The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission in Russia to assess Sochi’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games toured mountain areas Wednesday that are at the centre of environmentalists concerns, reports the Associated Press.
Bid leaders have said Sochi would hold the most compact Winter Games ever, but some environmental activists object to massive developments in the mountains.
Sochi’s bid calls for extensive development at locations in or adjacent to areas UNESCO designated as parts of its Western Caucasus World Heritage Site. According to the Associated Press the designation recognized the areas comparatively pristine nature, including a wide array of plants, trees and wildlife.
Regional environmental activist Valery Brinnikh told reporters last week the bid’s proposed construction plan “is a crude violation of both Russian and international law”.
Plans for the bobsled and luge tracks had come under particular criticism because of the need to cut down large swaths of trees.
Jerry Anderson of the HOK design firm working with the bid committee said designers of the bobsled course “have gone to great lengths to make sure this is environmentally responsible”.
The head of Greenpeace’s Russian office, Mikhail Kreindlin, said he plans to meet with the IOC team Thursday to discuss ecological concerns.
Reporters following the IOC commission were not taken to the proposed bobsled site Wednesday and unlike PyeongChang, reporters were kept separate from the IOC commission members whose only public statement on Sochi’s bid inspection is scheduled for Friday..
The Rosa Khutor commercial ski base area that would be the venue for downhill skiing and snowboarding is being developed with consultation from the World Wildlife Fund’s Russian office, said the bid committee.
The Associated Press (AP) reports that many of the venues the IOC toured Wednesday required substantial imagination.
Rosa Khutor is “a couple of buildings reached on a rutted road running past tumbledown buildings. The ski-jump facilities proposed for nearby Esto-Sadok are only a model shown in a temporary building near some farmhouses with rusting tractors in their yards”, said AP.
AP writes the ice-sport venues, which the IOC is to tour Thursday, “are even more hypothetical, nothing has been built yet in the area”.
Bid Committee CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko said Wednesday that the need for massive new construction was one of Sochi’s potential strong points. He said, “we aim to provide the entire Olympic community with 21st century state-of-the-art facilities”.
Chernyshenko said that holding the Paralympics could be important for social consciousness in Russia, where the physically disabled are generally more marginalized than in the West. He said, “this will provide a much-needed example for greater inclusion and accessibility in Russia”.
