IOC Identifies Challenges for Sochi at Halfway Point in Preparations

(ATR) The IOC's Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli tells Around the Rings that Sochi 2014 Olympic organizers are on track but must work harder in several key areas in the coming months.

At the halfway point in preparations for the Games, Felli today warned Russian organizers to speed up progress on building accommodations, workforce recruitment and training and the coordination of Games operations.

"We have underlined the importance to start right now on the construction of [more] accommodations," he told ATR after the IOC Coordination Commission's two-day inspection of Sochi preparations.

"It is one of the areas that really has to be pushed at the moment."

Of the 43,000 hotel rooms needed for the Games, 19,000 have still to be created through the building of new hotels.

Felli said another concern for the IOC was recruiting and training quality staff to work across competition venues and Olympic operations come Games-time.

"They need a lot of people here for the Games. It's a worry for us to understand how they are going to get people here," he said.

The IOC Coordination Commission today praised Russia's massive construction effort on venues and infrastructure for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, which over the past 18 months has been a major source of concern.

On its fourth visit to the Russian host city, the commission said it was impressed with the sporting venues rising from the ground, new sections of road being used by the public, and environmental initiatives being undertaken. During its two-day check-up, the delegation toured the Olympic Park where six venues are under construction and also met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"We knew the scope when we arrived three years ago and are happy with where they are today," Felli told ATR.

"We know there are a lot of things to do [in construction] but they are keeping to the deadlines."

The IOC's inspection chief Jean-Claude Killy told a press conference in the Black Sea resort that he was "absolutely confident" in Russia's ability to deliver the 250 Olympic-related venues and infrastructure.

"Dmitry Chernyshenko [president of the organizing committee] is entirely aware of what the challenges are that theymust respond to," Killy told reporters, referring to the accommodations and workforce recruitment issues. "We confirm our confidence to the effective achievement of this task."

Putin on Wednesday again offered reassurances to the IOC that the Olympic project was in hand.

"Every time we arrive here and meet with President Medvedev or Prime Minister Putin, we have a complete sense that this project [Sochi Olympics] is priority number one nationally," Killy told the news conference.

Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister with oversight of the Olympics, expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the IOC's inspection and insisted Russian organizers were under no illusion about the challenges ahead.

"We understand the scale of work we still need to do," he said.

Chernyshenko said that the organising committee was in "excellent shape" at the halfway point to the Games; Sochi was awarded the Olympics in July 2007.

"We are maintaining a very good pace," he said.

Responding to the accommodation challenge identified by the IOC, he said that 90 percent of all hotels promised in Sochi's bid book had now been contracted. He said 13,000 new hotel rooms would be built around the Olympic Park.

The IOC appear satisfied with the way Russian Olympic leaders have addressed environmental concerns relating to Olympic construction work, following a strategy developed with the engagement of conservation groups and NGOs over the past year.

"There has been some progress achieved," said Felli. "On a day-to-day basis we are working on what needs to be done to protect the environment."

Sochi will hold its first Olympic test event in February when a European Cup in Alpine Skiing is staged in the Krasnaya Polyana mountains.

The IOC Coordination Commission will next visit Sochi in March when a section of the new rail link connecting the city with the mountain venues 30km away is expected to be unveiled.

Withreporting from Mark Bisson

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