to move up and down
A year before the 2014 Winter Olympics are to begin, President Vladimir Putin has demanded that a senior member of the Russian Olympic Committee be fired, apparently due to cost overruns in host city Sochi.
The current price tag for the Sochi Games is US$51-billion, which would make them the most expensive games in the history of the Olympics – more costly even than the much-larger Summer Olympics held in London and Beijing.
During his tour of Olympic venues, Putin fumed when he heard that the cost of the ski jump had soared from US$40-million to US$265-million and the project was behind schedule.
“So a vice president of the Olympic Committee is dragging down the entire construction? Well done! You are doing a good job,” Putin said Wednesday, seething with sarcasm. (Photo: SERGEI KARPUKHIN/AFP/Getty Images)
Safety of Vancouver luge track questioned before Olympian’s death: report
“An athlete gets badly injured or worse and I think the case could be made we were warned and did nothing.” (Photo: Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters)
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