Bach expects spectacular show at Sochi Games
Print Edition
The sun’s out. The athletes are ready. Let’s get this show started.
That was the message yesterday from IOC President Thomas Bach, who was eager to attend the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics and put aside the concerns over security and gay rights that have dogged the buildup to the games.
“From what I hear, we can expect a spectacular show,” he said. “Maybe I will have goose bumps all night long.”
Bach, presiding over an Olympics for the first time since his election as IOC president in September, said the world will now turn its focus to the spectacle of the games and the performances of the athletes.
“It’s time it finally starts,” he said. “The games are getting kicked off. Everything has been prepared. The athletes are really longing for the moment to start. They want to see the Olympic flame over the Olympic stadium and they want their competition to begin.”
And, what’s more, the weather is cooperating. “The sun is shining on the games and on the athletes,” Bach said.
“Everything is going pretty smoothly,” Bach told the delegates at an IOC session. “As always in the first days of the games, there is a small hiccup here or there, but nothing really substantial so far. We can look to tonight full of anticipation and excitement and hope that we will have a great opening ceremony for a great Olympic Games.”
The games come amid threats of attacks by Islamists from the North Caucasus. A pair of suicide bombings in Volgograd in December killed 34 people.
Asked about Sochi being the first Olympics facing a direct threat, Bach laughed out loud.
“I’m really sorry but you (cannot forget) how many threats there were on each of the Olympic Games before,” he said. “We had threats on Sydney, we had threats on Athens. Maybe you remember the situation in Salt Lake City. There were many so you cannot single out these games in this way.”
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