2014 Winter Olympics Follies

Now that the 2014 Winter Olympics has come to a close, it's as good as anytime to review the triumphs and the many travesties. Before the Olympics even started, problems were piling up while Russia made it's preparations. Stray dogs, poisonous water coming out of the hotel pipes, and bathroom stalls that had two toilets per stall.

In July off 2007, Sochi won the bid to host over Pyeongchang, South Korea and Salzburg, Austria. The six and a half years to prepare apparently weren't enough. Spending $51 billion dollars into updating Sochi and getting it up to Olympic levels. Nearly five times the amount it took to get the 2010 Winter Olympics hosted by Vancouver. Rumors spread that organizations syphoned and/or extorted money in the preparation.

By the time the Olympics were about to open, only six of the nine hotels built to host journalists and tourist were ready to be open. Out of those six, many individual rooms weren't ready for people to occupy them. Shower curtains, window curtains, door locks, and even pillows were missing from rooms. Some people were even asked to donate their pillows to the athletes because not enough pillows were ordered to cover the athletes in their dorms.

Many news organizations were forced to bunk up because not all their rooms were ready. The rooms that were ready, had water that came out of the tap, that more resembled whiskey more than H2O.

Once the games got under way, the opening ceremonies had it's own flaw. Five large lights in the shape of snowflakes were to blossom into the five Olympics rings. The top right ring decided to cooperate and remained a snowflake. On Russian television, viewers were never shown the mistake and instead they were shown taped footage from the rehearsals earlier that day, before cutting back to the live broadcast after the rings were shown. In the BBC and America broadcasts, viewers were treated to the genuine broadcast.

From there, after the ceremonies, various athletes had problems of their own, in their dorms. American Bobsledder Johnny Quinn found himself locked in his bathroom and without a cell phone or anyone within hearing distance. He used his athletic ability to break through the door and then Tweet about it afterwards. Ironically, later on he found himself stuck on an elevator and once again had a photo opportunity of him trying to open the elevator doors.

The snowboarders had problems of their own. The half pipe had large lumps at the end of the pipe and the surface of the pipe itself wasn't smooth at all. This type of condition hurts the big air style of snowboarders the most since they need the smooth surface to obtain the most speed, to gain the most air. The American snowboarders, who were the favorites, were all big air style snowboarders. Snowboarder rock star, Shaun White ended up in forth because of a fall.

As usual, hockey had it's controversial calls, but that seems to be the norm for every Olympics. The men's USA team lost it's final two games to end up forth overall, despite being a favorite themselves for a medal.

By the time the Olympics came to a close, the Russians had a sense of humor about it. During the closing ceremonies, to poke a jab at the ring that refused to open up during the opening ceremonies, the performers played the parts of the snowflakes that opened up to become the rings...except the performers that would make the top right ring. They stayed balled up for an extra count as a joke before joining the others in the iconic logo.

For a country with so much pride, especially in Winter sports, it was a surprise to see all the various ways it was bungled. The athletes themselves performed remarkably well and were one of the bright lights of the past two weeks, but Russia failed to play a part in that. It would be interesting to see whose heads will role...literally...when Russian leadership decides to place blame in review.