There was a time when I thought it would be fun to be a sports journalist and get to cover the Olympics. Not today. The stories, and again, more importantly, the pictures, coming out of Sochi are truly disgusting. (The bright yellow water? The buckets for toilet paper? Ick, ick and double ick.) Examples here and here.
I can't help but wonder what Vladimir Putin is thinking right now. These games have been described as his personal "baby", a source of prestige and glory with the whole world watching, at a cost of $51 billion worth of Russian treasure, not all of which has been properly accounted for. Is he even aware of what a mess things are? How narrow is his bubble? Does he have any sense of how this looks from the outside? (And if so, does he care? Possibly not.) Plus, it's fun to joke about toilet paper and missing lightbulbs, but I saw a tweet that raises a more serious concern: If the Russians are so inept they can't get light bulbs for every light fixture and shower curtains for every shower, how do we know the ski jumps are safe?
Finally, at least for now, is it a good thing or a bad thing that the hotel problems of reporters are diverting attention from security at the games? Still thinking about that...
More: an interesting take on the Russian psyche. I'm hugely curious about how all this is playing in Russia, especially inside Putin's head. His Olympics are being mocked on a global scale because his people can't make the toilets work and the water run clear. The fallout may not be pretty.
And on that note, for better or worse, let the games begin!
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