Why are Winter Olympics held in sub-tropical climate? | Golden Skate

Why are Winter Olympics held in sub-tropical climate?

Joined
Jan 22, 2004
This to me is the number one question regarding this whole farce. I mean WHAT. THE. HELL.

Forget LGBT rights, people being forcibly evicted from their homes and stray dogs being murdered because this issue isn't managed properly on a daily basis. This is what makes me roll my eyes so hard, I am giving myself a brain aneurysm.

The average daily temperature in Sochi in February is 6 C/42.8 F. As everybody who has completed primary school knows, water freezes below 0 C (although yeah, snow can survive in above 0 temperatures, obviously).

I am sure that it's lovely to be in a place which is warm and sunny and has palms on the sea front but winter sports require snow, from what I've heard.

I know Putin loves Sochi and it's his favourite Summer resort and it's the Russian St. Tropez and all that but is that really a good reason for holding Winter Olympics there? (No.)

So what has been happening for a while now is lots and lots of snow had to be artificially created and/or shipped to Sochi from elsewhere.

Norwegian technicians (supposedly the best in the business) have been hired to try to stay on top of this and according to them, the quality of snow is terrible. In the break between the Men and Pairs Team SPs, TVP showed an interview with them and with some skiers and biathletes and one of the snow technicians, made a snowball to demonstrate how bad the snow is (it looks like he really wants to lose his job :p). The skiers and the biathletes are starting to freak out because the weather is very unstable and there's a possibility of rain for the cross-country event, which would make the snow situation even worse.

So yeah, no more Olympics in the (sub)tropics, pretty please. :p
 

kasia16

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 26, 2003
I think you would have to ask Mr Putin directly to get an answer to this question. Not so sure it would be a reasonable one, though :p.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
http://science.time.com/2014/01/24/climate-change-could-melt-the-winter-olympics/

Blame climate change. :p

A report (PDF) from the University of Waterloo in Canada and Management Center Innsbruck in Austria found that only six of the previous 19 Winter Olympic cities will remain cold enough to reliably host the Games by the end of the century should the most dire predictions of global warming come true. Even by mid-century, close to half of the previous host cities would likely be too warm for outdoor sports like Alpine skiing and snowboarding. That includes cities like Squaw Valley in California (1960), Chamonix in France (1924) and Vancouver (2010). “Fewer and fewer traditional winter sports will be able to host an Olympic Winter Games in a warmer world,” said Daniel Scott, the Canada Research Chair in Global Tourism at Waterloo and the lead author of the report, in a statement.
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
because its the only place in Russia with subtropical seaside level and snow on the mountains and it has considerable population with visitors coming from all over Russia for vacation. the rest will even be more difficult, I can think of 3 other places:

Kanti-Mansi - a region near the arctic and urals, popular for skiing events and biathlon but too remote, although an oil city has only a population of 50,000+
Kranoyarsk - lovely mountains but again snow is very extreme and would require building infrastructures from scratch difficult to build in such weather conditions, luckily Krasnoyarsk will host Winter Universiade 2019 so we'll see how it goes, maybe next time ?
Kamchatka - remote far eastern region closer to Alaska , lovely mountains and snow but there is not even direct roads as it is too remote, you need to go with a helicopter/aeroplane to reach even the main city
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
here is a video of Krasnoyarsk host of 2019 Universiade: located in western Siberia after Urals border
mountaineous but mind you the temperature here can go down to -50, probably not many can tolerate that
Krasnoyarsk : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ySX5zY6o7E

Khanty-Mansiysk : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly6lYprWSnw - with an american biathlete interview
an international Biathlon and international skiing capital for Russia but with only 50,000-90,000 + population
located in western siberia near urals border

so would this have been better venues ?
all I know most people nowadays are high maintenance and too weak mentally that needs to be pampered
 

CarneAsada

Medalist
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
all I know most people nowadays are high maintenance and too weak mentally that needs to be pampered
You know, it's perfectly acceptable to admit that holding the Winter Olympics in a place where the average temperature in February is above freezing is not the smartest idea. Mount Kilimanjaro is just 500 km from the equator but it has snow - does that make it a good place to hold the Winter Olympics? This isn't even about human rights or dog rights or the ability to build a hotel with running water on time, it's about skiing where there's snow. :rolleye: If Russia truly has no better venues, why doesn't it let nations with more suitable climates hold the Games?
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
You know, it's perfectly acceptable to admit that holding the Winter Olympics in a place where the average temperature in February is above freezing is not the smartest idea. Mount Kilimanjaro is just 500 km from the equator but it has snow - does that make it a good place to hold the Winter Olympics? This isn't even about human rights or dog rights or the ability to build a hotel with running water on time, it's about skiing where there's snow. :rolleye: If Russia truly has no better venues, why doesn't it let nations with more suitable climates hold the Games?

no doubt Russia has the most abundant snow, the rest of Russia you can complain its too cold
its about accessibility did you watch the other cities I referred Krasnoyarsk the 2019 Winter Universiade host or Khanty Mansi siberian biathlon/skiing capital ?
again would todays pampered generation be willing to go to these mentioned places, can you go in Krasnoyarsk or Khanti-Mansiysk without complaining ?
Vancouver had the luxury of being located and venues hosted near a big city
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
10 Day Weather Forecast for Sochi from The Weather Channel

Day temperatures ranging from 9 to 13C. :laugh:

It must be colder up in the mountains but still. :biggrin:

Also, 60% chance of rain on Tuesday. Rain + 11C would make for perfect condition for the skiers. :D



How about Salzburg? ;)

all ground level events are indoor arena held like speed skating, hockey, figure skating etc. no need for snow for that
and as you said again the mountains have snow and will be much colder where the rest of the events will be held
 

Near

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Country
Canada
The mountain venues all look beautiful and there is plenty of snow. Maybe they god lucky this year but it doesn't look like there will be more weather problem than in a normal Olympics.
 
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