One year ago, the world assembled in Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Despite the truly inspirational performances of athletes from more than 80 nations, headlines around the Games were dominated by the $50 billion price tag on what is well established to be the smaller version of the two Olympics (between summer and winter). It was black eye on the Olympic model, yet the IOC apparently doesn’t see it that way. As a result, the organization is indirectly hurting the fledgling Boston 2024 bid.
Deeming the Sochi Games a “great success,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach glossed over the rampant problems that will forever be attached to the Games’ legacy. Here’s his statement from a few days ago, which marked the one year anniversary since the Sochi opening ceremony:
The Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014, were a great success. The Russians provided seamless organization. Sochi promised excellent sports venues, outstanding Olympic Villages and impeccable organization. It delivered all that it promised. The athletes themselves praised every aspect. The highest compliment that I can pay – as I said at the Closing Ceremony – was that these were the athletes’ Games. One year after the Games, it is clear that Sochi provided many lasting legacies.
Of course, the “lasting legacies” that Bach is referring to are largely negative, and the athletes most definitely did not “praise every aspect.”
A more local view of Bach’s out of touch comments can clearly be seen as potentially damaging for the Boston 2024 bid. If the IOC is this flippant with what many deem as a historically bad investment, then how will the Olympic brand continue to maintain any credibility in the eyes of Bostonians?
Clearly, Boston 2024’s bid is not the IOC. The local bid is composed of local people. Still, their credibility is implicitly tied to IOC. Consider the following line from an official IOC review of Sochi:
The Sochi 2014 Organising Committee expects to announce a profit when its operations are finally wrapped up.
Preposterous statements such as that one, which completely ignore reality in regards to the financial details of Russia’s Olympics, are what former Boston 2024 President Dan O’Connell called “an embarrassment” when he referenced Sochi in a presentation in October of last year.
Ironically, Boston’s bid will have to secure an endorsement from an organization who it is otherwise trying to distance itself from; Boston 2024 needs the IOC, but must resist any direct association with them. Though the IOC’s 2020 reforms are meant to make the Olympics more sustainable and financially friendly, it appears that the organization still has a long way to go before it takes responsibility for past mistakes.
Image via Boston 2024
