Sochi Passes Last IOC Inspection

(ATR) The head of the Sochi Olympics tells Around the Rings his team is ready for the last leg to the Games in February.

Speaking at the end of a visit by the IOC coordination commission for Sochi, Dmitri Chernyshenko says his team is now shifting into an operational mode. The three-day visit was the tenth and last visit of the commission ahead of the Games since the group’s first trip in 2008.

"They were absolutely happy, delighted," Chernyshenko says about what the 12-member team from the IOC saw in Sochi.

The group toured venues in the mountains and the coastal cluster, testing transport connections and travel times. Chernyshenko says the IOC team was able to travel from the coastal cluster to the mountain Olympic village in just under 50 minutes.

Wicked weather provided a test for Sochi that Chernyshenko says confirmed the integrity of Olympic venues. Torrential rains earlier this week led to flooding around Sochi but left venues unscathed.

"It means that everything has been constructed with strict safety standards. In the mountains, I was most concerned as to how the ski jump center or sliding center would be affected because it was not just a shower. It was raining cats and dogs, like a hurricane. But all the venues were properly protected from mudslides and landslides. We are now even more confident for the Games," says Chernyshenko.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC executive director for Olympic Games, tells ATR he was very pleased to see how the Sochi venues withstood the bad weather.

"Yes, it was a kind of test event because we have had concerns about landslides and other events, but all went well. In the Olympic Park, there was water on the outside but not on the inside of the venues," he said.

Felli says these final months to the games will require teamwork at the highest level from Sochi.

"More and more they have to work together, take decisions together," he said.

Chernyshenko noted that the operations center for the Sochi games is already up and running with representatives from more than 100 agencies and departments taking their places in this nerve center for the Olympics.

Chernyshenko says the coastal cluster of venues will receive a new test this weekend with the opening of the annual Sochi Economic Forum. Previously held in the city of Sochi proper, this year’s meeting is being held in a temporary marquee erected in the Olympic Park. More than 9,000 participants are taking part, more than double the size since Sochi was awarded the games in 2007.

Sochi Bobsled Course Safe, But No Guarantees

As Sochi Winter Olympic construction teams put the final touches on the world’s longest bobsled track, its supervisor is refusing to guarantee no repeat of the accident that killed Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili nearly four years ago.

Standing at the top of the 1.8 km course at the Sliding Center Sanki on Wednesday, Vyacheslav Shavlev told R-Sport it was "one of the safest tracks in the world" with three uphill sections designed to slow competitors who build up a dangerous head of steam.

Kumaritashvili received fatal injuries when he slammed into a pole after coming off around the final bend of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic track, prompting the sport’s authorities to impose a universal speed limit of 135 kilometers per hour on the world’s 17 tracks.

But even that can’t ensure there won’t be accidents come February, Shavlev said.

"If an athlete comes here and doesn’t have enough experience of negotiating these kinds of tracks … I can’t give any kind of guarantee whatsoever. This (safety) is the responsibility of the coach and the competition organizers," Shavlev said.

"I answer for the track, and today, in my opinion, the track is extremely safe."

A series of tests later Wednesday will help constructors gauge the quality of the ice at the ultra-modern facility.

Shavlev dismissed concerns there would be a repeat of the criticism aired during test events last winter over the quality of the ice.

"My opinion is that we are going to have top-quality ice for competition," he said.

Russian bobsled star Alexander Zubkov claimed in February that his country relinquished its home advantage at the Games by allowing Latvian constructors to change the track when changes to the ice were required after a test event.

The Russian skeleton team is due to train on the course from October 1, with the country’s lugers following the week after.

International athletes will be invited to the track for a test week in early November.

Published by exclusive arrangement with Around the Rings’ Sochi 2014 media partner RIA-Novosti.

Reported by Ed Hula

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