Sochi Olympics

The Grand Opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics

Jovana Kovac

Humanities 

Mr.Calic

February 13th, 2014

                February is the month of winter sports and winter wonderland, but this February is special. It’s the month of the $50 billion worth Sochi Winter Olympic Games that will truly amaze the world with all the preparations and work given into it.

                After having 7 years to prepare, Russians in Sochi will finally present themselves in the Olympic world. They will not present themselves as hosts but also as participants with amazing talented Russians they have. The opening ceremony on February 7^th, 2014 at exactly 20:16 marked the start of the winter sport spectacle. Over the next 17 days athletes from 88 different nationalities will compete in 15 disciplines that have been around for a while, but also 17 new events that will mark their debut here in Sochi for the first time. What is waiting for us in the next couple of weeks will provide us lots of victories, loses, tears, happiness and pain. Lot's of hearts will be left on the fields of Sochi just to fight for their countries. Let the Olympics begin!

                Many amazing disciplines and athletes are awaiting us. The pressure on athletes to defend their medals, Russians to show their glory in their home country and of course the many new events are just some of the things ahead of us the next 17 days. The new events that are making their debut in Sochi are women ski jumping, team event figure skating and luge, biathlon relay, halfpipe skiing, slopestyle skiing and snowboarding and snowboarding parallel slalom. These games are predicted to show a spectacle. The pricey, too pricey price tag of around $50 billion and the 40,000 long torch relay are just an indication of what next will these Olympics show us. The head of Sochi organization Dmitry Chernyshenko told Olympics.org that the 2014 Games “will really amaze the world”. The opening ceremony of the Olympics included the presentation of rich Russian history and their culture, of course not forgetting the Russian national anthem. The presentations of flags were a tradition that cannot get away. Just like always, the first flag to be presented was the Greek flag and then the rest going by the alphabetical order. Unfortunately, for many people the highlight of the opening was when the last 5^th circle of the Olympic sign was unable to open. It is thought that the unopened circle was meant to be the continent of North and South America but it is not still completely sure. It is guaranteed that the world will see even more spectacle and even more reasons to watch the Olympics live each day!