If you don’t currently reside under a large rock, then you are aware that the Winter Olympics are once again gracing our television screens.
If you’re a typical American, this means that for two weeks you will dust off your Curling Rulebook and become completely and wholeheartedly invested in sports that don’t exist for the three years and fifty weeks in between each Winter Olympics. Even with the regular insanity that is the Winter Olympic Games, this year’s event seems to be held in even more hilarity, and fans have taken to social media to voice their opinions.
An account called “Sochi Problems” was launched on Twitter and the social media profile has over 300,000 followers. The Canadian run webpage claims to want to find solutions to so-called “Sochi Problems,” and in doing so, it has highlighted some incredibly hilarious issues that have come up in Sochi thus far. It calls for its followers to tweet photos of weird occurrences that people have encountered whilst in Sochi. A woman covering the games tweeted a picture of elevator buttons that both pointed in the upward direction. Another tweet showed a picture of a man’s shower complete with electrical wiring. These are only two examples of the issues that people have encountered while in Sochi.
As if these tweets weren’t bad enough, news publications are reporting on other logistical problems in Sochi for the Olympics, namely the fact that these so-called winter games are being held in temperatures that are not fit to support snow. Some athletes were reportedly putting snow on their racing suits in order to cool themselves down after their runs. The Sochi organizers are even storing snow in case of rising temperatures.
The melting of the snow is just the tip of the iceberg in Sochi. It is also being reported that the courses themselves are too dangerous for competition. Shaun White, the famous American snowboarder, reportedly refused to continue competition in the Men’s Downhill Slope-style snowboarding event after he and a few of his fellow competitors sustained injuries on the difficult course. The course is designed as such that boarders will reach speeds of about 90 miles per hour, and going that fast with so many obstacles on a course that’s partially melted is a daunting task even for those who are accustomed to taking life-threatening chances.
This got me to wondering how the Olympic Committee could have possibly thought holding the games in Sochi so close to the coastline was a good idea. I understand that there is an intense bidding war that comes with figuring out where the games are going to be held, but wouldn’t they want to limit the field of possibilities to places where the snow was actually going to stay snow? It creates disadvantages for competitors as well as unsafe conditions. They already have to deal with electricity in the shower, let’s at least give them the benefit of competing on courses that are going to allow them to remain in one piece.
Featured photo courtesy of: Orlando Sentinel
