The Atmosphere Around Sochi

[4gamesandcounting]

This is just an observation from watching on TV but although undoubtedly the games have been very well run and the sport has been excellent they've come across as a bit souless on TV - the atmosphere doesn't shine through the screen. Maybe it's because nothing will compare to London, but despite the warm weather it's all been a bit cold really.

I think it's hard to compare it london. Lets compare it to the last two winter games. Doesn't look as passionate as vancouver but looks like a better atmosphere than torino to me.

I've been broadly impressed with the crowds, although from people's first hand reports it sounds like far less international than in previous games.

[Rob2012]

Well, the climax wasn't quite as amazing as Vancouver. I think the atmosphere at Vancouver was exceptional and came across so well on TV. I never expected Sochi to match that but I think they've done a respectable enough job.

[world atlas]

[hektor]

I was in Torino and Sochi, but not in Vancouver.

Torino had the advantages to have the ice venues quite close to downtown (Palavela, Lingotto...) and the medal plazza in the middle of the city.

In Sochi the Olympic park was remote from the city so the Olympic things downtown Sotchi were the big screens in the parks, the large olympic Bosco store near the port, the housing/hotels (and the boats) for visitors and the cultural olympiad events.

But in Torino some competitions to which I attended were really in front of very few people, especially snow events. This was not the case for what I saw in Sochi.

[SkiFreak]

With Vancouver, don't forget there was stuff going on in other communities too, like the "O" Zone in Richmond, and live sites out in Surrey. The Live Site in Surrey was pretty big and featured performances of the RCMP's Musical Ride. Too much stuff going on around Vancouver to do it all in just two weeks. All the sites had good crowds.

[runningrings]

Just curious as to what everyone bases their perception of Torino's atmosphere, or there lack of, on? I'm not criticising anyone, but seen it a few times on this board and I'm curious.

I don't recall Torino a great deal, aside from the ceremonies (I was living in Melbourne at the time and being only weeks before the 2006 CwG, Torino was overshadowed)

[hektor]

As I said, I have been to five winter olympics so far. And Torino, was the least attended Olympics to which I have been. Empty seats, are not good for the atmosphere. In addition, Torino is quite a large city, and I had the feeling the Olympics were a been dispersed into it.

[4gamesandcounting]

Just curious as to what everyone bases their perception of Torino's atmosphere, or there lack of, on? I'm not criticising anyone, but seen it a few times on this board and I'm curious.

I don't recall Torino a great deal, aside from the ceremonies (I was living in Melbourne at the time and being only weeks before the 2006 CwG, Torino was overshadowed)

Out of the five games I've been to it had the least fun atmosphere when I was there. As Hektor says lots of empty seats at all the events I went to (except for the short track which was well attended).

Just a general feeling downtown of normal life going on, there wasn't an especially festival atmosphere which you would hope to have at an Olympic Games. No comparison between downtown torino and downtown athens or vancouver. In both those cities you knew the games were on!