Arts and Entertainment Editor
Every country that has ever hosted the Olympics has made understandable mistakes. Although some may think that the Sochi Winter Olympics have been the worst in ages, in reality there have been a few problems, but no one has the resources to pinpoint the Sochi Olympics as being “the worst” Olympics ever.
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| Sochi Olympics |
First,
stories have been all over the news regarding the living conditions in
Sochi. Journalists have been posting
photos on social media with unfinished hotel rooms, yellow tap water, odd
toilets, and an overpopulation of stray animals. Sochi’s stray animal situation was so much of a
problem for the Games that Russia was actually worried about animals ending up
in the stadium and disrupting competition.
Another
huge problem surrounding the Sochi games was the dangerous conditions of the outside
courses. The dangerously steep slopes
caused 22 injuries by Monday, February 17, including one Russian skier, Maria
Komissarova, who broke her spine during a ski training run.
Because
of the thousands that visited the Olympic stadium, the citizens of Sochi were
left in the dust, many facing poverty.
The construction surrounding the Olympic stadium and courses added to
the poverty problem. Sochi put the world
stage before their citizens for the games.
For example, one woman was displaced by a mishap caused by the
construction of the Black Sea resort and is now living in an aluminum
shack. She is currently demanding compensation
for her ruined home, but there is no news yet on what Russia’s response to her
demands. It isn’t just the citizens
being affected either, workers that come in from foreign countries were paid up
to $2.60 an hour for the construction of the various Olympic venues and some
were sent back to their home country before they were even paid for their work.
Sochi
is the sight of the most expensive Olympic Games to date, spending $51 billion
when the games started on Thursday, February 6.
The city of Sochi is a metaphorical black hole, in which billions and
billions go into the Games, but nothing comes out to help the people that need
the money most.
With
all the problems Sochi faced, social media captured them all. Social media showed the worst side of Sochi, including
a Twitter account dedicated to the problems of Sochi.
