LET-DOWN: Despite the Games’ 50 billion dollar budget, the conditions for the 2014 Winter Olympics were far from luxury.
By Skylar Rains, Staff Writer
Athletes and journalists arriving in Sochi, Russia, quickly realized that their accommodations were below their expectations. They were greeted with curtain-less showers, bathrooms with double toilets and the occasional stray animal in their hotel rooms. Hotel guests were given the request: “Please do not flush toilet paper down the toilet.” Many Olympic athletes had to stay in cramped rooms with three small beds. Most rooms lacked something important, whether it was light bulbs, chairs, heat or curtains. To top it all off, guests were advised to not use the water, which was yellow and contained dangerous substances.
The horrors did not stop when guests left the hotels; the Olympic Village was plagued with exposed manholes on the sidewalks. Construction crews worked up until the opening day of the Games, resulting in many hazardous situations. On the slopes, the snow conditions were deemed unacceptable in some events. The half-pipe was described as “garbage” by American snowboarder Danny Davis, and his teammate Hannah Teeter added: “It’s dangerous because it’s crappy.” These problems can be traced back to when Sochi was decided as the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Sochi has a sub-tropical climate, complete with palm trees and an average temperature in the 50s during the winter—not exactly ideal conditions for a winter Olympics. These problems were so prevalent that athletes and journalists started tweeting about the horrendous conditions on Twitter, starting the hashtag #sochiproblems. The account @SochiProblems was made to document these poor conditions.
Despite the unpleasant accommodations, Olympic athletes performed admirably and proudly returned with medals for their respective countries.