A Photo Essay – Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

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Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics: A Photo Essay

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: The flame, the rings and the flags below a blue sky and in front of snow capped mountains. What more do you want at the Winter Olympics?The Olympics, where every athlete wants to be. The epitome of human athletics and physical prowess.  Well it is if you are competing but to watch you can just sit down and enjoy a beer! Like I did!

I had never been to the Winter Olympics before which I presume not that many have in the general scheme of things. The Sochi 2014 Olympic Games in Russia were great and although you may think the whole thing was a disaster from western media the opposite was the case. The games were good, the transport were good, the atmosphere and volunteers were very energetic and jovial and it all ran without a hitch really. Well, except a ring not lighting on the opening ceremony and it being warm for a few days. Not big problems. The heat was actually great for us but not so for the skiers. Rather than trying to use my lack of prose to explain the spectacle and the atmosphere I will instead give a photo essay of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and let the pictures do the talking.

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics – The Build-Up

All roads lead to the Olympics and even if you didn’t have a ticket to an event it was worth being there for the atmosphere and the events

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Travelling for Fun: Not a sign you see everyday. Directions for the Olympics.Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Travelling for Fun: Fireworks explode over a live concert on the coast in Sochi. Each night there were live performances, both traditional and contemporary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everybody was getting into the swing of things and my guess was that 90% of people were Russian so if there was a Russian in your event then the noise levels really escalated. The Russians really got into the swing of things with everybody having flags, official hats, gloves, basically anything associated with the Winter Olympics. The queues were very lengthy for the official shops.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Rosa Khutor, Travelling for Fun: Russian fans pose with the Russian flag at the men’s freestyle slopestyle event in Rosa Khutor.Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Travelling for Fun: The fountain behind provides a purple curtain to these tourists taking photos in Sochi town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The makers of the Russian teams clothes were made by Bosco. For us Irish people Bosco has a special place in our hearts and childhood as he was a red cheeked puppet we all grew up with. ‘Hello boys and girls!’

All the events and stadiums were top class even though the skiing resorts were temporary. There were queues at peak times but using your head and went 1 minute earlier got you out of that.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Rosa Khutor, Travelling for Fun: The alley of international flags leading up the stadium in Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort where I watched a historic double gold being given out in the women’s downhill.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Rosa Khutor, Travelling for Fun: The packed crowd in Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort are in for a good day in the women’s downhill skiing on a sunny morning in the Caucus Mountains. The stadium is all temporary so once all the Olympics are finished it will be removed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics – The Mountains

But of course the whole reason I was in Sochi 2014 was to watch some winter sports. In fact I had never been at a winter sports event at all before. I have skied several times and did go on my ass down a hill when it snowed in Ireland but never a competitive event on snow. My first port of call was the women’s downhill event which was a cracker and ended up with two gold’s being given for the first time and no silver! Tina Maze after a poor season was overjoyed with gold which she shared with Dominique Gisin. The downhill is the fastest of all the skiing events where the athletes get up to 130km/hr (81mph). Using a GPS watch I have an idea of how fast I have gone and if any regular skier goes half that speed is bombing it.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Rosa Khutor, Travelling for Fun: Tina Maze of Slovenia shouts in joy and disbelief after just finishing her women’s downhill run where she grabbed an unprecedented joint gold.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Rosa Khutor, Travelling for Fun: In Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort Tina Maze and Dominique Gisin can’t hide their delight at their gold as the final athletes descend the mountain. They got awarded a historic double gold in the women’s downhill with Lara Gut getting the bronze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other event I went to in the mountains was probably the best and definitely the most spectacular. The men’s freestyle slopestyle event and was making its debut at the Olympics in Sochi. There are rails at the top and then some huge jumps at the air where 1080 degree turns, 60ft in the air are not uncommon. All the guys doing it are young and seem very relaxed as if they were just out with a few buddies messing around even though the jumps must take years to master.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Rosa Khutor, Travelling for Fun: The spectacular freestyle slopestyle event where turning a dizzying amount of times 50ft in the air is the norm. Great commentary at it so I actually learned a lot by the time I was finished.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Rosa Khutor, Travelling for Fun: A spectacular leap in the men’s slopestyle freestyle event. The contestants go down several rails and passed a Russian doll first before they hit the big air jumps.


 

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics – Olympic Park

On I went then to the big daddy of the Olympic Park. And yes it was huge and spectacular. The walk from the train station to the flame was about 15min but there was so much going on that you didn’t really notice it (unless you were in a rush!). The flame was the centre piece and the 6 stadiums surrounded it.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: I haven’t jumped in front of the Olympic flame before so it had to be done!

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: The Olympic flame lights up the night sky above the dancing fountain. The fountain swayed and spurted in the colours of the Olympic rings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stadiums weren’t too bad either

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: The beautiful Bolshoi theatre at sunset as a backdrop to the Olympic rings. The Bolshoi is the most beautiful stadium in Olympic park.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: A reflection of the Olympic Flame in the Iceberg Skating as spectators walk by early in the morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the other events I went to were in the Olympic Park such as the women’s ice-hockey of the grudge match of Canada Vs USA which ended up being the final on the same score line of 3-2. Lots of late hits and agro in the women’s game! Also the speed skating was good craic with crashes, bumps and chaos to entertain us. The Russians won their heat in the men’s relay and I thought my ears would burst with the noise.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: A drill sits beside the five rings. Each break the goals are moved while the ice is cleaned before being reinstated. This was at the group stage match between Canada and the USA in women’s ice-hockey. This was also the final. Canada won both games 3-2.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: The organised chaos of a speedskating team relay event around a 111mtr track. When the athletes swap they push each other like in the photo. From left to right its Kazakstan, USA, Netherland and Korea. The favourites USA and Korea both crashed out with Korea getting penalised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last event we managed was the vicious sport (??) of curling. Some athletes! Three games at once beside each other with it being very tactical. They Norwegians brightened up our day with their pants! We saw the eventual winners Canada on show and people in the know were giving out that they went to the gym to train for the sweeping! What other athletes would get given out to for going to the gym! The Norwegians brightened everybody’s day with their pants!

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: The athletes of curling! The game isn’t that exciting so the Norwegian team decided to spice things up with spicy pants! After watching it for a while you get very involved with the games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally of course there was the medal ceremony which took place every evening in Olympic Park to celebrate the winning athletes of the day including the German lollipop Natalie Geisenberger who won the luge. Some countries definitely had questionable uniforms

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: The medal ceremony took place every evening and here Natalie Geisenberger shows her delight for winning the women’s luge in the German lollipop outfit! The luge is the German speciality where they also took silver in this event and all 4 gold medals overall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course there was entertainment in the park. Traditional, rock bands, rap all mixed in with the usual silly entertainment on stilts.

Sochi, Winter Olympics 2014, Russia, Olympic Park, Travelling for Fun: There was lots of entertainment in the Olympic park for both adults and kids. There were kids concerts as well as plenty of traditional dances as well as the usual bands and clowns on stilts of which even adults were posing for photos with.

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Ross Travellingforfun

About Ross Travellingforfun

I have ducked, dived, bungeed, burned, skydived, surfed, volunteered, volcanoed, crossed continents, conquered mountains, got robbed, got sick and got drunk and I hope this website will inspire you to do the same.