(ATR) The IOC is not sending an official delegation to Sunday’s race, the first major Sochi Olympic Park legacy event.
IOC president Thomas Bach is busy wrapping up a three-country tour of Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan this weekend.
The IOC tells Around the Rings there will be no official representation from the IOC at this weekend’s inaugural Russian Grand Prix in the Black Sea resort. The 53-lap race is on the new 5.853km circuit that winds around Sochi's Olympic Park. Designed by architect Hermann Tilke, it has mostly been built since the 2014 Paralympics ended in March.
ATR understands that Jean-Claude Killy, the former IOC Coordination Commission chair for Sochi 2014, will attend the Grand Prix. The French ski legend, who helped mastermind the success of Russia’s first Winter Games, quit the IOC in March after 19 years as a member.
The Russian sports movement will be well represented. Alexander Zhukov, head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko and deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak, who led the government’s Olympic preparations, will be among the VIPs.
Former Sochi 2014 president and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko may have a ceremonial role at the Grand Prix. A host of Russian Olympians and Paralympians are also expected for Sunday’s race.
On Thursday, Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone praised Russia’s preparations for the F1 showpiece.
"It’s really nice. What they have done is super job," F1 supremo Ecclestone told Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. "All the things that we asked have been carried out. So I’m very happy."
Ecclestone also reiterated why he had rejected previous calls from Western governments to strip Russia of the Grand Prix after it annexed Crimea and went to war with Ukraine.
He said Russian president Vladimir Putin had been "completely supportive" to bring F1 racing to Russia, a mission he’d been trying to accomplish for more than 30 years. In 2010, Putin and Ecclestone put pen to paper on a contract to stage a Russian Grand Prix in Sochi from 2014-2020.
Reported by Mark Bisson.
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