# Stop Giving Major Sporting Events to AWful or Incapable Countries **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 4, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497 "2014-02-04T17:35:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/81 "2014-02-06T15:18:29Z")
Lots of dead contractors over the next few months. Lots of blame placed on gay furriners. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/82 "2014-02-06T15:21:04Z")
> [@Reyemile](#): > > Not true. From your own cite: Also from that cite: > [@](#): > > 35% of men report at least some degree of likelihood of raping if they could be assured they wouldn’t be caught or punished. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/83 "2014-02-06T15:21:33Z")
It seems to me that the host nation should be able to: - Provide adequate numbers of hotel rooms with basic levels of comfort and sanitation, including toilets that allow for flushing of toilet paper, and public restrooms where you aren’t going to drop a deuce with no partition separating you from someone else doing the same, drinkable tap water, etc. - Provide an environment free from fear of terrorists - Have enough control of cyberspace so that visitors’ devices are not virtually all hacked within minutes of arrival. - Have freedom of expression, religion, and sexual preference. If you can’t do all of the above, you shouldn’t be awarded the games. Russia is a repressed third world dictatorship. The Chinese are no better on human rights, but at least they could build hotel rooms. Burning question of the moment- when Putin declares the games open, will he be shirtless? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/84 "2014-02-06T15:40:15Z")
Second burning question - When Putin declares the games open, will the grandstands fall down? ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/85 "2014-02-06T15:43:06Z")
The hacking story was a bit of FUD. > [@The Register](#): > > For a start, the coffee-break hacking of the smartphone wasn’t uninitiated, he said, meaning the user had to actively download unknown software. Wilhoit said the attack was an .apk dropped from browsing to a .RU Sochi-themed website that the user had to agree to install. > > As for the computers, Wilhoit recounts that they were fresh out of the box and appear to have been put online with no attempt to download the latest OS updates, no security software of any kind, and unpatched versions of Java, Flash, Adobe PDF Reader, and Microsoft Office 2007. > > Given the testing methodology, if you tried that sort of stunt in any Starbucks in the US you’d get similar results, but Wilhoit promised a full technical report on the incident by Friday. The story from [The Register](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/05/forget_skijumping_russian_hackers_setting_records_in_sochi_visitor_hacking/) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/86 "2014-02-06T15:52:28Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Second burning question - When Putin declares the games open, will the grandstands fall down? Only if he tells them to. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/87 "2014-02-06T15:57:23Z")
The thing is even if the games go off flawlessly, with a spectacular opening ceremony, exciting events and an American victory in the men’s ice hockey championship followed by a terrific closing ceremony, it will still be a fiasco on which the Russian people spent approximately _fifty billion dollars_. The Chinese spent a vast fortune on the Beijing Games and it wasn’t nearly that much and the Summer Games involve many more events and participants than the Winter Games. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/88 "2014-02-06T16:06:44Z")
They’ve gotten so expensive I’m thinking why not have a permanent host city? Once the facilities are in place, you can just tweak the system between games. Plus the records could all be set on the same courses so you might compare say a 2020 marathon with a 2056 marathon and have it mean something. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/89 "2014-02-06T16:22:05Z")
Do we know that the problems we hear about all common in Sochi or are there only a few hotels with problems and they are being overblown? I know I’ve seen that same image of yellow water in a glass something like a dozen times, the same guy talking about how he doesn’t have water and the same reporter gasping in shock that even the quarters for journalists aren’t finished (Can you believe it? Even reporters are being inconvienenced!) There may be a lot of problems in Sochi but if there are, I have to wonder why the media keeps using the same footage and the same text over and over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/90 "2014-02-06T17:29:30Z")
This is not _The Onion_: > [@](#): > > Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, reflected the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi’s big debut out of bias against Russia. “We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day,” he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/91 "2014-02-06T17:35:21Z")
Well, it’s Russia. Maybe there really are surveillance cameras in the showers. ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/92 "2014-02-06T18:26:03Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, it’s Russia. Maybe there really are surveillance cameras in the showers. [SPYvsSPY] It’s true that there are cameras hidden in the showers. The NSA has footage of the contractors installing them. [\SPYvsSPY] ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/93 "2014-02-06T18:34:50Z")
Afriad Brasil’s WC looks like quite a mess as well at the moment. And then the Olympics :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/94 "2014-02-06T20:28:36Z")
I’m sure that there are problems in Sochi, and probably more than in previous Olympics. But some of the pictures that have gone viral of the problems are fake. [Here’s a page with eight of them](http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/8-viral-sochi-olympics-photos-that-are-total-lies-1517429839/@sarah-hedgecock). I do think that it was ridiculous to give the Winter Games to Sochi, it sounds like its climate would be better suited for the Summer Games. And I believe most or all Olympics go over budget, but Sochi has far surpassed any previous games in wild spending. But I do think that some of the problems are overhyped, like they’ve sometimes been for previous Olympics. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/95 "2014-02-06T20:31:49Z")
The only one of those photos that I fell for was the communal toilet. And that was one of the most “meh” for me. Grown-up athletes who have probably been showering and in close quarters with their teammates for years should probably be able to get over it. After all, they caption says that pictures is actually in Russia…at a university. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/96 "2014-02-06T20:49:09Z")
Here’s a [report](http://grantland.com/the-triangle/just-how-bad-is-the-scene-in-sochi/) on the conditions from Katie Baker from Grantland, who is there. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/97 "2014-02-06T20:50:49Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > This is not _The Onion_: > > > [@](#): > > > > Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, reflected the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi’s big debut out of bias against Russia. “We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day,” he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. I think that quote came from this article in the Wall Street Journal. It mentions that the venues and the accommodations for the athletes and the officials were finished months ago. It quotes a couple of American athletes who had only minor complaints about the rooms (lack of soap in the bathroom, lack of closet space, etc). The article said that what’s delayed are the hotels for the foreign media. Somehow I’m not surprised that people who may have grown up in a society without a free press wouldn’t have thought that they needed to provide facilities for the media. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/98 "2014-02-06T23:55:06Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > They’ve gotten so expensive I’m thinking why not have a permanent host city? Once the facilities are in place, you can just tweak the system between games. Plus the records could all be set on the same courses so you might compare say a 2020 marathon with a 2056 marathon and have it mean something. mrAru pointed out that Canada hasn’t pissed off anybody that he knows of, and he pointed out that Calgary is perfect, it has infrastructure in place, an international airport, suitable for winter sports and with a few additions you could hold the summer sports there as well. It has hotels, and shopping, and food, and friendly people. They are already accustomed to dealing with large events _cough_ stampede_cough_ ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/99 "2014-02-07T00:09:20Z")
I think my country, the Philippines, is getting ready to host the Olympics. The start of college classes have been moved from June to August. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/100 "2014-02-07T00:39:07Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I’m sure that there are problems in Sochi, and probably more than in previous Olympics. But some of the pictures that have gone viral of the problems are fake. [Here’s a page with eight of them](http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/8-viral-sochi-olympics-photos-that-are-total-lies-1517429839/@sarah-hedgecock). Yeah, none of the pictures I’ve seen are those. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497.md?page=6)