It is less than three weeks until the start of the biggest sporting event of the year, the Winter Olympics in Sochi (soccer fans would be able to dispute this, as Brazil will host the 20th FIFA World Cup between June 9 and July 9), and preparations for it have been underway since in 2007.
The decision to host the 22nd Winter Olympic Games, which will be held from February 7 to 23, was made known on July 4, 2007 in Guatemala, when in addition to Sochi in Russia, Bern from Switzerland, Pyongyang in North Korea and Salzburg in Austria. Thus, these will be the first Olympic Games in the Russian Federation after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, in which the world's best athletes will compete. 98 events in 15 winter sports will take place at two venues: in Sochi and 60 kilometers away in the winter center of Krasnaya Polyana. Hosting the Olympic Games is considered an honor, but it is too often overshadowed by the display of power and influence through megalomaniacal, imposing, revolutionary, futuristic architectural structures. Some of them went down in the history of the most famous sports architectural buildings, which does not mean that they came to life in the long term even after the end of the Olympic Games.
The most famous Olympic stadiums
The phrase Olympic Stadium describes the large central stadium used in the annual Olympic Games. It traditionally hosts the Olympic ceremony, opening and closing, and athletic competitions. Thus, the Winter Olympics do not have a central stadium, despite the fact that some facilities are called by this phrase. The Beijing National Stadium, called the Bird's Nest, is certainly one of the most famous stadiums. This avant-garde construction, which contains an intertwining of Eastern and Western cultures, was planned for the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2008. The world's largest steel structure was designed by the famous Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron. The Olympic stadium in Athens, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava for the 2004 Games, also bears a famous signature. The Estadi Olimpic De Montjuïc stadium in Barcelona, which was built in 1927 for an international exhibition two years later, is also among the legendary. It hosted the Olympic Games in 1936 and 1992, and was renovated for the last one. The constant of all stadiums and other large sports facilities is functionality and use after the end of the major competitions for which they were built. But unfortunately, most of them fail and do not come to life for other purposes. The Russians have serious intentions and big plans for Sochi, as they have concretely changed the image of the city. With the city in the Krasnodar region, with its location by the Black Sea and on the threshold of the Western Caucasus, a combination of Mediterranean and Alpine climate, they have big plans, as they want to turn it into Russia's first international sports center after the Games.
Olympic Park
The floor plan, layout and infrastructure in Sochi are designed in a very concentrated manner, which means that the Olympic Village is located in the immediate vicinity of the Olympic Park, in which large, arranged large, impressive sports facilities. They will host indoor competitions: the Fišt Olympic Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held, the Bolshoy Ice Dome, where the final ice hockey match is scheduled, the Šajba Ice Hockey Arena, the Adler Arena Skating Center, the Figure Skating Hall and short-track speed skating Iceberg Skating Palace, the Ice Cube Curling Center and the international press and media center. The Olympic city also has a Slovenian signature, as the successful company Riko Hiše, in cooperation with the Swedish architectural firm Sandell Sandberg, built a settlement of wooden houses that will serve as accommodation for guests.
Architectural view
The Bolshoy Ice Dome is an ice hockey hall covered by a silver dome that rises up to 50 meters at its highest point. The building plays with the sensations of frozen water, the shapes of drops, so the entire design and the choice of materials lead to silver shades, and the glass facade serves as a screen during the day, on which the spectacular highlights of the day are played, and in the evening it changes its character and becomes transparent, thus discovers its entrails. The dome covered with diodes doubles as a playback screen when needed. The name of the arena, Bolshoy, on one side of the page reveals the capacity of the hall, which is ahead of other venues, as "bolshoy" means huge, big. At the same time, we recognize and associate "Bolshoi" with Russia, with their theater, traditional Russian ballet schools, figure skating and hockey. The hall was already "de-girled" in a test last April, when they hosted the first international IIHF U18 World Hockey Championship.
One of the most important and imposing buildings in the Olympic Park is the Fišt Olympic Stadium, which is named after the highest peak in the main Caucasus Ridge. It was designed for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 22nd Olympic Games and the 11th Paralympic Games. It bears the signature of global leaders in the field of sports architecture Populous and Buro Happold Bureau from Great Britain. Modeled after the image of a seashell, evoking the glory of Fabergé's art, its facade and roof are a single fluid, iridescent, infinite glass surface that reflects the sunlight from the nearby sea surface. The roof opens like a shell to reveal a heavenly view to the west towards the mountains of Krasnaya Polyana, while the southern view opens to the Black Sea. The cost of the stadium, 603.5 million US dollars, was also justified by the fact that after the Olympic Games it will serve as a training center for the Russian national football team and for the matches of the World Cup in 2018, which is also hosted by Russia. It is interesting that Fišt is the only hall in which there will be no sporting events during the Olympic Games. Most of the facilities in the Olympic Park summarize soft, organic lines that flow without restriction. This is also Šajba - an ice hockey arena, a two-color spiral that can accommodate up to 7,000 spectators. After the games, it is to be turned into a national sports and educational center for children. With its organic shape, the Iceberg Skating Palace, a skating palace that will host figure skaters and speed skaters on short tracks, is also standing next to the hockey arena. As much as 15,000 tons of steel were used for its construction. When looking at the most impressive new sports facilities, we must not overlook the Adler Arena, an oval arena that is 274 meters long, the length of three football fields. Its soft, oval shape combined with blue and green glass on the facade is definitely one of the highlights of sports architecture in Sochi. During the Games, up to 8,000 spectators will be able to watch speed skating in it, and after the Olympics, it will be used as the largest exhibition center in southern Russia. We can only hope that the plans of the Russians will come true and that the imposing, expensive, and above all political and economic power, the Olympic facilities will not collapse, just like many of those before them.
We already have our eyes on Rio
The annual Olympic Games will take place in Rio de Janeiro in just over two years, in 2016, so the clock is already ticking loudly for the organizers. The Olympic Park was entrusted to the London architecture studio Aecom (they also designed the London Olympic Park in 2012 in East London), which convinced the jury at the competition with classic Brazilian architecture and nature, with the aim of creating a legacy for the city even after the end of the biggest sporting event. .
Interesting facts about the Olympic Games in Sochi
- With an average February temperature of around 8 °C, Soči is the warmest city that has ever hosted the Winter Olympics.
- This year's Games will be the twelfth in a row, during which smoking will be strictly prohibited in all venues, in the Olympic Park and in all its public areas.
- These Games will be historic for ski jumping, as girls will also be competing for the first time.
- The organizing committee of Sochi 2014 introduced the Ambassadors program, which now includes 38 recognizable Russian personalities, for greater recognition and promotion of the games, sports and active life in general. Among them are hockey star Alexander Ovechkin, figure skaters and Russian idols Tatjana Navka, Irina Sluckaja, Evgenij Plushenko and Ivan Skobrev, gymnast Svetlana Khorkina...
- 17 competition days at the 22nd ZOI, 9 competition days at the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, 98 sets of medals will be awarded and 72 sets of medals at the Paralympic Games, as many as 6,000 athletes and their team members and 1,450 Paralympians and accompanying teams are expected to participate 85 countries, and at the Paralympic Games 45 countries. As many as 25,000 volunteers will help to ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible.
