Sochi 2014 Olympics: ‘Worst. Games. Ever?’ No, pampered journalists should just chill: DiManno
It’s almost a tradition to dub each Olympics ‘The Worst Games Ever.’ But Rosie DiManno, who has been to 13 Olympics, writes that preparations for the Sochi Games are on par with all the others she’s covered for the Toronto Star.
SOCHI, RUSSIA—Dump a couple of thousand cranky reporters in one place, give them a reason to gripe, equip the horde with insta-bitch social media and the outcome is precisely what’s happened here in recent days.
A disaster!
The Olympics haven’t even begun but the reviews for Sochi 2014 are already in: WORST. GAMES. EVER.
Or worst Games since Vancouver 2010, which had also yet to launch before snotty British journos pronounced them a calamity. Those sodden Olympics — booze and rain — were dubbed The Drunkest Games in history because reporters had to navigate their way home nightly through The River of Vomit that was Granville Street.
Previously Beijing had been declared The Worst Games Ever. And before that, Athens — which really did take the medal for chaos in their slapdash unfinished state.
Strictly come romancing, these Games have not brought the love from front-line sports correspondents who have perhaps become too accustomed to four-star hotels, room service and concierges.
Most of us arrived here in the middle of the night and with noses out of joint due to long-haul flights, missed connections, lost baggage, rumbling stomachs, few English-speaking volunteers and not a whole lot to report on before competition begins. So we made ourselves the story, which was at least a switch from hand-wringing over security concerns and WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE.
The grumbling isn’t entirely without justification. The media village — a cluster of hotels just outside Olympic Park — was not show-time ready. At least two of the nine hotels were decidedly un-ready: no heat, no shower curtains, no hot water, a warning in one case not to apply any of the water that came out of the taps to one’s face because “it contains something very dangerous.”
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