2014 Olympics location

In just a few months, location will be selected for 2014 Winter Olympics. Vote for where you think it should be held.

St. Louis, MO

ha-ha, I wish. That would be nice.

I wouldn't mind Lake Placid since it's practically in my back yard.

Jokes aside, do we know which cities are in the running? I haven't been following the news there.

Ok - now I see the choices. They are a bit odd. Is there even a single ice rink in Sochi or Borjomi?

I would pick Sochi. A gorgeous place.

Actually, yes, that IS the list: http://www.gamesbids.com/english/bids/2014.shtml

No kidding!

Thank you. I am pretty much speachless. I don't know how in the World would Georgia or Russia pull those off, and not so sure about Kazakhstan (though the location makes sence for the Winter Sports).

I am guessing it's between Korea and Austria.

STL_Blues_fan said:

and not so sure about Kazakhstan (though the location makes sence for the Winter Sports).

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At least Kazakhstan did not nominate it's capital Astana!

Here is an article about Russia's Sochi bid

I voted for Sochi, Russia.

I voted for Georgia. It will be nice to have it back in the good old U.S.A.

No, seriously, Anton S. could be the Grand Marshall. That would rock.

Second choice, Salzburg. There is sure to be a Mozart Festival or two going on.

MM

PS. BTW, the New York Times reports today that enthusiasm in Torino hasn't really caught fire yet, and ticket sales are lagging way behind the projections.

It is rather interesting how crazy all cities get about Summer Olympics, yet noone seems to care about Winter ones too much. I wonder what it could mean for the future if winter sports...

I voted for Russia. Although I think it's great if countries that haven't had the games ever are able to get them, I also think that Russia could put on one great Olympics

I am really suprised by these nominations, I have one question:

What about Sarajevo?

I know that they were one of the finalist for the 2010 olympic games, which were awarded to Vancouver, but why didn't they try again? Does anybody remember that gala that was hosted in 2004, in Zetra arena in Sarajevo to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1984 olympic games? All of the top European skaters particpated: Stephane Lambiel, Brian Joubert, Evgeni Plushenko, Julia, S, T&M, and many others including Katrina Witt who skated her gala program from the 1984 games. From my understanding, this was supposed to be somesort of test drive to see if Zetra could host another event, 20 years after the fact. Speedy said in the press confrence that the event went very well and that Sarajevo could be asked to host future competitions. But this is the important part: When Speedy was asked if Sarajevo would possibly host another olympic games he said "no comment but it was very possible in the future"

So why not nominate Sarajevo?

Does anybody remember that Kazakastan was booed at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 SLC games? They are not 'big' competitors at the winter games, and another thing that area is not safe to host an olympic games.
Who nominated them?

Russia, Austria, I could see
I was going to say Zurich Switzerland but it seems they already withdrew their bid
-not all that clear why though...

Gernoble France: now THAT is a good idea, why aren't they nominated? Wasn't London just choosen over Paris for the 2012 games, so why don't they go for the 2014 winter games. They could easily win out of these cities.

I understand that the Olympic commitee would like the games to be held somewhere in Eastern Europe b/c the games have not been held there in a while but...I would not have picked any of these places to host the olympic games.

I think the problem is that they are not choosing cities that people could relate to or have some form of connection with. That maybe why Turin is not sellling out or drawing as much attention as lets Cortina would have drawn. The Summer games choose big cities that everyone has heard of and can relate something to personally, historically, nationally, anything. But the winter games commitee just seems to choose small cities that almost no one has heard of and that have no connection to the olympics at all. What they need to do to choose somewhere that will draw people in, give them another reason to watch. Sarajevo strikes at the heart of what the winter olympic games are and what they once stood for. A time when skating was pure, judging was fair, nobody was mouthing off to the media, and the games were truly something to remember. It was been over 22 years since Sarajevo and yet we still remember them as one of the greatest games.

It is time for the games to go home or someplace where they still mean something: fight the bid SARAJEVO 2014!

I think Korea will get it. It seems like Seoul was a big success (at least I thought it was a good Olympics) and the Koreans have been hosting a lot of events to get the Olympics.

Why was Kazakhstan booed in 2002?

I don't remember this happening.

I would be afraid to visit most of these places!!

Did you know that Anchorage, Alaska was asked to be one of the sites for the US's 02 bid and our governor at the time said NO and never did explain why(if there was one thing that I could really be upset with Knowles about, it's that lol)! I say now that we have a governor who actually is into bringing tourism to Alaska in the winter in charge we should go for it lol

seriously though I voted for Austria...

Toni, considering your political views I am rather surprised this is something you'd be upset with the governor about. Olympics cost huge amounts of money, and the type of tourism they bring is one-time shot, not the kind of tourism Alaska would be interested in.

lilphi07, my guess is that winter Olympics are becoming so un-prestigious that there is no interest for them in the major cities that already have all the exposure they want. And what was the deal with the Kazakh team beeing booed? I don't remember that.

Liz, with the exception of Borjomi, why would you be afraid to visit those places?

I guess afraid isnt the right word... I just wouldnt want to go to kazakstan at all. I saw a show called "no reservations" with the guy from a cooks tour i forget his name.... it made kazakstan look unpleasant. I have friends doing a mission in south korea, so i would consider going there... although again ide rather not. Spain I would have no issue with, although ide rather visit in the summer months. Developing nations are not high up on my list of places to spend big bucks traveling to. I voted for austria, because its a place i would be willing to shell out money to go.

I went with South Korea, for 2 main reasons: 1. Asia has only hosted the Winter Games twice (both times in Japan), and 2. Their economy could probably handle the expense.

Doesn't Georgia rather tend toward political instability? (I'm not even remotely an expert on the region, and my last data is from 6 years ago)

Kazakhstan, I don't know. I get the impression that the overall landscape there is rather bleak. Some consider this type of landscape to be quite beautiful, but I personally find it a bit depressing. Rather like west Texas, isn't it?

I hear Sochi is beautiful, and it would be nice if Russia actually got to host an Olympics that didn't get boycotted by half the world due to an ill-advised political maneuver.

Salzburg isn't too far from Innsbruck, which got the Games twice (granted, the second time was because they pulled them from Denver at the last minute) [No, I don't know why]. Kind of like Albertville isn't that far from Grenoble and Torino isn't that far from Cortina d'Ampezzo ('56 host). I say if you're going to award a Winter Olympics to a country that's had them before, put them someplace on the entire oppisite end of the country, or put them where you had them last time. I don't know why, it just makes more sense to me. Tho I will admit it probably comes closest to saying "Winter Olympics here" than the other 6.

Jaca, Spain would be my second choice. I love the Spanish sense of style and I think they would just LOOK cool, like Barcelona did.

Sofia? I don't know. I'm neutral on that one. Seems like they've tried for every Olympics every year since the Iron Curtain collapsed. They obviously want them bad.

JonnyCoop said:

Kazakhstan, I don't know. I get the impression that the overall landscape there is rather bleak. Some consider this type of landscape to be quite beautiful, but I personally find it a bit depressing. Rather like west Texas, isn't it?
.

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Texas isnt bleak, and there arent many parts that look even remotely like Kazakhstan from what I've seen on tv. West texas looks similar, but new mexico is closer I would say. The TX hill country where I live is very nice, and there are canyons in the panhandle that are stunning. Palo Duro canyon was voted more beautiful than both grand canyon and bryce canyon not too long ago by the travel channel.

Ok, I've mellowed a little bit. And I am willing to conceed that Texas' landscape is not the most beautiful when you compare it against the fall foliage of the mid atlantic, the alps, the pristine beaches of the tropics and many other awe inspiring places... but I think its pretty in its own way. It took me ten years for me to warm up to the surroundings here, I was snobby about my DC roots and our four seasons and our cherry blossoms and our apalachains for a long time. Now I think that the area between san antonio and austin on HWY 281 is fabulous.

Sorry I made the mad face at you.

It's OK -- actually, just as I was typing in the west Texas comment, I was thinking oh, man, Longhornliz is probably not gonna like that one bit..... You have to understand, the only part of Texas I've ever seen in daylight was the western half and I found it a bit -- scrubby (vegetation wise) for my taste. (There are parts of Southern California I don't like for the same reason) Tho not nearly as flat as everyone said it was. And I have been through San Antonio and I think it's a beautiful city, actually.