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Thursday Dec 12, 2024
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As the third full day of competition drew to a close, that hostility had begun to melt away and the thrills and spills on snow and ice, and a hugely popular Russian gold in the team figure skating on Sunday, began to win the critics around.
Monday’s biggest drama was undoubtedly in the men’s 500 metre speed skating at the Adler Arena, where, in a Dutch sweep of the medals. Michel Mulder beat Jan Smeekens by one hundredth of a second, having initially been announced as second.
“It was a kick in the gut,” said Smeekens, who thought he had won for about “two or three minutes” before the scoreboard adjusted his time. “I was so ecstatic that I won, I can’t describe it.”
Mulder’s twin brother Ronald grabbed bronze as the Dutch continued their dominance of the sport.
The excitement did not stop Putin, who has staked his personal and political prestige on a successful Games, from taking a swipe at his detractors, suggesting he was still smarting from criticism he always maintained was unfair.
“Back in Cold War times the theory of containment was created,” he told a televised public meeting in Sochi.
“This theory and its practice were aimed at restraining the development of the Soviet Union... what we see now are echoes of this containment theory. This, unfortunately, has also applied to the Olympic project.
Putin also said the Olympics were playing a ‘positive role’ in relations between Russia and its 2008 war foe Georgia, emphasising that he believed flights set up between Sochi and the Georgian capital Tbilisi should continue after the Games.
Canada on top
A day earlier, the 61-year-old had been all smiles, as state television captured him congratulating the victorious Russian skaters, ‘high fiving’ with young volunteers, drinking beer and urging the home team to greater sporting glory.
On the team was diminutive 15-year-old Julia Lipnitskaya, whose breathtaking performance melted hearts and had commentators in the United States, as well as Russia, gushing over a superstar in the making.
“Good job guys, my congratulations to you all,” Putin said, addressing the winning team crowded around him. “You have a lot of work ahead of you here, so don’t relax.”
But there were no more gold medals for Russia on Monday.
Defending champion Alex Bilodeau led a Canadian one-two in the men’s freestyle skiing moguls, putting his country atop the medals table with three golds, three silvers and a bronze.
France claimed its first title of the Games when Martin Fourcade won the biathlon 12.5 km pursuit. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway finished fourth to miss out on what would have been a record 13th Winter Games medal.
In the high-velocity, notoriously unpredictable sport of short track, Canada’s Charles Hamelin grabbed 1,500m gold before lunging over the barriers to wrap his girlfriend and team mate Marianne St-Gelais in a hug.
Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch retained her Olympic super combined title with a slalom surge amidst the peaks of the Caucasus mountains.
In Tuesday’s action the first-ever medals in women’s ski jumping will be awarded, in the normal hill competition, one of eight golds up for grabs.
The American and Canadian heavyweights of the men’s ice hockey competition had their first practice on Monday with attention already turning to Saturday’s mouth-watering clash between the US and Russia that will bring back memories of the ‘miracle on ice’ at Lake Placid in 1980 when the Americans shocked the dominant Soviets to win 4-3.
Winning locals over?
A Russian victory in that game would further enhance the mood among locals. Even some of those worst affected by years of disruption caused by huge infrastructure projects in Sochi appear to be won over by the gleaming new Olympic park.
“It’s just fantastic,” Sergei Klyuyev, from the Adler area where the park was built, said as he walked through with his family on Sunday, admiring the state-of-the-art stadiums.
“There’s been building work here for five years but look at all this around us. We regret nothing, not even the cost.”
Putin wants to use Russia’s first Winter Games, which cost $ 51 billion to stage, to project the country as a resurgent nation that belongs among the world’s elite powers.
He has defended the scale of the project, saying it helped shield Russia from the worst of the financial crisis.
Not all Russians are convinced, however. A recent survey by independent pollster Levada showed 47% of them believe the cost of the Games has soared because funds have been embezzled or mismanaged.
Norway, bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, said in Sochi on Monday it would limit its budget to around $ 5 billion.
Included in Russia’s eye-watering Winter Games costs is a major security operation, as Islamist militants based in nearby Chechnya and other North Caucasus regions have threatened to launch attacks on Sochi.
Some 37,000 security personnel are on high alert in and around Sochi, although officials believe the risk of militant violence is greater elsewhere in Russia.
A major attack during the Games would embarrass Putin, who launched a war to crush a rebellion in Chechnya in 1999.
Russian police killed four suspected militants in a shootout in Dagestan province, some 600 kilometres (380 miles) from Sochi on the other end of the Caucasus Mountain chain, law enforcement officials said on Monday.
There was no indication the gun fight on Saturday was connected with the Games.
India returns to the Games as IOC lifts banREUTERS: India has returned to the Olympic fold after the IOC lifted a ban on the country’s Olympic association on Tuesday, and its athletes will now be able to march behind the Indian flag at the closing ceremony of the Sochi Winter Games. The country’s athletes have been competing in Russia under the Olympic flag due to the suspension, imposed after it held a 2012 Indian Olympic Association (IOA) election in which a corruption-tainted official was voted in as secretary general. “It is the first time in Olympic history that a suspension of a National Olympic Committee has been lifted during the Games,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told reporters. He said the IOC had discussed the matter early on Tuesday and ruled that elections held on Sunday had fulfilled all criteria for the country’s immediate reinstatement. “We observed the general assembly (on Sunday). We are happy with the changes,” Adams said, adding the IOC’s prerequisite to ban any tainted officials from elections had been fully met. On Sunday, the IOA voted in a new set of officials with World Squash Federation chief N. Ramachandran elected President, paving the way for the Olympic reinstatement of the world’s second most populous nation. All India Tennis Association chief Anil Khanna became treasurer in polls which marked the exit of corruption-tainted Abhay Singh Chautala and Lalit Bhanot from the IOA. Great news “It’s great news for the Indian athletes,” Indian IOC member Randhir Singh told Reuters. “IOA has finally realised that the Olympic Charter is supreme and you have to fall in line and follow the principles of ethics and good governance. “Tainted officials have no place in IOA.” The Indian athletes in Sochi - a luger and two skiers - entered the Sochi Games under the Olympic flag during the opening ceremony on 7 February, and have competed as Independent Olympic Participants. The IOC’s decision means they can now compete for India and will walk behind their national flag at the closing ceremony on 23 February. To symbolically mark the lifting of the suspension and, in recognition of the athletes competing in Sochi, the Indian flag will be raised in the Olympic village, Adams said. “I’m happy with the new IOA team. (In N. Ramachandran and Anil Khanna) you have two world class administrators,” Singh added. Newly elected IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta told Reuters the news was a great start for the new team. “I got a call from the IOC this morning confirming the ban has been lifted and I’m now waiting for a written communication,” Mehta said. “It’s a great start for the new team at IOA. This is all the more significant as this year we have Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. “Indian athletes will be competing once again under the Indian flag. It’s a great relief for us,” he added. |
