Time for a sojourn to Sochi

The Olympics is coming up, but this time it's the cold kind.

Back in Mid-August 2012 the highly successful London Olympics was coming to a close. The event, at much a surprise to many, went off without so much as a hitch. The natural pessimism of the British public was sworn off to welcome the world to her shores in the promise of a good time, even the lovably cynical Londoners relented in there ways. This could not be more in contrast to the controversies and problems surrounding the Sochi games in Russia.

Issues with culling stray dogs and worries over the safety of the course have been just a few of the problems that have been raised before the Olympics officially gets underway on Friday, but the overarching issue that remains in Russia is their controversial "anti-gay" legislation introduced in 2013.

Without wanting to get into a debate over the validity of such a law in Russia, the question of the IOC decision to host such an event in a country that would allow such intolerance has to be questioned. The Olympics official website cites "Olympism" as a philosophy of life and balance to be followed without discrimination of any kind, a point that seems somewhat hollow given the present circumstances.

To play Devil's advocate at this time it must be mentioned that the decision to award Russia these games was made in 2007, a full six years before the new law came into creation and moving the games at such short notice (even to the previous Olympic location in Vancouver) was realistically unfeasible. 

All that really can be said at this time is that it will be interesting to watch how the Sochi Olympics unfurls. Will the "spirit" of the Olympics take hold of the Russian people as it did the Brits before them? Will some brave soul take an active stand against these Russian laws against the advice of the IOC? I guess we will have to wait and see. What we can say is that if something serious does occur at these games then attention will swiftly turn to FIFA who have awarded the country the 2018 world cup, as an organisation that does have time to make some changes.

Anyways, this was actually quite fun to write. Best of luck to all the athletes competing in Sochi this year, especially the gay athletes, you go and show them what you can do and just remember I think your fabulous! ...Especially the Norwegian Curling team, those suits man.

Until Then.