What will remain of 2014? FrancsJeux looked back over the last twelve months, to unearth the most significant moments, people and initiatives... and those that should be forgotten. The best, and the worst, of a particularly rich Olympic year for the international sports movement. First episode: the events.
The best event of the year 2014: the Sochi Games
The most grumpy will note that the temperatures were far too spring-like to give the Olympic Park a winter sports atmosphere. And no one will forget that these Games on Russian soil lacked an extra bit of soul that would have made them a grandiose Olympic celebration. But, in general opinion, athletes in the lead, the Sochi Olympics were a huge sporting success. A success that was little predicted by the numerous controversies which surrounded its preparation, on Russian anti-gay laws, the omnipresence of Vladimir Putin, terrorist threats and the uprising in Ukraine.
With 12 new disciplines on the program, the Sochi Games were the most diverse in history. They will remain marked by the entry into the place of women's ski jumping, the result of a battle of more than ten years by its first followers, most of them North American. We will also remember from these Games, on a sporting level, the triumph of the Belarusian Darya Domracheva, the first woman triple gold medalist in biathlon, the victory in the descent shared between the Slovenian Tina Maze and the Swiss Dominique Gisin, the entry in the Olympic legend of the Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who became the most decorated athlete of the Winter Games with 13 places on the podium and, finally, the national drama caused by the defeat of the Russian ice hockey team in the quarter-finals of the men's tournament.
But the greatest achievement of these Sochi Games will perhaps remain to have shown the world the image of a Russia that does not conform to its image. A Russia where young people played the game of volunteering to the fullest, with students mobilizing like never before for the success of the event, a little-expected phenomenon in a country where the concept of volunteering has long been unknown. A Russia that has been able to open up to the Paralympic movement, giving disabled athletes a wonderful welcome. A few decades earlier, however, the country refused to participate in the Paralympic Games, claiming that there were no athletes with disabilities among its population.
Worst event of the year: Sochi Games
The best and the worst. For the Olympic movement, there will be a before and after the Sochi Winter Games. And, let’s be clear, the aftermath can give you chills. For having further pushed the limits of gigantism and spending more than 35 billion euros, the Russians have badly damaged the image of the Winter Games. Consequence: four of the six cities having announced their candidacy for the 2022 Olympics have put their thumbs up and packed up their projects, leaving the Chinese from Beijing and the Kazakhs from Almaty alone to contend.
Certainly, the reality of the figures presents a less caricatured observation, the Russians having taken advantage of the Games to equip themselves in a few years with winter infrastructures that some countries take a century to build. But the public, and sometimes the media, have often confused the expenses of organizing the Games, which were very reasonable in Sochi, with those intended for the construction of durable equipment. As a result, the Russians forced the IOC to struggle to rebuild its image. With his 2020 Agenda, unanimously approved, Thomas Bach has made up part of the delay. But the road could still be long.
