Olympics Thread

2020 Tokyo Olympics was predicted in Akira

http://kotaku.com/the-2020-tokyo-oly...-by-1276381444

Before the 2016 Games, wrestling's makeover will include a few tricks borrowed from the MMA world (perhaps no more singlets, the addition of music, lighting, visual effects) to make the sport more entertaining.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what they needed to make the oldest sport in the Olympics worth keeping. Music and flashing lights.

Fuckheads.

Sochi 2014: the dearest Olympics yet but where has all the money gone?

"The initial $12bn cost has risen almost five-fold, with critics putting much of the inflation down to the corruption endemic in the Russian construction industry. The opposition figures Leonid Martynyuk and Boris Nemtsov claimed in a May report that up to $30bn of the budget had gone missing in "kickbacks and embezzlement" to close associates of Putin, claiming the Games had turned into a "monstrous scam"...

An 18-mile road between Sochi, where events such as hockey, speed skating and figure skating will be held, and the mountain sports cluster of Krasnaya Polyana has become a symbol of the huge cost increases, spiralling to a reported $8.6bn. "

Beijing 2008 - $43bn
Vancouver 2010 - $8.9bn
London 2012 - $13.9bn

Sochi 2014 - $51bn

Sochi 2014: the dearest Olympics yet but where has all the money gone? | Owen Gibson | Sport | theguardian.com

Russia sucks at everything. I fully expect some kind of catastrophe during these games: either a terrorist attack due to the shitty security or some kind of building collapse due to cutting corners and shitty construction.

Chechen muslims na mean?

Well the games haven't started yet, but...

The attack, which investigators blamed on a 30-year-old woman from Dagestan - the North Caucasus province at the center of an insurgency - also wounded 28 people, of whom eight were in critical condition, the federal Investigative Committee said.

Click to expand...

Female suicide bomber attacks Russian bus, kills six

They've got to be planning some shit for the olympics when the world is watching more closely. The majority of the attacks seem to be from separatists who want some kind of islamic state in the region.

Not quite Chechnya, not quite the Olympics.

I think it's pretty pertinent. Sochi is only a few hundred KM from Dagestan and Chechnya. Security is going to be a big deal.

Sounds like the Olmypics are gonna be a train wreck this year if Russian Police are already detaing the press.
Olympics Reporter Repeatedly Arrested By Russian Police

I really, really hope that the Olympics are a disaster in every way imaginable. For one because I think the Olympics itself has turned in to a fucking disgrace. For another because it will be egg on Putin's face while the whole world is watching.

The closer it gets the games the more and more it looks like Sochi will gone down to be one of the worst ever. Russia is spending $50 billion on this disaster which is unreal.
The Sochi Olympics: Castles in the sand | The Economist

This could get entertaining if the pictures in the article are indicative of the state of most of the hotels

Shambles behind the scenes at Sochi

"It may be the world's most expensive Olympic Games to date, costing a record $50 billion, but the first arrivals at the Sochi have revealed the utter chaos two days before the official opening"

Shambles behind the scenes at Sochi - Telegraph

Running Dog_sl said:

This could get entertaining if the pictures in the article are indicative of the state of most of the hotels

Shambles behind the scenes at Sochi

"It may be the world's most expensive Olympic Games to date, costing a record $50 billion, but the first arrivals at the Sochi have revealed the utter chaos two days before the official opening"

Shambles behind the scenes at Sochi - Telegraph

Click to expand...

Eh, jornos are arseholes. This pic represents three months worth of food for your average Russian:

Minus the corns, peas, chili and jam, of course.

These games are going to be so horrible. Russia has no business hosting the Olympics, both because their security is shit and the level of corruption prevents anything from getting done in a reasonable amount of time.

I'm fully expecting either a) a terrorist attack, b) a venue/building to collapse, or quite possibly both.

McCheese_sl said:

These games are going to be so horrible. Russia has no business hosting the Olympics, both because their security is shit and the level of corruption prevents anything from getting done in a reasonable amount of time.

I'm fully expecting either a) a terrorist attack, b) a venue/building to collapse, or quite possibly both.

Click to expand...

They are working hard on those security issues:

"An activist who has been shedding light on environmental fallout from the Sochi Olympics has been jailed for five days for resisting police.... Kharchenko was grabbed on the street in the regional capital of Krasnodar as he left his house and found his car smashed... Police took him to the police station where he was charged withresisting police orders.

Like Yevgeny Vitishko, who wasjailed on Monday for swearing in public, Kharchenko is a member of the Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus, a group that has been monitoring the environmental effects of Olympic construction."

Environmental activist monitoring Sochi Olympics jailed for five days | Sport | theguardian.com

I think Finland should host the next Winter Olympics. They'd be able to do it with a fiver and still have change left over.

This is looking really bad, hopefully people dont end up dying. And this might finally put more of the spotlight on the IOC and how they pick host cities based on bribes and not ability to host the games.

I dunno, we'll see how things actually turn out. I'm fairly pessimistic as well, but it seems like the lead up to every Olympics is like this, with tons of stories of incomplete venues, corruption, lack of crowds etc but then when they actually happen, things go fairly well. There was tons of doom and gloom at Beijing and they managed to pull it off fairly well.

I'm sure they'll get things relatively finished or, at the very least, put up a convincing facade of it.

I just really doubt their ability to prevent a terrorist attack. They don't exactly have a great track record of preventing those on their soil, and this is probably the biggest target they've had for a long, long time. I certainly hope nothing bad happens, but I won't be surprised either.

Even if nothing bad happens at the games, the rest of the country is vulnerable to some kind of attack or violence. I know a few people in various areas in Russia and all of them are genuinely concerned about safety and security in their areas while the games are ongoing.