not bad, just otherwise we do not know how. But this commission is not guests. Just as it is impossible to call the “guests” of auditors or check from Rono. Once the entire Olympic bomond was really gathered in such commissions, their arrival was accompanied by banquets, concerts, carols and bribes.

That's because of bribes everything changed. Now people come to work. And at a frantic pace and in a wild volume! So if ours did without a cultural program, then no one would be offended, they would simply not have noticed this. Both Cossacks and Anastasia Volochkova entertained not at all those who were “charged” on. This is a little strange, since the same people who tried to get the Olympic Games for Moscow for 2012 are sitting in the Sochi Baby Committee. There is experience, they could take into account.

The mission of the IOC was to confirm the content of the application of Sochi in practice, for chapters and points. Each chapter is like an exam, and you need to answer not one ticket, but for all. It is like passing 17 exams in 4 days, and for each at least a dozen topics, not counting the leading and clarifying questions that were asked almost from morning to night. And ours frankly admitted that at some point they sailed. It was not possible to answer some questions on the move. And then the task was complicated. Purchant. But already in writing and certainly before the departure of the commission. Not to say that there were many such topics, but they were. Each chapter of the book was studied not for half an hour - forty minutes, as planned, but an hour and a half for sure, i.e. Real academic couple.

Here I had to cancel the sworn, lunch, coffee breaks. What a Volochkova and an ice show with the Cossacks! In general, the application committee answered normally, even despite the above troubles. There was one cunning move. On some topics, foreign specialists brought to work on the application reported. Thus, the project seemed to become international, moreover, foreigners and trust more - psychologically.

Another feature of the work of the commission is that it itself is completely closed in terms of information. She is prohibited from unofficial contacts, she does not have the right to give comments to the press before the final press conference, and even there it is ordered not to move away from general formulas if possible. So even a numerous journalistic crowd, in essence, worked according to some separate plan, making a parallel tour. And if some specifics suddenly skipped among the general phrases of appraisers, then this certainly meant something serious. Any small remark in fact implied a big problem. There were one and a half such problems.

Firstly, the IOC experts did not understand why the Olympics should be held in Sochi at all and why we rely on the fact that, regardless of the decision in the Olympiad, the Olympic objects would still be built. In addition to various socio-economic reasons, it was also called exclusively sports. And it really really exists. After the collapse of the Union, almost all sports bases suddenly became foreign: Raubichi, Sigulda, Medeo, Tsahkadzor, Bakuriani. There were Olympic champions in Russia, but they appeared literally from scratch.


We still have no skulls, no sanitary-beast tracks, no more, so the preparation for the most part goes abroad. For our athletes, the victory of Sochi would have already been good in that after it all Olympic objects would remain, it would be possible to prepare at home. This conflict, when there seems to be a lot of champions, and where they came from incomprehensible, the Moktians could not understand for a long time.

And most importantly, the members of the commission quite definitely stated at the final press conference. They are elementarily afraid that we will not have time. And this is pure psychology. It is no secret that there is still practically nothing in Sochi. All future objects of games exist only in plans and on paper. And imagine an expert of the IOC, which is from scratch, and he is assured that it will arise here, which the light did not see! People say completely outsiders for him, to believe in which there are no special grounds. And so they were taken in empty places and promised, promised, promised ...

Although in a sense there is even a plus. Because everything that will be built will become both the newest and the most modern. However, I would like to see something already now. Along the way, I’ll say something else about. The evaluative commission came to Sochi from Korea, where he studied the merits of another applicant - Pionchang. And these advantages were also great and virtual. And there is practically nothing in Pionchang. The idea of ​​the Koreans is simple. They outlined the Olympics in one of the most dense corners of their country, in order to promote, raise, develop this area with the help of games.

Sochi has about the same task. The place is good, extremely promising, but inaccurate. And I just have no doubt that in seven years we will have time. The commission simply does not know our traditions. We evacuated entire factories and made tanks from the open -air wheels in the cold. And here is the Olympics. And we will do everything in the best possible way because with all our suspicion of foreigners we traditionally stand up to impress them and please them, even to the detriment. And for money we will not stand.

The evaluative commission will take a breath a little and go to the latter and, speaking in conscience, to the main address to Salzburg. There they will definitely see not only imaginary, but also specific prospects. The Austrians will not amaze them with either the Asian hi-test or Russian mulled wine with black caviar, will not promise the 17th century stadiums. They press on traditions. Two Austrian white Olympiads in the asset. Austria is Alps, skis, calm, stability, comfort, somewhere romance. This is not a look in the distant future and not a breakthrough - this is a bet on the proven. Why invent a bicycle when it is standing, for a long time invented. Both Sochi and Koreans can play games better. But they may not spend at all. And Salzburg is a quality guarantee.

Interestingly, the Austrian application has the lowest financial resources. Many can spend the Olympics today. The question is - how? It can be the economy class Olympics, as in Athens, where everyone was in a hurry, at the last moment, but today they do not know how and when to pay with debts.

It can be the upper class Olympiad. This is exactly what we will probably see in Beijing next year. Already now almost everything is ready, in the summer, in all arenas, articles will be held, that is, rehearsals of games. Such olympiads can be organized either by attracting billions of large corporations, as the Americans do, or climbing the elbow into the state treasury, as we are going to do in Sochi.

12 billion dollars promised by Putin is colossal. With this money, you can safely organize as many as three summer Olympics, not to mention much cheaper winter games. Salzburg does not have such an amount and close. Moreover, Austria in 2008 will hold another large -scale event together with Switzeria - the European Football Championship. There is nowhere to get out of extra billions. And for this reason, including Salzburg, says that to improve - only spoil that he has everything wonderful. This is a real tit in the hands, which the majority always chooses.

Since I have compared the arrival of the VOC ratio commission with a student session, it is worth remembering that teachers are always very scary to exams, but not so scary at all. To pass on the “five” not to be perfectly prepared. In the IOC they understand this and are not looking for perfect applications. They are ready to put up with shortcomings. They, as a rule, turn a blind eye to the protests of ecologists, because there was not a single Olympics in recent years that had no problems with the "green". They are ready to put up with a transport problem, because games are stress, and modern cities are in the usual time in constant transport stress.

Therefore, the Sochi Committee should not be particularly afraid of objections about the ecology. For the IOC, it is enough that we have signed an agreement with the Wildlife Fund about advisory assistance. But will this help be, and whether we will listen to consultants - this does not bother them anymore, because the experts are simply not able to check much of what was said and written, and they are forced to believe the applicants for a word. The same thing with transport. By and large, Sochi does not have a transport problem. At least in comparison with Koreans and Austrians. We have all objects much closer to each other.

In this place, I have to apologize in advance, but I will have to correct my colleague to Yulia Latynin. A mistake crept into her article about Sochi. It was evident in the initial statistics there was a typo, and then it went away.

Of course, at the games in Turin, 400 thousand spectators were not gathering for any competition. Firstly, simply because 400 thousand are not able to collect any sporting event on Earth, with the exception of car races. And then, if I don’t confuse anything, we are talking about the only, famous race in Indianapolis. And it’s not like 400 thousand on Bobsleu, there are practically no spectators there, because just nothing is visible. In a closed groove at a speed of 120 km/h, Bob flies. This is difficult to trace on TV.

Winter games are transport hemorrhoids laid down in the rules of the game. A significant part of the competition takes place in the mountains, and you can’t lay comfortable eight -lane roads there. The road, as a rule, is one, and two lanes. And here it is better to think about how buses with an interval of 30 seconds will take 60 people in the darkness, and how and where in the mountains to physically place hundreds of thousands of fans. The only exception is jumping. There is a large foundation pit and a large meadow where the jumpers-rush landing, and there the people can get tired there. We have a springboard is not very popular, so the people in one place will most likely be able to avoid a large cluster of the people.

Otherwise, I agree with Latinina. Just like a fan I really would like Sochi to win. And I do not want to think that everyone will steal, surround, destroy nature, and instead of the holiday, a predictable shame will happen. But some idealism is excusable to the fans. Anton Oresh

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