UNITED KINGDOM: WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES - Sochi Olympic bid team in London

Dmitry Chernyshenko, in London to present details of the bid submitted to the International Olympic Committee on Monday, said one of Sochi's top selling points was the proximity of venues to each other. "For the first time in Winter Games history, our Olympic Park will include all ice venues and facilities within walking distance of each other," he told reporters. "Athletes in the village will be within a five-minute electric shuttle ride to all ice venues." The bid proposes two hubs, a coastal one hosting the ice events and a mountain one for the alpine competitions. The two centres will be linked in 40 minutes by a high-speed train. Previous Games have had events in different towns, often hours apart, meaning athletes and spectators are limited in what they can go and watch. "Sometimes I want to go and see other events ... like ski jumping. Between my training I can't do this because it's really far, it can take three or six hours," Irina Slutskaya, former world and European figure skating champion and bid supporter, told Reuters. Chernyshenko added that Sochi, widely considered the outsider in the race with South Korea's Pyeongchang and the Austrian city of Salzburg, has one thing much of Europe has been struggling for this winter, snow. Warmer-than-usual weather has led to the cancellation of several Alpine skiing World Cup races but the mountains near Sochi have four metres (13 feet) of snow. The resort, a Soviet-era holiday destination popular with government officials, lies near the Caucasus and the turbulent region of Chechnya. Organisers have played down security concerns, saying it is one of the world's safest cities. The $1 billion Sochi project, part of a wider $12 billion government-backed development of the area, is being partly funded by Russia's so-called oligarchs. Chernyshenko said Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich was among the billionaires investing in the bid, as well as aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska and metals tycoon Vladimir Potanin. The IOC will decide the winning bid in a vote in Guatemala on July

ITN Source | January 13, 2007

Tags:. .safest. .metals. .led. .cup. .ice