Global Sports Forum Follow-up

As I've discussed here previously, the Global Sports Forum was held last week in Barcelona. And along comes Russell Scibetti from The Business of Sports with neat little recap/paraphrase of Sochi 2014 head Dimitri Chernyshenko's remarks at the forum.  A lot of it you've heard somewhere before from any figure in charge of preparations for any large event but, what the hell, I'll go ahead and rebut some of the paraphrases (does that count as journalism?).  Without further ado:

•  On the legacy of Sochi 2014: The Games will go a long way to improve the environment. Green standards are being used for all new venue construction. They want to be as carbon-neutral as possible throughout the construction and the Games. There is also a lift for the Sochi national parks, which in turn will help save the snow leopard (being used as one of the mascots as well).

Obviously, not everybody agrees on this.  There's all kinds of environmental issues that are up for debate and you can find some of those in my old posts and elsewhere on the internet.  If there's something being built in Sochi, odds are somebody is pissed off about it.  Oh and there's this:

• In line with the previous statement: They literally started from nothing, a “blank canvas” which was a big advantage allowing them to build an infrastructure. They are the biggest construction site in the world and have over 42,000 workers involved.  

This statement is true, assuming by "them" and "advantage" we're referring to the Sochi 2014 builders and not the vacationers, people who were bought out of their homes to make way for the Olympics or the environmentalists.  I'm sure it's a thrill for any construction company to get carte blanche for a project but I'm not sure it's an advantage to the other 180 million people in Russia who don't live in Sochi that the government is spending $30 billion to host a party. 

•   And finally, about corruption and security: There is an image of corruption in Russia, but the Sochi project is very transparent and wants to act as an anti-corruption model for other projects. You can never completely stop terrorism, but the authorities are doing everything possible. There are 100 different nationalities living in this area in peace. Sochi “will be” the safest place ever for the Olympics.

Nevermind about Dimitri Medvedev's ordering a probe into possible corruption surrounding the Sochi build last summer (ignoring the fact, of course, as to whether that was an honest attempt to root out corruption or just for show).  Or the Moscow Times report last summer that Medvedev was using the boogeyman of terrorism to distract people from endemic corruption in Sochi.  But Medvedev is shifty, using the actual terrorist act this year in Domodedovo airport to shift the attention to Georgia and other foreigners who might have it out for Sochi.  Oh, don't forget that Olympstroi, the builder in charge of the project, is on (I think) its third leader in four years.  Other than that, shipshape.