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Continued from page 9 What this enabled us to do was to save the taxpayer a boatload of money. For example, our CBC crew of less than 300 here in Russia, is a mere drop in the bucket com- pared to NBC and the BBC who have more than 2,000 people on the ground. Using all of the technical and production resources in Toronto and Montreal eliminated the need to send all of that personnel. It is significantly cutting operational costs. Much of our equipment was controlled in real time from Canada, a distance of over 8,000 kms. The scale of the Olympic project is massive, but that’s what you get for $52 billion. My six colleagues, all being from Quebec, made for an interesting couple of days early on, as I had to dust off my ability to speak French rapidly. Next I had the task of learning Russian and French at the same time! Those first few days were pretty tough but my group was incredibly patient. Our early days were spent organizing, lifting, moving equipment and wiring venues with cable. Our group was a good mix of personalities. It was a real treat to be a part of such a group of “wily” old veterans, so to speak. Everyone had a keen sense of humour and a rapier like wit. It didn’t take long to realize how close knit we would become. The Sochi “Group of Seven” as we dubbed our- selves, became a raucous bunch, but extremely dedicated to all of our crafts. We became a family very quickly. It was an excellent start to my own personal Olympic expe- rience. This Olympics was different in so many ways from others I’ve experienced. Each of the venues is owned, and Iceberg Skating Palace where most of the skating venues took place at the Olympics. 10 FOCUS - MARCH 2014 have been built by, wealthy individuals. All are own- ers of large corporations in Russia and were “asked” by Vladimir Putin to contribute to the infrastructure costs of the games. Normally the IOC or National Olympic committee would control these venues for security and installation of equipment, but this Olympics, control did not take place until a few days before the Games started. This caused a litany of delays for delivery of equipment and installation. In Sochi however, each venue has their own rules for entering the premises and for exiting the building with tools and equipment. This was made very apparent one evening when we finished installing our equipment at the Long Track Skating Oval. Upon trying to leave with our excess cable and tools we were told it was not possible. Our security officer was what you would consider to be a “western propaganda stereotype” of a Russian guard. Realizing most of our knowledge of Russian was a simple “hello” (privit) and “thank you” (spasibo), the situ- ation looked like it could be a long ending to a long day. Eventually the venue manager was called and we were informed we had not filled out the proper paperwork for entering the venue. So to make a long day short, 90 minutes after filling out the paperwork documenting every screwdriver, soldering iron and connector, we were finally allowed to leave. Truthfully the guard was doing his job but it was a harbinger of what was to come over the next few weeks. Much of the town of Adler was flattened to build these Olympics and thousands were displaced. The scale of this Olympic project is massive. It was started over seven years ago when Russia was awarded the Games. These Olympics are actually in two areas around Sochi - the Mountain Cluster and the Coastal Cluster. The town of Adler, in the Coastal Cluster, is where hockey, figure skating, curling, long and short track skating takes place. The alpine events take place at the ski resort of Rosa Khatour, a short 45 minutes by train up the mountains, in the Mountain Cluster. So what do you get for your $52 bil- lion plus? These Games came with a different cost. Much of the town of Adler was flattened to build these Olympics, parts of large hills were literally moved and thousands of people displaced. From a clean slate, they started to