This is ridiculous. The threats of being blown up by a terrorist are orders of magnitude less than, say, getting run over by one of Russia’s notoriously bad drivers. It’s reasoning like this that causes the U.S. to spend billions in the Middle East while letting a bridge fall down at home. How many people died in Munich? 17, including the attackers. The worst Olympic-related violence in history. People just have no grasp of reasonable risk assessment.
Possibly. Who knows? I’ve heard that there have been assurances that the Olympians and press figures won’t be bothered, but they all have the undertone of ‘if they behave themselves’, so I’m not sure how that will go.
NBC is sending Johnny Weir to do commentating on the figure skating. Anyone want to start a pool on how long it takes him to get deported? Might be an interesting case. Figure skating is big in Russia, and he is – or possibly was – one of their favorite foreigners. On the other hand, going over with the protection of network television is not quite the same as going over with the backing of the State Department.
I wouldn’t personally take the trip, even if all expenses were paid, but that’s mainly because there are few things I’d want to watch, and all of them come across much better on TV. The crowds and bureaucracy wouldn’t be worth it. Plus I’m told that Sochi is not a particularly impressive bit of the country. I’d be much more tempted if it were somewhere like Moscow.
If anything, Sochi will probably be one of the safest places in the world, during the Games–not only in terms of terrorism, but in terms of “regular” street crime (the upcoming World Cup in Brazil will be way more dangerous in that sense–although, of course, your personal chances of having anything happen to you will be negligible).
Just to repeat the analogy: after all is said and done, Atlanta Games of '96 would probably be considered more dangerous Games, than this ones.
But reading some of the absolutely hysterical fears in this thread just leaves the impression that even coming within 1,000 miles radius of Sochi puts one in immediate and grave danger.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about–sheer, mindless paranoia.
Johnny Weir (whoever he is) is not getting deported. He’s also not getting arrested, tortured, sent to GULAG, or sentenced to death.
But we definitely should start the pool. After Johnny Weir (whoever he is) is back in the US, someone should shoot a documentary about Johnny Weir’s (whoever he is) resolute and steady courage in visiting **the most dangerous Olympics ever, where no one in their right mind would ever go, even on a all-expenses paid trip. **
I honour your fairness and generosity and readiness to be open to new experiences. I fear that there are things in life – including sports – which I find so bore me to tears, that (even in the company of a knowledgeable companion / mentor) I simply would not touch them with a bargepole. And I would find it most horribly frustrating to be in a venue which for me was interesting in its own right; but in which I had to spend most of my time as a “captive”, watching stuff which utterly bored me.
I’m assuming that for the purposes of the OP, it would be reckoned cheating – and thus disallowed – to accept the all-expenses-paid trip to Sochi, and then absent oneself from the Games and spend the whole time goofing off exploring the area’s other attractions.
I once went to the Superbowl with the company I worked for, enjoyed the hell out of the hotel room, sold the tickets to the game and roamed around New Orleans for the day. mMMmm beignets and coffee, and live jazz buskers 
I like sports. I like adventures. I like travel. I wouldn’t attend the Winter Olympics if you paid me.
Since this is a blunt insult, right after being warned, you’ve shown you don’t really care to be here. You get your wish.
Weir is a figure skater who is infamous mainly for being very blatantly, publicly gay (intentionally, he thinks playing to some of the stereotypes is fun), but refusing to answer any questions about his sexuality on the grounds that they were rude and had nothing to do with skating. He was hounded about “coming out” for years before he finally did so explicitly in a memoir after his second Olympics. He’s now a rather vocal part of the GLBT community who has expressed, in so many words, a willingness to get himself arrested on behalf of the GLBT community in Russia, if it comes to that. The penalty for non-Russian citizens for breaking the law against propaganda et al is arrest, detention for up to 15 days, and deportation. Last I checked, he wasn’t even positive they’d give him a visa anymore.
I really have never had any interest in Winter Olympics. These seem especially uninteresting. I just now as of this post know of the terrorist threat, so I especially especially don’t want to go. Plus, crowds, cold, etc.
Amusingly enough, Sochi isn’t even that cold. Temps are predicted to be in the 50s (F) next week, and their coldest day of 2013 was 23F. Half the USA gets colder than that.
I woke up today to temperatures of -4F / -20C. Given my current mindset, there is no way in hell I would travel to the other side of the planet to watch people willingly go out and recreate in snow and/or ice.
As noted above, I don’t give two hoots about the winter olympics, but Mr. Weir is wholly admirable in this. If he gets arrested, I hope our State Department goes to the wall for him.
The city of Sochi is on the Black Sea, so it’s weather is moderate. The ski hills where the outdoor events are held are 30 or 40 miles away in the mountains and it is much colder. All reports say that snow conditions are fine for all events. It is like if the Olympics were held in Denver. It can easily be 60° in February (hell, it was 63° two days ago) but go 40 miles to the west and it’s a totally different story.
I noticed that the other day and thought about pointing it out. People were saying they didn’t want to be out the freezing cold like it was Moscow or something but being next to the Black Sea made me google up “Sochi weather” and it’s not that bad.
Interestingly, I have had the experience of having the Olympics in my home state (or province) – twice. The Summer Olympics, to be sure. In 1976 I was living in Montreal and in 1984, purely by coincidence, I was living in Los Angeles. Both times I had a great experience attending events, and just generally caught up in the whole thing. So yes, I’d go to Sochi.
Regarding the whole sports fan thing. I’m not a sports fan – I’m an Olympics fan. They’re not quite the same thing.
You and like-minded people who haven’t been keeping track might also like to know that Brian Boitano, Billie Jean King, and Caitlin Cahow are all going as part of the official US delegation which will be attending in lieu of the POTUS, who has politely declined to go. I don’t specifically know about King and Cahow, but Boitano (also a figure skater, won gold in 1988) has also gone on record as being willing to engage in some good old fashioned civil disobedience if necessary. The three of them will have the backing of the State Department and as such I suspect will remain unmolested as long as they don’t go out of their way to make trouble, but their presence alone rather makes the point.
[/hijack]
not just no, but hell no.
even the athletes are telling family members to stay home.
Depends…how much of my time do I have to spend at the actual games? I don’t mind the cold and would love to visit Russia, but I don’t have much interest in the Olympics. (There are certain sports I enjoy, but since I don’t know enough about winter events to have any appreciation for what’s involved, it’s basically just watching one guy almost die 0.2 seconds faster than the other one. And, y’know, curling.)
To put a figure on it — if I can bail after two hours at the games each day, I’d take that offer; any more, and I’ll [del]watch[/del] ignore them from the comforts of home.
I was aware that King and Boitano were given these positions. I was not aware of Boitano’s statements that you refer to above. I sincerely hope this blossoms into a beautiful international incident.
I didn’t follow Caitlin Cahow during her playing days (again with the ice thing), but I’m sure she did a hell of a job.