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Case study Module 713
Sochi Winter Olympic Games 2014: case study
Students: Pasqual Coudret, Alena Kochurova, Maya Simon, Mergim Vladaj, Stefano Maioglio
Professor: Kate Varini
Submitted on: 11th September 2014
Abstract
This paper is about the sustainable development of the Sochi region for the Winter
Olympic Games 2014. The Olympic committee elaborated an ecological strategy in order to
be "Green". A new transport system has been built according to the needs of the Winter
Olympic Games with the respect of environment. Some technological innovations have been
brought in the event to prevent the lack and the quality of snow. Moreover they have wisely
thought about the future use of the facilities by hosting new events such the Formula 1 or
the Football World Cup. The Games have succeeded from an economical and social aspect
but being ecologically friendly in such large event still remains a challenge.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................................................................1
Sustainability, Sochi 2014....................................................................................................1
Transport system: critical overview of initial conditions and the work done.......................2
Background information about transport system in Sochi before Olympic Games 2014......3
Improvement done before the beginning of the Olympic Games........................................3
Snow management.............................................................................................................4
Sochi after Olympic.............................................................................................................5
Implementation to Switzerland...........................................................................................6
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................6
References..........................................................................................................................7
Introduction
In this paper, we will discuss the sustainability of the XXII Winter Olympic Games, which
took place in Sochi (Russia) in 2014. Indeed, being more sustainable has become a
worldwide trend in major events. In 2003, the Olympic Committee change its charter “to
promote a positive legacy of the Olympic Games to the host cities and host countries.”
(Kuznetsova, 2014). Concerning the transports and the facilities, the city of Sochi has built
massively for welcoming and hosting the thousands of visitors from across the world. In
addition, they have put a particular attention to material used to construct stadiums. In
order to be able to guarantee snow for an event as the Winter Olympic Games, the Olympic
committee has invested in new technologies, which are not sustainable as planned.
Sustainability, Sochi 2014
Nowadays, being more sustainable and ecological friendly are worldwide topics, which
are increasingly being discussed. In the last decades, more and more international
conferences have been held focusing on limiting the global warming, such as the United
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) (www.uncsd2012.org). Being
sustainable means to take responsibility towards long terms development. For example,
when going on vacation, people prefer lodging in guesthouses or bed & breakfast, eating
local food and buying local crafted work; in other words, people prefer to invest more all
aspects that develop local economies. Moreover, by using eco-friendly means of
transportation, people help reducing carbon emissions (Scaglione, p. 5).
Organizing a massive one-time event such as the Winter Olympics Games, raises some
difficult issues; the main one is to develop a region in order to welcome thousands of
tourists but only for a really short time. The after Olympic Games is not always so
sustainable. However, the International Olympic Committee is doing an effort to be
sustainable by using the newest technologies and implementing new strategies to donate a
more sustainable legacy than ghost cities.
In order to successfully find a balance between a successful economic development of the
region and the unique natural environment, the International Olympic Committee Winter
Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi have created a program called “Ecological strategy Sochi
2014.” (Ecorussia). The program is a tool for positive changes and demonstrations of
sustainable development in accordance with ecological principles.
The four conditions listed in the ecological strategy are the following
The Games had to be organized in harmony with nature (minimization of possible
negative impact on environment, implementation of complex approach for using
natural resources). In the case with Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi there were
number of challenges to deal with such as building Olympic objects especially in
protected natural area, necessity to provide high quality level of water and air
during and after Olympic Games and reconstruction of wastewater treatment
plants.
The Games should not have an influence on climate changes (balance and reduce
the emission of CO2). For Sochi, the challenges were to improve and modernize
the system of transports according to the international standards and to reduce
greenhouses gases.
“Zero Waste Games”, The Games should not create any waste, which means to
improve the waste sorting system, transportation of waste as well as the recycling
and the disposal of waste.
The Games should have an educational purpose in order to increase awareness
about ecological issues and culture with the aim to lead to a more sustainable
behavior among the local population so that professional level can be improved.
Therefore, the Olympic principles for sustainability can have lasting effects. The
realization of the “Enlightenment program” should be done through educational
programs for youth and children, conferences and forums to give people an easy
access to information (Ecorussia).
Transport system: critical overview of initial conditions and the work done
The development of a transport system for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi was one
of the crucial goals in the ecological program. The new system was oriented on building new
transport flows including the modernization of railways, public transport and roads. These
changes had to be done with the respect of local ecological conditions and following a
positive impact on the regional economy (optimization of government expenditure for
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maintaining new infrastructure and building modern transportation system for tourist
destination).
Background information about transport system in Sochi before Olympic Games 2014
On the territory of Sochi there are 6800 plants and only 17% of them operates in
transport sector (Master Concept, 2012). The major part of roads is not renovated and
experience troubles with high traffic. This situation and the insufficient capacity of the road
network lead to constant overloads. A major part of the Olympic skiing disciplines, including
the Alpine skiing, ski-jumping and biathlon, are held in the mountains above the town. This
requires well-developed transport structure including tunnels (Rothlisberger, Gollegger, &
Wieland, 2011).
The transport concept was developed under the Federal Target Program “Development of
Sochi as a Mountain Resort” (2006-2014).
Improvement done before the beginning of the Olympic Games
The Transport Directorate coordinated the construction or modernization of 47 different
public transport installations, as well as 367 km of new roads and 201 km of new railway. 22
new tunnels were built, and there were 963 buses in operation during the Games as well as
38 high-speed trains and 10 smaller trains. The city also got a new airport and a new major
railway station in Adler. It is important to notice that all Olympic infrastructure were built in
accordance with requirements about minimizing impact on natural environment (Advancing
Public Transport, 2014).
For spectators, there has been limited vehicle access but various bus and rail routes as
well as cableways provided transportation between the hubs of the Mountain Cluster and
the venues, with trains on the new Adler-Krasnaya Polyana railway every 20 to 40 minutes.
Thus organization team could achieve part of big strategic problem by introducing new type
of public transport and reducing CO2 to environment. Special buses, taking advantage of the
"Olympic lanes", were transport members of the Olympic Family and athletes from Sochi
International Airport to the Mountain and Coastal Clusters for training, competitions, and
the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. A 24-hour service operated between the three
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Olympic Villages, as well as internal shuttles within the villages - with more than 50 buses
running between the venues.
Maksim Sokolov, Minister of transport of the Russian Federation praised the work of
transport staff, saying they “demonstrated top class in their work. All of us performed as a
united, well-tuned mechanism, and that’s why we achieved such truly ‘Olympic’ results.”
(Advancing Public Transport, 2014) .
High results were achieved in frame of sustainable development as well. First of all the
region has got well-developed transport network, which linked the most important strategic
objects (for Winter Olympic Games) with tourist destinations. This could be concluded as a
big investment in economy of the region. It is important to point out that all construction of
road networks and railways were made in respect with nature. The Olympic Committee
allocated new infrastructure in the most compact form with minimal damaging of the
natural resources. In this point there were achieved several goals placed in the strategy for
the Winter Olympic Games 2014: harmony with nature was saved, natural parks have not
been damaged, transport system has been modernized according to international standards
(no less than Euro-4).
Snow management
The global warming has been a new challenge for ski resort since few years. They have
less snow than ever before. In Vancouver 2010 during the winter Olympic Games, there was
a lack of snow which disturbed different competitions (Goldenberg, 2010). Therefore, one of
the questions, which had been widely raised before and during the XXII Winter Olympic
games in Sochi, was to know if this time snow conditions would be good enough to perform
all of the competition. It has to be known that Sochi is under a subtropical weather with mild
winters. However, Sochi guaranteed snow for the games. It was the first time that a ski
resort made such a promise (McCarthy, 2013).
In order to keep their promise, they stored 750,000 cubic meters of snow (Pestereva,
2014, p. 804) covered by isothermal blankets made of aluminum and geotextile to keep the
snow from melting. In addition to that, they installed 450 snow cannons with the latest
engineering technology. The cannons have a pumping power of 2,750 cubic meters per hour
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of high-pressure water (SMI, 2014). The snow produced by the machines is more durable
than the natural one because the spherical shape of the snowflakes makes it shrink slower
(how snowmaking works, 2014). To control the snow production, three computers and two
large monitors have been set up in order to non-stop record weather information.
Moreover, Sochi authorities used salt to transform soft snow into hard snow, for the last
days of the game; without this special salt the Sochi Olympic Games have ended into a
disaster. (Dolnick, 2014)
In summary, new technologies combined together make it now possible to extend the
winter season and help us to slow down the snowmelt in extreme conditions.
Sochi after Olympic
History told organizers of the Olympic Games to be careful: a few month ago, photos of
former Olympic Stadiums of 2004 in Athens shocked the world. Athens became symbol of a
post-Olympic failure. Greece built almost a dozen facilities for the 3 weeks event, ten years
later, most of them are abandoned or vanished. Gary Hustwit, a well-known photographer
and filmmaker, described the stadiums as “a symbolic of the government’s waste” (Stump &
Kim, 2014).
Yet, not all Olympic games finished disinvestments. Lisa Delpy Neirotti, sports manager
professor at George Washington University’s Business School, said to today.com: “the
biggest key to setting up success for a city after an Olympic closing is simply having a plan.”
Barcelona, hosting Summer Olympics in 1992, revitalized the industrial part of the city.
Another successful sequel has been made by Turin, hosting the 2006 Winter Olympic.
Games like the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships helped make Turin of the top
tourist destinations in Italy. The Olympic facilities hosted as well the Italy’s 150th anniversary
of unification in 2011.
Nevertheless, Sochi symbol for the greatest and most expensive Olympics in history, can
as well add a new way of handling this mismanagement of facilities after the games. Most of
the venues are designed for re-use. Three Ice sporting halls will even be dismantled and
completely moved to other destinations. The Iceberg Skating Palace, the Ice Cube Curling
Centre and the Shayba Arena, were all built on demountable purpose and will be rebuilt in
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another city. They won’t have to forfeit any visitor places and will serve as a whole post-
Olympic sports facilities. Sochi also set milestones in material efficiency: The Fisht Olympic
Stadium’s innovative building material, EFTE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene), is a lightweight
and translucent material. It gives thermal protection but let in a sufficient amount and
quality of natural light for grass to grow inside the arena. After the Olympics, the Fisht
Stadium will be used for Russian and FIFA World Cup Football matches, as well as
entertainment events. The stadium was designed with a flexible capacity, accommodating
crowds of up to 45’000 people or to maintain an intimate atmosphere only 25’000 people.
Implementation to Switzerland
The technologies mentioned in this paper can be applied to Switzerland. Indeed, the
country is facing a problem of lack of snow due to climate change. The ski resorts have
already used snow cannons to fill their ski slopes and they will need to use them more often
in the future. Regarding transports, it will definitely need to increase the debit of trains to
host the Olympic Games and the example of Sochi could perfectly be implemented to
Switzerland. Geneva, Vaud and Valais are thinking about the possibility to apply for the 2026
Games (Oberli, 2014).
Conclusion
In conclusion, they have made huge efforts to be as sustainable as possible. From
economical and social aspects, we think that they have successfully achieved great results by
developing transportations and by informing local people about sustainability. However
from an environmental aspect, it is probably impossible to have a positive balance for such a
large event despite the efforts made. The amount of water used to produce snow and the
numbers of people traveling by plane overcome all the energy saving made by technology.
Therefore, Is it really possible for the Winter Olympic Games to be sustainable?
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Dolnick, S. (2014, February 16). Emergency shipment of salt averts olympic crisis. Retrieved November 8, 2014, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/sports/olympics/emergency-shipment-of-salt-averts-olympic-crisis.html?_r=0
Goldenberg, S. (2010, February 10). Canada's mild climate leaves Winter Olympics short of snow. Retrieved November 6, 2014, from www.theguardian.com: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/feb/10/vancouver-lacks-snow
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McCarthy, M. (2013, December 19). Winter Olympics in the subtropics: Just add snow. Retrieved November 7, 2014, from www.cnbc.com: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101265386
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