Pravda says that Team Canada was on PEDs

[Stocky]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

But it looks like they'll be walking around in shirtsleeves in the town itself.

I think they call it the Riviera of Russia, or The Monte Carlo of Russia or something like that. I think it will be great, weather permitting. I would actually like to go, and may. I got hooked on the Olympics in '88. For me they are magic. I wish they rotated between CGY and VCR. lol.

[RoadGame]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

other "sub tropical" cities in the world include Atlanta and Santiago, Chile.

Have you ever been to Santiago? It's really close to an impressive mountain range.

The nearest ski hill is 39km away and they claim to receive 5 meters of snow a year.

http://www.chileanski.com/eng/el-colorado/

There are lots of other ski resorts in Chile, too. The Andes are pretty impressive mountains. Aside from the low television draw of having winter games in the southern hemisphere, I would love to see New Zealand, Argentina and Chile each host them at some point.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Stocky

I am surprised you have met so many unless you speak Russian. I have only met one group of Russians who spoke English around me (in Whistler), but they liked hockey and vodka, as did I, so I thought they were great.

I don't speak Russian, I'm basing my opinion on my experiences in Torino at the games in 06 largely as their was a massive Russian contingent. I've had similar expereinces in other travels though, maybe just bad luck.

[RoadGame]

Some info on the Sochi mountain venues:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnay...lympics_venues

http://sochi2014.com/en/objects/mountain/

http://www.rosaski.com/p130/p150/ <- the ski venue, under construction but geographically adjacent to:

http://www.alpikaservice.ru/i_veb_kamera/ "Alpika Service" ski resort (near as I can tell). They have a webcam on this one, too.

A russian tourism blog entry on Alpika Service: http://www.sochi-travel.info/article...lpika-service/

If anyone here reads Russian they might be able to glean some more from some of these pages.