Georgia Launches Appeal to Relocate 2014 Games

(ATR) Leaders from the Georgian national Olympic committee could use the European Olympic Committees general assembly in Istanbul to appeal to IOC officials to move the 2014 Winter Games from Sochi to another city.

Ramaz Goglidze, first vice president of the Georgian NOC, told ATR Wednesday that a letter had been sent to the IOC asking for the Games to be relocated to a safer city.

He will travel to Turkey with Giya Natsvlishvili, the newly-elected president of the NOC, to attend the EOC congress Nov 21 to 22.

"It [Sochi] is a very dangerous place," said Goglidze. He declined to confirm if a "special appeal" would be made to IOC officials, including President Jacques Rogge, who are gathering in Istanbul for the EOC's annual meeting. Media reports Wednesday quoted Natsvlishvili as saying an appeal would be announced at the conference.

Goglidze, a former sports minister in Georgia and once mayor of the capital Tbilisi, commented on the ongoing terror threat to Russia's Black Sea resort, which have been fueled by tensions between Russian and Georgia following the five-day war in August over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The IOC could not confirm whether it had received a letter from the Georgian NOC asking for the 2014 Games to be shifted due to security issues.

"We are not boycotting Sochi Olympic Games. We ask IOC to shift Olympic Games to safer place," Natsvlishvili was quoted by Azerbaijan's Trend News Agency.

Natsvlishvili said Georgia had supported the staging of the Olympics in Sochi, "but the situation was not so dangerous at that time. We do not control Abkhazia and if something happens in this territory during Olympic Games, we will not be able to hold responsibility for this," Natsvlishvili was quoted.

Only last week Sochi 2014 organizers were forced to issue reassurances over security in the wake of an explosion on the outskirts of the city. It was the sixth blast this year to occur in and around Sochi.

Georgia's appeal to the IOC comes after Salzburg, which lost out to the Russian city in the 2014 bid race, announced Wednesday that it was ready to jump in to stage the 2014 Games if Russia's Black Sea resort fails to meet deadlines to complete venues and infrastructure.

Salzburg Governor Gabi Burgstaller said the Austrian city could revive its plans to stage the 2014 Games if deemed necessary by the IOC.

"Our great advantage is that we already have almost all our sports facilities," Burgstaller told the economic daily WirtschaftsBlatt. "If the IOC needs us and also pays us a fair share of the rather sizeable Olympic Game revenues, I'm there," she said.

Despite a challenging construction timetable to prepare Sochi for the Olympics, organizers today told ATR they are confident of hitting all their milestones as building work intensifies on the project.

"Sochi 2014 is Russia's national priority project for the benefit of millions of people. Everything is firmly on track according to the development schedule agreed by the IOC," said Dmitry Chernyshenko, president and CEO of Sochi 2014.

Chernyshenko will update the EOC congress on Sochi's Olympic preparations on Friday.

Russia is spending around $12 billion on developing the Black Sea resort for the Games, but most venues and infrastructure must be built from scratch.

"We have very productive relationships with the IOC and during the last project review in October we have got very positive feedback on our progress," Chernyshenko said. He added that some venue projects were progressing ahead of schedule, such as in the Krasnaya Polyana mountains, although Sochi 2014 was at the design and engineering stage of the project in line with IOC expectations.

"This will be completed and all venues under construction by the end of 2009, as planned, for completion by the end of 2012 for a full test event program," he said, adding that Sochi's finances "are guaranteed by the Russian government."

Chernyshenko has been forced to defend Russia's Winter Olympic preparations countless times in recent weeks amid suggestions that the financial crisis is hitting the venture. The departure of Sochi Mayor Vladimir Afanasenkov for health reasons hasn't helped; Dzhambulat Khatuov is the interim replacement.

But the IOC's senior inspectors are pleased with the recent appointment of Dmitry Kozak as the deputy prime minister charged with overseeing the Olympic project, believing he can keep the construction effort on track and ensure private investors are retained to prevent delays.

Speaking at the conclusion of the IOC project review in October, IOC Coordination Commission chair Jean-Claude Killy, said: "We are pleased to see that the Sochi 2014 project has support from the highest level of government down. It is this commitment to the Games and the Olympic values that have made this progress possible and which keep the Sochi Games on track."

With reporting from Mark Bisson.