Cole Fitzgerald
Connector Contributor
The Winter Olympics are a time to show off. Nations around the world send their best athletes in an effort to win medals and what results is one of the biggest sporting events on earth.
Stadiums must be built for all of the indoor events and mountainsides need to be maintained for all of the downhill events.
Lodging must also be built for the athletes, and an estimated 2,800 athletes are participating this year. The 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia are the most expensive Olympics in history. Costing a colossal $51 billion, the 2014 games eclipse the $44 billion dollar budget of the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China.
One would think that those responsible for picking the host nation would make sure that they are capable of financing such a monumental event. This is not the case for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Russia is in no reasonable financial situation to be able to host the 2014 winter games. This is evident by the unfinished hotels, the absence of clean tap water in said hotels, and the various pictures that have surfaced of run-down, wasteland-like areas that make up the city of Sochi.
What results is NBC talking up and overstating the beauty of a barebones city that has been rushed in order meet the deadline of the Winter Olympics. This raises a very obvious question: why would Russia want to add the burden of hosting the Olympics to an already strained economy?
The answer is simple; Russia wants to make itself look good. By taking on the near-unachievable task of hosting the Winter Olympics, Russia has shot itself in the foot.
Not all of the construction projects in Sochi were rushed or unfinished. The areas that have been actually finished are undeniably beautiful. $51 billion will do that. But it was billions that Russia needed to spend elsewhere.
The Olympic resort built in Sochi will be a wasteland in two years, and Russia will have nothing to show for it. Putting on a show for the world is nice, but pretending that you are still a super power by hosting the Olympics, something that wasn’t in the budget for Russia, is an entirely different beast.
Hosting the Olympics is a strain on affluent nations. It is utterly devastating on ones that cannot afford it. While they may believe that they are among the former, Russia, in reality, is among the latter.
Russia isn’t exactly known for its rational decisions, and deciding to host the Winter Olympics is reinforcing that stereotype.
