On the Scene in Sochi - Olympic, Russian Dignitaries Arrive for Year-to-Go Events

(ATR) IOC President Jacques Rogge is on the ground in Sochi ahead of Thursday’s year-to-go celebrations at the Bolshoi Ice Palace in Olympic Park.

Rogge will present invitations to a selection of National Olympic Committee, a symbolic gesture marking the sending of invitations to all NOCs expected to participate at the 2014 Games.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was also in Sochi on Wednesday, where he toured various mountain cluster sites. Along with Sochi 2014 staff members, Putin began in the morning at the RusSki Gorki ski jumping center, continued at the Gornaya Karusel sport and tourist center and finally made his way to the Krasnaya Polyana railway station, which is scheduled to be completed in April and open to the public in October.

Putin addressed cost issues relating to the Games with staff members following reports that Sochi 2014 will cost more than $50 billion, five times more than initial estimates. The price tag would make the Games the most expensive in Olympic history.

In addition to Rogge and Putin, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov, Sochi 2014 CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko, IOC Coordination Commission Chair Jean-Claude Killy and IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli are also expected to attend the festivities.

After the official ceremony, an ice show featuring Russian figure skating icons Irina Slutskaya, Alexei Yagudin, Tatiana Navka, Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin will follow at the future Olympic ice hockey venue. The choreographed performance will tell the story of Sochi’s ongoing preparations to host the Games. The show, which will begin at 8 p.m. local time, is being directed by Sochi 2014 Ambassador and world champion ice dancer Ilya Averbukh.

Also to mark the one-year-to-go date, countdown clocks will be unveiled Thursday morning in the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinaburg, Novosibirsk, Pyatigorsk and Khabarovsk.

Events will end Thursday night in Sochi with an extensive fireworks display above the Olympic Park.

Chef de Mission Seminar

A record 77 nations were present for Wednesday's chef de mission seminar at the Radisson Blue Resort and Congress Center.

Zhukov and Chernyshenko both addressed members of the numerous NOCs present. Topics included accreditation, transportation details and logistics relating to the two Olympic Villages in Sochi.

Chef de mission for Mexico Carlos Pruneda Fernandez, who competed in alpine skiing at the 1988 Calgary Games, offered his thoughts on Thursday’s activities.

"Everything went well and they explained everything very thoroughly," he said.

"We also had one-on-one meetings where we discussed how many athletes we expect to send to the Games."

Pruneda Fernandez told Around the Rings that Mexico is trying to qualify athletes in curling, alpine skiing, snowboarding, skeleton and figure skating. The former skier has also served as chef de mission for Mexico in Vancouver 2010 and at last winter’s Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck.

Morning meetings were followed by afternoon venue tours of both the coastal and mountain clusters.

"The facilities and venues are very nice and so compact," said Pruneda Fernandez. "It’s incredible what they have been doing in this city. We’re impressed."

"The concept for the Sochi Games is fantastic – a highly compact Games, with superb athlete amenities and villages located right next to competition venues," added Australian chef de mission Ian Chesterman.

"Vancouver is a hard act to follow, but with 12 months to go, Sochi is looking good. The commitment by the Russians to make these Games the best yet is incredible," he said.

U.S. chef de mission Alan Ashley echoed his Aussie counterpart, telling ATR "everybody is pretty positive about the consolidation of the venues close to each other" in the coastal cluster.

"They’re walking distance," he said.

Following their attendance at Thursday night’s one-year-to-go celebration, the chefs de mission will convene again Friday for plenary meetings before departing the Black Sea resort.

Slopestyle Events Cancelled

Due to a lack of substantial snow and continuing warm and rainy conditions in Krasnaya Polyana, the cancellation of freestyle skiing and snowboard slopestyle World Cup events at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park was announced earlier this month by FIS organizers.

The decision was made following normally routine snow control measures on Feb. 1. The events, which are new to the Olympic program, involve the design and building of various jumps, rails, boxes and other creative features on the manmade slopestyle course.

"Definitely a little bit of a bummer that we're not going to get to ride the course," 2012 Winter X Games gold medalist and Team USA hopeful Tom Wallisch tells ATR.

"It would've been nice to see the venue, but more so with slopestyle courses these days, they're all so varied – the snow conditions and the pitch and the way the snowcats build the features really limits the size and shape of all the features, so no matter what, when we get out there next year, it's going to be different than whatever they would've built this year."

Organizers are still planning to host events in the remaining disciplines of ski halfpipe, aerials, moguls and ski cross.

The joint freestyle skiing and snowboarding World Cup runs from Feb. 10-19 at the Extreme Park, the first major international competition at the venue.

Written and reported in Sochi by Brian Pinelli.

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