Sochi Olympics Running Thread.

I remember the security while going to the SLC Olympics shortly after 9/11. It was insane.

 

I'll bet it was. Glad I didn't have to deal with it.

 

Every country and culture has its standards. Russia has never been known as a gay-friendly country. So what? When in Rome, do as the Romans.

There's plenty of time for all of this stuff to be discussed during the bidding process. If the IOC overlords feel as strongly about that as they did, say, apartheid in South Africa in the 70s and 80s, they wouldn't award the Games to Russia and China. But it's not about that.

As for security, I think the Russians will do fine. I think the western countries are the ones that are more security paranoid, compared to the socialist/communist states.

 

Talked to someone last week who's going to be covering this and is pretty familiar with the region (whereas I know exactly zilch.) He said there's a lot of overlap between the gangster element and the separatist crowd. If the Russians pay out enough on the QT beforehand, the games should be quiet.

 

Anyone else here going? My first ... just about everything. Trip to Russia. Europe. Olympics. I guess I'm placing my trust in Putin to keep me safe.

In all seriousness, attacks elsewhere in the country/region wouldn't surprise me at all, but it sounds like the Russians have gone all out to lock down Sochi. They just need to find the Bond villain/black widow they're looking for there now...

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/19/22360463-olympics-terror-dragnet-russia-hunts-as-many-as-four-black-widows?lite

 

Probably should get one of these.

 

My guess is the Games and Sochi itself will be safe. Getting there and leaving through Russia's transportation system won't be.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't mind going to Sochi but you couldn't force me onto a Russian airline at gunpoint.

 

I remember a guy telling me about an Aeroflot flight back in the '80s where beer bottles rolled out of the cockpit down the aisle on takeoff.

 

I bet they could.

 

US Navy entering the Black Sea to provide airlift exodus if necessary. Wow.

 

We hear the security worries every Olympics. Salt Lake was going to be the second coming of 9-11. Athens was a time bomb waiting to go off. Beijing was a risk, so was London. It'll be the same chorus in Brazil at the World Cup this summer. It's just a reality in the age we live in.

Yeah, I'm amazed at how things have evolved in the last 40 years, how people are so brazen in their willingness to do crazy stuff, how paranoid some of the government types tend to be. But life, and the Games, go on, metal detectors and all.

I can't think of one place in the world that would be considered truly safe anymore.