Sochi's Gamble

As the clock ticks louder and the 2014 Sochi Olympics inch nearer, nature seems to be laughing at the prospect of a winter games in Russia’s southernmost mountainous region. On January 31, as Canada was days away from its Vancouver games, Sochi’s temperature hit 18.9° C (66° F), breaking the historical record for that date.

The region’s subtropical climate had given the International Olympic Committee pause when considering Sochi. But at the crucial May 2007 final presentations in Guatemala, then-President Vladimir Putin defended the city, personally assuring the jury that he had skied the slopes of Sochi’s Krasnaya Polyana just a week before.

Over the holidays this year, Putin and current President Dmitry Medvedev posed for pictures aboard a ski lift, holding government meetings in between runs down the slopes.

“We have no worries. Construction goes according to schedule, but still we constantly tell the organizers: don’t waste time!” said Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC in an interview with Vedomosti.

That a crucial part of the infrastructure was hit by a natural disaster did not help. A cargo port developed by Oleg Deripaska’s company, Basic Element, was deluged by a storm that damaged piers, subsumed equipment and killed four persons. The port, which has a planned capacity of five million tons per year, must be finished by the end of 2010 in order to receive construction materials for the sports arenas, according to an info sheet near the construction site. Basic Element said the port will be finished by December, but no activity was observed during a recent visit to the site.

Another key infrastructure project — the road from Sochi airport in Adler to the mountain venues — was severely damaged by a flood in early January. Bloggers posted photographs of submerged and disfigured equipment which construction workers had parked near the banks of the Mzymta River. The Mzymta has suffered colossal damage from the construction, including thousands of tons of illegal gravel extraction. Local environmentalists and experts have cautioned leaders about the region’s difficult geological and weather conditions, which, in the absence of proper research, could precipitate further disasters. But with so much work to complete on so many greenfield construction projects, there is little time for researching the impact of Olympic development.

Medvedev, who held a special meeting on Olympic readiness during his vacation in January, said he was confident that everything will be finished on time. Priorities for the government, he said, are finishing the sports facilities, modernizing the hotel and transportation infrastructure, and sorting out conflicts with local residents to be displaced by new construction.

Clearly 2010 will be a critical year for companies participating in Olympic construction. Russian Railways has twice the volume of Olympic work on its agenda versus 2009. The regional government must complete the seizure of private property under eminent domain. And the president of the state corporation Olimpstroy, Taimuraz Bolloyev, said his company must complete 30 Olympic structures, which will this year require the hiring of 30,000 laborers.

All Olympic construction must be finished by July 2013. Yet some ski championships are scheduled here for late 2012, offering the region a practice run for the big event.