{"id":111,"date":"2014-02-11T09:58:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T09:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=111"},"modified":"2014-05-22T22:49:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T22:49:51","slug":"sochi-here-we-come-%e2%80%93-the-winter-olympics-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=111","title":{"rendered":"Sochi, here we come \u2013 The Winter Olympics 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Simon Rea<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the 7th<\/sup> February the Olympic torch arrived in the Russian resort of Sochi, nestled beside the Black Sea, having been carried by 14,000 torch bearers over 65,000 kilometres through 83 states of Russia.\u00a0 Its arrival marked the start of the 22nd<\/sup> Winter Olympics and the first to be held in Russia.\u00a0 These Games will be the most compact in Olympic history with two main sites \u2013 The Coastal Cluster that includes the 40,000 capacity Fischt Olympic Stadium and the Mountain Cluster 18 miles to the north in the Caucasus Mountains.\u00a0 The Coastal Cluster will host events such as ice hockey, speed skating and figure skating with the skiing events being held in the Mountain Cluster.<\/p>\n

President Putin is hopeful that the twin \u2018mega events\u2019, the Winter Olympics of 2014 and the Football World Cup in 2018 will boost the positive image of Russia around the world, just as the Summer Olympics of 2008 and 2012 did for the cities of Beijing and London.\u00a0 This is a dangerous game to play as amid the terrorist threats, accusations of human rights abuses and restriction of the freedom of expression Russia are also presiding over the most expensive Olympics Games in history.\u00a0 These Games are expected to cost the Russian taxpayer around \u00a332 billion in comparison to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver that cost \u00a35.3 billion or London 2012 that cost just under \u00a39 billion.\u00a0 The road between the Mountain and Coastal clusters has cost as much as the budget for the entire 2010 Winter Olympics and led to an opposition Minister enquiring if it was paved with caviar.<\/p>\n

The Winter Olympics were first held in Chamonix in 1924 with 250 athletes from 16 Nations. In Sochi there will be over 2500 athletes from 88 different Nations, including Zimbabwe and Togo for the first time, competing in 98 events in 15 different sports.\u00a0 The first Winter Olympics were dominated by athletes from Norway, Finland, Austria and USA. Medal tables in subsequent Olympics show that this trend has continued with most medals being won by European and North American nations.\u00a0 It is not too surprising given the shortage of physical resources that there has never been a Winter Olympic medallist from Africa or South America.<\/p>\n

Slip sliding away<\/strong><\/p>\n

There have been many memorable moments in Winter Olympics history, such as Torville and Dean\u2019s perfect rendition of Bolero and Herman Maier crashing and landing head first during the downhill skiing in Nagano only to walk away and come back to win gold medals in the giant slalom and Super-G events.\u00a0 There have been honourable failures, such as Eddie the Eagle soaring to last place in the ski jump and the Jamaican bobsleigh team ending up travelling down the course upside down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most successful winter Olympian is a Norwegian cross-country skier, Bjorn Daehlie, who won 12 medals including 8 golds between 1992 and 1998.\u00a0 He was reputed to have a VO2 max (measure of aerobic fitness) of 96ml\/kg\/min which is one of the highest ever recorded.\u00a0 He was also an athlete of great sportsmanship.\u00a0 In 1998 he had become aware of a Kenyan skier, Philip Boit, who was competing in the 10k race.\u00a0 Boit had only been skiing for two years and had excelled at 800 m running. He started training on ski rollers in Kenya before making his way to Finland to try snow for the first time. Boit\u2019s event was won by Daehlie but rather than going directly to the medal ceremony he waited twenty minutes for Boit to finish so he could congratulate him on his achievement.\u00a0 Apparently Boit informed Daehlie that he should enjoy his moment as he would beat him in Salt Lake City in four years\u2019 time. It started a lifelong friendship and Boit named his first son after the Norwegian champion.<\/p>\n

Bringing it back home \u2013 who to watch for the medals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Russian team are confident of a significant haul of medals to excite their supporters and their biggest hope is the men\u2019s Ice Hockey team which contains several of their sporting icons.\u00a0 However, Canada are the defending champions in this event and along with the Americans are always very strong. When looking at potential medallists it becomes clear that certain Nations are historically successful in certain events.\u00a0 For example, Norway dominates cross-country skiing, Austria in ski jumping, Germany in the luge and bobsleigh, the Netherlands in speed skating and USA in snowboarding.\u00a0 The following athletes are generally viewed as some of those most likely to make it to pinnacle of the podium.<\/p>\n