Has there ever been a more controversial Olympic Games? It seems like every week there is a new international controversy surrounding the Sochi Games, which are set to begin on Friday, Feb. 7.
To begin with, rumors swirled following the announcement of the location of the games, claiming that Vladimir Putin, the most powerful man in the Russian government, bought the Olympic bid and pushed for Sochi, his favorite Russian vacation spot, so he would be able to highlight the city while also spending the duration of the games vacationing.
The largest controversy about the games is the Russian government's anti-LGBTQ stance. The Russian government does not share Western sentiments regarding the rights of the gay and lesbian community, so there are worries that athletes who are members of the LGBTQ community could face persecution.
The massive price tag of the games has also come into question. Russia spent roughly $50 billion preparing for the games as of Monday, Jan. 27. These costs relate to the fact that Sochi does not have cold weather. It's is one of the most southern cities in Russia and is known for its Black Sea beaches, not for its skiing.
To solve the climate problem, the Russian Olympic Committee has been making and storing 450,000 cubic meters of artificial snow for the games. If snow is that hard to come by at the site of the Winter Olympics, why was that location decided upon in the first place?
Snow creation is not the only part of the exorbitant cost of the Winter Olympics. Russia has spent more than the last 21 Winter Olympics combined to prepare the city for the Olympic festivities. Considering Russia is still transitioning out of a communist state, all of the capital that was used to make the Sochi games possible could have been used on projects throughout the Russian nation, not just on improving a vacation spot for Russian elites.
The head of Saudi intelligence informed Russian leadership, in the Moscow Kremlin, that there has been an increase in the number of threats and inducements against the 2014 Winter Olympics, adding terrorism to the myriad concerns surrounding the games. Shariat Jamaat, a Russian Islamist extremist group has even gone so far as assuring Putin that he should expect a 'present' at the Sochi games.
All of these issues combine to make the 2014 Winter Olympics so toxic that President Obama and Vice President Biden are both not attending the Winter Olympics. The saddest part about the whole situation, however, is that all the controversies overshadow the competitors' athletic excellence.
I understand that the idea of the Olympic Games is to bring nations together through sports. But is it not also important to ensure that the games are a platform for athletic accomplishment, not for political discourse?
- Jaeger is a senior from Wyoming, Ohio majoring in conflict studies