Attendance Questions Rising in Sochi

Questions are being raised about sparse attendance in Sochi’s Olympic Park.

During the daily briefing with the IOC and Sochi 2014 on Sunday, Aleksandra Kosterina, head of communications for Sochi 2014, said there was 92 percent attendance in the Olympic Park and "around 40,000" spectators in all the venues.

Walking through Olympic Park at midday, reporters for ATR noted that large swaths of Olympic Park had little or no visitors. Crowds picked up during the day as more events took place and fans spilled into the park waiting for the medal ceremony. However, even with the influx of people, the park remained a generally quiet, empty space. The total attendance was 30,000 people, Kosterina said.

"We see mostly full stadia," Kosterina added.

"So far, so good. We are happy for that."

During the Sweden and Japan women’s ice hockey match on Sunday, large blocks of seats were clearly empty.

An IOC source tells Around the Rings the attendance and low crowds for the first day are getting noticed and the IOC is pressing Sochi organizers for help.One explanation for some of the low numbers, Kosterina said, could be attributed to the "Russian mentality."

"We’ve had some problems with a Russian mentality in a lot of ways," she explained. "Russians like to come to an event not prior, but as close as possible."

Spectators figuring out the logistics could have also contributed to problems with attendance, Kosterina offered.

Sunday Results

Jamie Anderson captured gold to give the United States a sweep in men's and women's slopestyle.

A day after Sage Kotsenburg took the men's gold, Anderson scored a 95.25 on her second run to grab the lead. Enni Rukajarvi of Finland was the silver medalist, while Jenny Jones scored a historic bronze for Great Britain. It is the country's first medal on snow in the history of the Winter Games.

In men's downhill, Matthias Mayer of Austria flew down Rosa Khutor in 2 minutes, 6.23 seconds to top the podium. Italy's Christof Innerhofer won the silver by finishing 0.06 seconds off the lead, while Kjetil Jansrud of Norway took the bronze, 0.10 seconds behind Mayer.

American pre-race favorite Bode Miller hit a gate during his run was eighth out of 22 skiers at the time of his finish.

Wo ist Thomas?

IOC president Thomas Bach attended the men’s downhill and luge today in the mountain cluster of venues. Tonight, he will sleep in the Olympic Village.

Weather in Sochi

Temperatures in Sochi reached the mid-50s Fahrenheit on a gray, cloudy Sunday. No precipitation was expected.

For Monday, the forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies and a high of 57.

Written by Ed Hula III and Nick Devlin

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