Media Watch - Sochi Olympics; Tokyo 2020

Road to Sochi 2014

Team USA features 18 veterans hoping to compete at the 2014 Winter Paralympics such as alpine skier Heath Calhoun.

British speedskater Kathryn Thomson discusses the "crucial time coming up" for her team ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics with Sportsbeat. The Sochi Olympic hopeful entered the winter sport scene as a figure skater; Thomson took up short track speedskating just eight years ago.

CNBC’s Mark Koba says Sochi organizers will "take the gold for being the most expensive Games in history, by spending in the red." Koba investigates an issue for Olympic host cities: "making it into the black." The article also explores reasons behind Sochi’s "climbing costs."

TheRussian Olympic Committee (ROC)launches a"squats-for-seats initiative"to promote sport and fitness ahead of the Winter Games. A vending machine has been set up at a Moscow subway station that allows people to earn a free ticket by doing 30 squats.

On November 7, The Today Show’s Matt Lauer spoke with Sochi Organizing Committee president Dmitry Chernyshenko about preparations for the 2014 Winter Games. During the interview, Chernyshenko directly addressed claims that members of the LBGT community will face discrimination in Russia during the Winter Games.

The New York gay rights group All Out "blasts" Russia’s gay propaganda ban in a "spine-tingling" advertisement.

Russian LGBT activist Oleg Klyuenkov tells CNN, "We don't want any extra rights." However, Klyuenkov says gay people in Russia do want rights that are "equal to those of their fellow Russians." Klyuenkov and fellow activist Lyudmila Romodina say Sochi Olympic boycott is not the way to protest Russia’s gay propaganda ban. CNN reports that the pair hopes the Winter Olympics will "shine a light on discrimination against gay people in Russia, as well as spur discussion."

Actress Kristen Bell tweets a message to the ROC and joins a number of celebrities who have criticized Russia's gay propaganda ban in the lead-up to the Sochi Games.

Tokyo 2020

Kyodo News reporter Miki Nakanishi speaks to a Japanese chef with Olympic ties. "When the games were last in town in 1964, he didn’t get to watch any of the events — he was too busy feeding the athletes," writes Nakanishi. Isamu Suzuki shares details about his career as a chef, and a 1964 Olympic weightlifter’s gesture that "he can never forget."

"There’s no city in the world like Tokyo," Hiroyuki Hayashi tells The New York Times. Hayashi is the spokesman for the Tokyo government’s "FutureCity" initiative. Reporter Hiroko Tabuchi explores "far-fetched and tantalizingly imaginable" ideas for the 2020 Summer Games including the "futuristic" 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium.

Compiled byNicole Bennett.

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