Case study Module 713

Sochi Winter Olympic Games 2014: case study

Students: Pasqual Coudret, Alena Kochurova, Maya Simon, Mergim Vladaj, Stefano Maioglio

Professor: Kate Varini

Submitted on: 11th September 2014

Abstract

This paper is about the sustainable development of the Sochi region for the Winter

Olympic Games 2014. The Olympic committee elaborated an ecological strategy in order to

be "Green". A new transport system has been built according to the needs of the Winter

Olympic Games with the respect of environment. Some technological innovations have been

brought in the event to prevent the lack and the quality of snow. Moreover they have wisely

thought about the future use of the facilities by hosting new events such the Formula 1 or

the Football World Cup. The Games have succeeded from an economical and social aspect

but being ecologically friendly in such large event still remains a challenge.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction........................................................................................................................1

Sustainability, Sochi 2014....................................................................................................1

Transport system: critical overview of initial conditions and the work done.......................2

Background information about transport system in Sochi before Olympic Games 2014......3

Improvement done before the beginning of the Olympic Games........................................3

Snow management.............................................................................................................4

Sochi after Olympic.............................................................................................................5

Implementation to Switzerland...........................................................................................6

Conclusion..........................................................................................................................6

References..........................................................................................................................7

Introduction

In this paper, we will discuss the sustainability of the XXII Winter Olympic Games, which

took place in Sochi (Russia) in 2014. Indeed, being more sustainable has become a

worldwide trend in major events. In 2003, the Olympic Committee change its charter “to

promote a positive legacy of the Olympic Games to the host cities and host countries.”

(Kuznetsova, 2014). Concerning the transports and the facilities, the city of Sochi has built

massively for welcoming and hosting the thousands of visitors from across the world. In

addition, they have put a particular attention to material used to construct stadiums. In

order to be able to guarantee snow for an event as the Winter Olympic Games, the Olympic

committee has invested in new technologies, which are not sustainable as planned.

Sustainability, Sochi 2014

Nowadays, being more sustainable and ecological friendly are worldwide topics, which

are increasingly being discussed. In the last decades, more and more international

conferences have been held focusing on limiting the global warming, such as the United

Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) (www.uncsd2012.org). Being

sustainable means to take responsibility towards long terms development. For example,

when going on vacation, people prefer lodging in guesthouses or bed & breakfast, eating

local food and buying local crafted work; in other words, people prefer to invest more all

aspects that develop local economies. Moreover, by using eco-friendly means of

transportation, people help reducing carbon emissions (Scaglione, p. 5).

Organizing a massive one-time event such as the Winter Olympics Games, raises some

difficult issues; the main one is to develop a region in order to welcome thousands of

tourists but only for a really short time. The after Olympic Games is not always so

sustainable. However, the International Olympic Committee is doing an effort to be

sustainable by using the newest technologies and implementing new strategies to donate a

more sustainable legacy than ghost cities.

In order to successfully find a balance between a successful economic development of the

region and the unique natural environment, the International Olympic Committee Winter

Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi have created a program called “Ecological strategy Sochi

2014.” (Ecorussia). The program is a tool for positive changes and demonstrations of

sustainable development in accordance with ecological principles.

The four conditions listed in the ecological strategy are the following

The Games had to be organized in harmony with nature (minimization of possible

negative impact on environment, implementation of complex approach for using

natural resources). In the case with Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi there were

number of challenges to deal with such as building Olympic objects especially in

protected natural area, necessity to provide high quality level of water and air

during and after Olympic Games and reconstruction of wastewater treatment

plants.

The Games should not have an influence on climate changes (balance and reduce

the emission of CO2). For Sochi, the challenges were to improve and modernize

the system of transports according to the international standards and to reduce

greenhouses gases.

“Zero Waste Games”, The Games should not create any waste, which means to

improve the waste sorting system, transportation of waste as well as the recycling

and the disposal of waste.

The Games should have an educational purpose in order to increase awareness

about ecological issues and culture with the aim to lead to a more sustainable

behavior among the local population so that professional level can be improved.

Therefore, the Olympic principles for sustainability can have lasting effects. The

realization of the “Enlightenment program” should be done through educational

programs for youth and children, conferences and forums to give people an easy

access to information (Ecorussia).

Transport system: critical overview of initial conditions and the work done

The development of a transport system for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi was one

of the crucial goals in the ecological program. The new system was oriented on building new

transport flows including the modernization of railways, public transport and roads. These

changes had to be done with the respect of local ecological conditions and following a

positive impact on the regional economy (optimization of government expenditure for

2

maintaining new infrastructure and building modern transportation system for tourist

destination).

Background information about transport system in Sochi before Olympic Games 2014

On the territory of Sochi there are 6800 plants and only 17% of them operates in

transport sector (Master Concept, 2012). The major part of roads is not renovated and

experience troubles with high traffic. This situation and the insufficient capacity of the road

network lead to constant overloads. A major part of the Olympic skiing disciplines, including

the Alpine skiing, ski-jumping and biathlon, are held in the mountains above the town. This

requires well-developed transport structure including tunnels (Rothlisberger, Gollegger, &

Wieland, 2011).

The transport concept was developed under the Federal Target Program “Development of

Sochi as a Mountain Resort” (2006-2014).

Improvement done before the beginning of the Olympic Games

The Transport Directorate coordinated the construction or modernization of 47 different

public transport installations, as well as 367 km of new roads and 201 km of new railway. 22

new tunnels were built, and there were 963 buses in operation during the Games as well as

38 high-speed trains and 10 smaller trains. The city also got a new airport and a new major

railway station in Adler. It is important to notice that all Olympic infrastructure were built in

accordance with requirements about minimizing impact on natural environment (Advancing

Public Transport, 2014).

For spectators, there has been limited vehicle access but various bus and rail routes as

well as cableways provided transportation between the hubs of the Mountain Cluster and

the venues, with trains on the new Adler-Krasnaya Polyana railway every 20 to 40 minutes.

Thus organization team could achieve part of big strategic problem by introducing new type

of public transport and reducing CO2 to environment. Special buses, taking advantage of the

"Olympic lanes", were transport members of the Olympic Family and athletes from Sochi

International Airport to the Mountain and Coastal Clusters for training, competitions, and

the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. A 24-hour service operated between the three

3

Olympic Villages, as well as internal shuttles within the villages - with more than 50 buses

running between the venues.

Maksim Sokolov, Minister of transport of the Russian Federation praised the work of

transport staff, saying they “demonstrated top class in their work. All of us performed as a

united, well-tuned mechanism, and that’s why we achieved such truly ‘Olympic’ results.”

(Advancing Public Transport, 2014) .

High results were achieved in frame of sustainable development as well. First of all the

region has got well-developed transport network, which linked the most important strategic

objects (for Winter Olympic Games) with tourist destinations. This could be concluded as a

big investment in economy of the region. It is important to point out that all construction of

road networks and railways were made in respect with nature. The Olympic Committee

allocated new infrastructure in the most compact form with minimal damaging of the

natural resources. In this point there were achieved several goals placed in the strategy for

the Winter Olympic Games 2014: harmony with nature was saved, natural parks have not

been damaged, transport system has been modernized according to international standards

(no less than Euro-4).

Snow management

The global warming has been a new challenge for ski resort since few years. They have

less snow than ever before. In Vancouver 2010 during the winter Olympic Games, there was

a lack of snow which disturbed different competitions (Goldenberg, 2010). Therefore, one of

the questions, which had been widely raised before and during the XXII Winter Olympic

games in Sochi, was to know if this time snow conditions would be good enough to perform

all of the competition. It has to be known that Sochi is under a subtropical weather with mild

winters. However, Sochi guaranteed snow for the games. It was the first time that a ski

resort made such a promise (McCarthy, 2013).

In order to keep their promise, they stored 750,000 cubic meters of snow (Pestereva,

2014, p. 804) covered by isothermal blankets made of aluminum and geotextile to keep the

snow from melting. In addition to that, they installed 450 snow cannons with the latest

engineering technology. The cannons have a pumping power of 2,750 cubic meters per hour

4

of high-pressure water (SMI, 2014). The snow produced by the machines is more durable

than the natural one because the spherical shape of the snowflakes makes it shrink slower

(how snowmaking works, 2014). To control the snow production, three computers and two

large monitors have been set up in order to non-stop record weather information.

Moreover, Sochi authorities used salt to transform soft snow into hard snow, for the last

days of the game; without this special salt the Sochi Olympic Games have ended into a

disaster. (Dolnick, 2014)

In summary, new technologies combined together make it now possible to extend the

winter season and help us to slow down the snowmelt in extreme conditions.

Sochi after Olympic

History told organizers of the Olympic Games to be careful: a few month ago, photos of

former Olympic Stadiums of 2004 in Athens shocked the world. Athens became symbol of a

post-Olympic failure. Greece built almost a dozen facilities for the 3 weeks event, ten years

later, most of them are abandoned or vanished. Gary Hustwit, a well-known photographer

and filmmaker, described the stadiums as “a symbolic of the government’s waste” (Stump &

Kim, 2014).

Yet, not all Olympic games finished disinvestments. Lisa Delpy Neirotti, sports manager

professor at George Washington University’s Business School, said to today.com: “the

biggest key to setting up success for a city after an Olympic closing is simply having a plan.”

Barcelona, hosting Summer Olympics in 1992, revitalized the industrial part of the city.

Another successful sequel has been made by Turin, hosting the 2006 Winter Olympic.

Games like the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships helped make Turin of the top

tourist destinations in Italy. The Olympic facilities hosted as well the Italy’s 150th anniversary

of unification in 2011.

Nevertheless, Sochi symbol for the greatest and most expensive Olympics in history, can

as well add a new way of handling this mismanagement of facilities after the games. Most of

the venues are designed for re-use. Three Ice sporting halls will even be dismantled and

completely moved to other destinations. The Iceberg Skating Palace, the Ice Cube Curling

Centre and the Shayba Arena, were all built on demountable purpose and will be rebuilt in

5

another city. They won’t have to forfeit any visitor places and will serve as a whole post-

Olympic sports facilities. Sochi also set milestones in material efficiency: The Fisht Olympic

Stadium’s innovative building material, EFTE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene), is a lightweight

and translucent material. It gives thermal protection but let in a sufficient amount and

quality of natural light for grass to grow inside the arena. After the Olympics, the Fisht

Stadium will be used for Russian and FIFA World Cup Football matches, as well as

entertainment events. The stadium was designed with a flexible capacity, accommodating

crowds of up to 45’000 people or to maintain an intimate atmosphere only 25’000 people.

Implementation to Switzerland

The technologies mentioned in this paper can be applied to Switzerland. Indeed, the

country is facing a problem of lack of snow due to climate change. The ski resorts have

already used snow cannons to fill their ski slopes and they will need to use them more often

in the future. Regarding transports, it will definitely need to increase the debit of trains to

host the Olympic Games and the example of Sochi could perfectly be implemented to

Switzerland. Geneva, Vaud and Valais are thinking about the possibility to apply for the 2026

Games (Oberli, 2014).

Conclusion

In conclusion, they have made huge efforts to be as sustainable as possible. From

economical and social aspects, we think that they have successfully achieved great results by

developing transportations and by informing local people about sustainability. However

from an environmental aspect, it is probably impossible to have a positive balance for such a

large event despite the efforts made. The amount of water used to produce snow and the

numbers of people traveling by plane overcome all the energy saving made by technology.

Therefore, Is it really possible for the Winter Olympic Games to be sustainable?

References(n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2014, from Ecorussia: http://www.ecorussia.info

6

Advancing Public Transport. (2014, June 13). What transport legacy Sochi Winter Olympics.

§Retrieved November 7, 2014, from

www.uitp.org: http://www.uitp.org/what-transport-legacy-sochi-winter-olympics

Dolnick, S. (2014, February 16). Emergency shipment of salt averts olympic crisis. Retrieved November 8, 2014, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/sports/olympics/emergency-shipment-of-salt-averts-olympic-crisis.html?_r=0

Goldenberg, S. (2010, February 10). Canada's mild climate leaves Winter Olympics short of snow. Retrieved November 6, 2014, from www.theguardian.com: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/feb/10/vancouver-lacks-snow

how snowmaking works. (2014, November 7). Retrieved from skirountop.com: http://www.skiroundtop.com/how-snowmaking-works

Kuznetsova, Z. (2014). Origin and formation of the Olympic Winter Games ecologicallegacy. Ministry of Sport of Russian Federation, Department Education of Moscow, Moscow.

Master Concept. (2012, July 31). Greening 2014 Sochi Olympics. Retrieved November 5, 2014, from http://greening-sochi2014.isedc-u.com: http://greening-sochi2014.isedc-u.com/docs/otchety/2012/Kachestvennaia_ocenka_TS_etap_1_ru.pdf

McCarthy, M. (2013, December 19). Winter Olympics in the subtropics: Just add snow. Retrieved November 7, 2014, from www.cnbc.com: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101265386

Oberli, P. (2014, March 8). Genève, Vaud et le Valais veulent les JO. Retrieved November 7, 2014, from www.lematin.ch: http://www.lematin.ch/sports/geneve-vaud-valais-veulent-jo/story/10905765

Pestereva, N. M. (2014). Modern engineering technology to adapt to the adverse weather and climatic conditions at mountain ski resorts. Life Science Journal , 800-804.

Rothlisberger, B., Gollegger, J., & Wieland, G. (2011, May). Transport-infrastructure Tunnels for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi/RU. Retrieved November 6, 2014, from www.tunnel-online.info: http://www.tunnel-online.info/download/375747/2011_05_Verkehrstunnelbauten_fuer_Olympische_Winter.pdf

7

Scaglione, M. (n.d.). Conceptual tension between "Human heritage" and tourism. Sierre.

SMI. (2014, November 7). SMI at Rosa Khutor. Retrieved from snowmakers.com: http://www.snowmakers.com/rosa-khutor.html

Stump, S., & Kim, E. K. (2014, February 22). Today. Retrieved November 7, 2014, from What happens olympic venues after torch goes out: http://www.today.com/sochi/what-happens-olympic-venues-after-torch-goes-out-2D12152101

www.uncsd2012.org. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2014, from www.uncsd2012.org

8