Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

[PRC]

Canada with a 3-1 win over Norway in mens hockey.  Lot's will look at that score and think the sky is falling for Canada but they should be fine.  Norway played a hell of a game.

[DGuller]

All the candidate city, so far, for 2022 all sucks.

Bids are:

Krakow
Oslo
Almaty
L'viv
Beijing

Only Almaty is .  I'd probably write off L'viv due to recent political problems in Ukraine, and Beijing seems unlikely.  But either of Krakow or Oslo would be fine.

Seriously, L'viv is contending for the Olympics?    It does have the Carpathian mountains, and I bet no Winter Olympics has been to a city with such a rich Austrian heritage. 

[Syt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/sports/olympics/olympic-officials-scramble-to-counter-warm-weather.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=SP_OOS_20140213&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=1

Olympic Officials Scramble to Counter Warm Weather

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — With the Winter Olympics melting under a heat wave, the effects could be seen Thursday from the coast of Sochi, where spectators were spotted sunbathing, to the mountains high above the city, where cross-country skiers raced in sleeveless jerseys. The balmy weather has forced changes in competition schedules, sent workers scrambling to harden the slushy snow and made Olympians reconsider what to wear for their warm-weather winter sports.

"You sit outside in a T-shirt and shorts — that's not winter," said Christoph Sumann of the Austrian biathlon team. "You don't know what to wear for the race." He settled on the thinnest T-shirt he could find. A teammate, he said, wore nothing beneath his racing uniform.

"It's absolutely too warm for me," he said. "I'm a winter guy."

So far, these Olympics have not been a good fit for those who like their Winter Games wintry. It has not snowed since the Olympics began last week, and most days have brought bright sunshine and springlike temperatures.

"I've never seen it this warm at a Winter Games," said Max Cobb, a senior official with the International Biathlon Union, who has attended every Winter Olympics since 1992. Cobb was in constant radio contact with the crew spreading salt, meant to turn the slush into water, then back into ice.

"If we were competing now, the women would probably be in shorts and bibs and jogging bras," Cobb said.

Weather for the 2014 Games has been a concern since the International Olympic Committee made Sochi the first host of the Olympics in a subtropical climate. The southern Russian city sits on the Black Sea, some of its promenades lined by palm trees. Sochi hardly counts as a winter wonderland in a nation all too familiar with freezing temperatures: It was minus-25 degrees Fahrenheit, about minus-32 Celsius, in Siberia on Thursday.

Organizers have long dismissed concerns about the warm weather. After a warm spell a year ago disrupted test events, they stockpiled huge mounds of snow, stashed it in shady spots and covered it with insulating material to help most of it last through the summer.

Now, there seems to be enough snow, thanks in large part to a heavy winter storm and one of the world's largest snow-making operations. The problem is the condition of the snow. Puddles of slush would complicate nearly all the outdoor events, jeopardizing contests that Olympians have spent years training for.

Organizers kicked into high gear Thursday to prevent that. In the middle of the night, machines covered the biathlon course with salt. Then, after the sun came up, a crew of 15 workers walked the four-kilometer cross-country course, carrying buckets of large-grained salt. The workers sprinkled the salt onto the tracks in the manner of people feeding birds.

The men's super combined Alpine ski race scheduled for Friday was moved to 10 a.m. local time from 11 a.m. to counter midday temperatures that were expected to approach the mid-50s Fahrenheit, around 13 Celsius. Afternoon temperatures at the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center, home of ski jumping and Nordic combined, reached 63 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday. The competition manager there said the site had a deep base, partly because trucks had been sent into the mountains last month to fetch fresh snow.

At the jumping center, and every other mountain site, salt was being applied liberally.

"It would be really good if temperatures could dip down overnight, to get those perfect icy conditions," said Jenny Wiedeke, communications manager for the F.I.S., the international ski federation that oversees skiing and snowboarding. "But this is something we battle as an outdoor sport."

While blue skies and snow-capped peaks provided enticing backdrops, some of the sites seemed better suited for beach volleyball than for winter sports. Men without shirts walked toward the biathlon stadium, where officials had traded their parkas for T-shirts. In a particularly ominous sign, mosquitoes were spotted.

At the sun-splashed site of the cross-country skiing events, where temperatures rose toward 60 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 15 Celsius, on Thursday, women raced in sleeveless jerseys. Fans wore T-shirts, and skiers slogged through the soft snow.

Afternoon temperatures in the upper 50s Fahrenheit were expected through Saturday across the mountain sites, including the bottom of the skiing site and the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, where snowboarding and freestyle skiing are taking place.

Night will bring little relief, as temperatures are forecast to stay well above freezing. Cooler weather, but with temperatures still above freezing, has been predicted beginning Sunday, but rain is possible.

As temperatures continued their steady climb, the International Olympic Committee showed little worry.

"Every event has happened, and on schedule so far," said Mark Adams, the I.O.C. communications director. "So, if this is a problem, then let's have more of them. It seems quite good."

Indoor arenas for sports like hockey, figure skating and curling were built near the coast and have been largely unaffected by the weather.

But the outdoor events are becoming slushy. They are staged about 30 miles into the mountains, in a tight river valley framed by majestic, snow-covered peaks.

Weather worries were exacerbated by the 2010 Vancouver Games, which faced an unusual dearth of snow and record high temperatures. There was so little snow at the site for snowboarding that more had to be hauled in.

Sochi has not yet resorted to such drastic measures, but if the snow continues to melt, it could prove disastrous for events like the cross-country portions of the biathlon. Picture skiing through oatmeal.

"It really affects a lot of things," said Tim Burke of the United States biathlon team. He travels with 25 pairs of skis. On Thursday, for the first time, he wore his most extreme warm-weather skis. Instead of the usual layers of long underwear, he wore only a T-shirt under his uniform.

Many spectators at the biathlon stadium left their coats unzipped, if they wore them at all. Gloves were stuffed in pockets, heads uncovered. Victor Medvedev and his wife, Yelena Tikhonov, were visiting from Chelyabinsk, in Siberia.

"Of course we didn't expect anything like this, so we had to leave our winter boots and thermal underwear in the hotel," Medvedev said. "We also had heavier hats."

Tikhonov added, "It's much better than minus-18."

[Zanza]

Also, Germany leads the medal race so far. They're just very good at luge, and it looks like they're getting another one in the luge relay.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/germany-is-a-little-em-too-em-good-at-luge/283828/

[Syt]

"Gold! Fold for Germany!!!"
"After 70 years! At last new German victories on Russian soil!"

[garbon]

People go shirtless in 50 degree weather?

[Grey Fox]

People go shirtless in 50 degree weather?

Yes, of course. It's pretty hot.

[Liep]

People go shirtless in 50 degree weather?

Perhaps it's the snow reflecting the sun, but even at colder temperatures you can comfortably wear just a t-shirt, and it was clear blue skies in Sochi. Shirtless is pushing it, but that goes for anywhere that's not a beach or poolside.

[garbon]

People go shirtless in 50 degree weather?

Yes, of course. It's pretty hot.

Temps of 15 C or less are not hot, Canada.

[garbon]

People go shirtless in 50 degree weather?

Perhaps it's the snow reflecting the sun, but even at colder temperatures you can comfortably wear just a t-shirt, and it was clear blue skies in Sochi. Shirtless is pushing it, but that goes for anywhere that's not a beach or poolside.

Yeah I can see the former, shirtless bit was what threw me. Also, didn't know you were such a prude.

[Syt]

Depends on how intense the sun is, and how much wind they have, I guess.

[Liep]

People go shirtless in 50 degree weather?

Perhaps it's the snow reflecting the sun, but even at colder temperatures you can comfortably wear just a t-shirt, and it was clear blue skies in Sochi. Shirtless is pushing it, but that goes for anywhere that's not a beach or poolside.

Yeah I can see the former, shirtless bit was what threw me. Also, didn't know you were such a prude.

[derspiess]

Also, Germany leads the medal race so far. They're just very good at luge, and it looks like they're getting another one in the luge relay.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/germany-is-a-little-em-too-em-good-at-luge/283828/

If that includes East German medals, it ought to be adjusted to account for the fact that two Germanies were competing for a good amount of that time.

[Grey Fox]

People go shirtless in 50 degree weather?

Yes, of course. It's pretty hot.

Temps of 15 C or less are not hot, Canada.

Oh, you're so black.

[garbon]

I don't think it is a black thing.