Silent games, 2013
Only a year left for Games to start. On demand of the International Olympic Committee test events are held in Sochi at the newly built sports venues. They are visited by not numerous spectators and a lot of volunteers.
A strange sight of wide clearings through treed slopes, black side-pilings amidst snowfields, stream beds rutted by heavy vehicles. And all around are paving asphalt, metal, concrete which have not yet been transformed into a uniform sports ensemble and is so a stranger to the scenery around.
It’s not easy to drive to or reach the venues by foot, with rare exception they are closed for visitors. Not many folks in Sochi know what is happening there. The rest of people in the country content themselves with bravura propaganda and gloomy rumors. But ice is frozen up on arenas and there, though to empty viewing stands, future Olympic champions are coming into.
Because of warm weather it’s hardly ever possible to keep snow skiing runs, but skiers compete and move out of Sochi with medals.
Test events have been completed. A year before the Games the almost finished venues are almost ready to accept the Olympic Games.