Back in Business

After a couple of weeks of family matters, this blogger is back and ready for Sochi. Hot off the presses, two new Olympic blogger pins for trade in the Winter Games city. Fingers crossed the friendly customs officials take a shine to both designs.

Today is all about tying up loose ends in Wisconsin before a Saturday flight to Frankfurt. ETA at Sochi is Monday, Feb. 3.

For fellow travelers, be safe and enjoy the commute. For those experiencing the Games from home, enjoy!

See you soon from Sochi!

Images via Lapel Pins Plus from designs by Nicholas Wolaver; blog logo by Emily Albuquerque

Vonn Boyage, er, Bon Voyage

Bummed to learn the news of Olympic Champion Lindsey Vonn bowing out of Sochi pursuits due to injuries. It is sporting of her to open up a U.S. Ski spot for a teammate to trek to Russia next month, though curious she opted to announce via Facebook.

I suspect we may see Ms. Vonn lined up as a commentator or other "live from Sochi" personality (she is, after all, the most decorated American skier in history), but only time will tell. It won't surprise me one bit to read of a Vonn run for PyeongChang 2018 as well.

Here's hoping for an injury-free transition and bon voyage to the next phase of Vonn's career.

Another thing that's bummin' me out is that my 1998 Volvo S70 (a.k.a. P.o.S) is frozen in Indiana. I'm posting today from McDonald's (Worldwide Olympic Sponsor) in West Lafayette, Ind., where the high temp of the last 48 hours was just about zero degrees.

Though appreciative of safe and warm place to stay for a few days, I am growing tired of hotel living and ready to get back to Atlanta. But the car steering column remains locked in place, possibly due to subzero cold, but just as likely a mechanical issue with "the usual" crud timing (it was so cold here yesterday the ignition key slot was frozen shut).

Know anyone in Lafayette who wants to chat about the Games? Give me a call at the EconoLodge!

Stay warm, my friends.

Image via AP Photo by Gero Breloer

To Russia, With Glove(s)

With client projects and holiday deadlines galore, November and December were a wash for free time to blog. Crud!

Lots of big Olympic news headlines of late, notably the selection of initial Team USA competitors and some final preparations for Sochi 2014.

Of course, troubling headlines are also on the brain given recent events in Central Russia.

During Christmas break, time at last arrived to finalize travel plans for the Winter Olympics.

"Are you going to Sochi?" is finally answered: YES!

For those who remain interested, it's not too late to book passage to Russia. Accommodations are available on several cruise ships set to dock at Sochi Port and Adler (with thanks to Tom Burke for the pointers on reservations). Also found an actual hotel available via Hotels.com, though I will be biting my nails until checking-in on 3 Feb that the hotel is there and open for business.

The cruise ship agency includes with their fee the required host documents needed for inclusion in the Russian tourist visa application process (more on that in a few paragraphs).

Flights are not cheap. Fortunately, after banking tens of thousands of SkyMiles, I'll get half-way to Sochi on Delta Air Lines' dime. The second half of the journey will be via Aeroflot from Germany, one of three nations with direct flights to Sochi available for the Games (it pleased me to avoid long layovers and out-of-the-way connecting flights via Moscow). Yahoo! Travel was helpful to locate these direct flight options.

And individual Sochi Olympic tickets remain available via CoSport -- it will be fun to visit Krasnaya Polyana for ski jump (the one ticket purchased so far). Locating a single Opening Ceremony ticket is on my wish list, but the Sochi ticketing process (which includes a new layer of security via the Spectator Pass process -- Meh) will prevent last minute wheeling and dealing like in Beijing.

Now, about that tourist visa for Russia Federation. Whew! I've put in a dozen hours and still the process is a work in progress. There are plenty of (nearly too many) checklist items to keep in mind, and that's just to get the paperwork in an envelope to the embassy (in my case, to a company that helps process the applications). I think only the visa application for China was more detailed, but it will be worth the time investment when arriving at the host city.

With just over 30 days to go, the time is now to get things booked without delay. Here's hoping others who are finalizing their plans will comment and share pointers.

During the booking process, I reflected many times that just 25 years ago a visit to Russia was likened to flying to the moon. It will be great fun to learn the culture in person, and I do wish to visit St. Petersburg, Moscow and other Russia Federation destinations in the future. Sochi will be a good place to start the Russia travel experience.

See you there!

Image via RussiaMap.org

Coming Soon: High Flying Adored

If you didn't yet hear that women's ski jump competition gets its Olympic debut in Sochi, you will.

Count on it.

The P.R. machine for Women's Ski Jumping USA is hitting its stride, and the Salt Lake Tribune's July 6 headline "Women's ski jump team prepping for Olympic media onslaught" was and remains apt.

At the recent Team USA Olympic Media Summit in Park City, Utah, where the women's team lives and trains, dozens of sports and entertainment reporters -- and even a few Olympic bloggers -- flocked to meet the Sochi Olympic hopefuls who are medal stand favorites going into the Games. At times, journalists huddled in rows three or four deep to pose questions, with photographers and TV cameras encircling each young woman.

All the attention is well-deserved. At the media summit, Sarah Hendrickson, Jessica Jerome and Lindsey Van explained their version of events leading to women's ski jump gaining Olympic competition status. It took, after all, several years, legal battles, IOC lobbying and an abundance of perseverance to create the five-ringed opportunity for Team USA and international competitors to jump in Russia during 2014.

To my bewildered eyes, the English language version of the Sochi.ru website still does not (at less than 100 days to the Games) include Women's Ski Jump in the official description of the 2014 ski jump competition.

However, the schedule section does note February 11 as the big day for women's jumping for joy (and gold).

I aim to be among the 7,500+ spectators in the RusSki Gorki venue. From a peek at the Sochi.ru interactive map (screen grab shown), the viewing stands and the jumps are nestled among the tracks for bobsled, luge and skeleton competition, much like the set-up in Park City for 2002. Globally, women's ski jump athlete qualification -- which involves number crunching of FIS World

Cup and Grand Prix results -- continues through January 19, according to the Team USA Media Guide. Here in the USA, the athletes are selected through rankings and results of competitions held Nov. 15 to Jan. 19, with one spot TBD on Dec. 29 at the Olympic Trials.

By my count via the FIS ski jump athlete pages, there are 22 nations who may field women's ski jump entrants from three continents: North America (Canada, USA), Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Poland) and Asia (China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea and Russia).

May the best woman ski faster, lunge higher and land stronger in the Sochi ski jump competition.

Images via Sochi.ru, WSJ-USA and Newscom

See You In Sochi In C Days

One hundred (a.k.a. C) days to Sochi hardly seems possible.

After a challenging year (still in progress) including elder care duties with family and many interesting freelance P.R. client projects, the pre-Games milestone for Russia's Winter Olympiad didn't exactly sneak up on me, but it does enforce some urgency to lock in travel details to get to the host city.

Plans are going alright, though at a Siberian glacial pace. Found a hotel for opening ceremonies eve (and booked it!), and soon my purchase of a state room aboard an Adler-docked cruise ship will be complete. That leaves the Super Bowl Sunday flight (via Frankfurt), ground transportation and a mobile device as the remaining "travel to do's" for Sochi. Happy to report I will be there.

Will you? Who among readers is going to Sochi, and what were the biggest surprises and challenges of your travel planning so far? (I might just send an Olympic blog pin to someone who posts an answer via comments.)

As was the case with Torino in 2006, my brain's been lukewarm to the whole lead up to Sochi. It's surprising the Olympic security story lines did not resonate more in media and conversations of recent months, trumped by the Russian law banter as the "controversy d'Olympiade" drummed with about the same six-months-out timing as human rights for Beijing, security for Athens, homeless rights for Vancouverites, etc.

The good news is that the global public discourse about Russia's policies may emerge as a positive turning point (five, 10 or 20 years from now, hopefully things will be better as a result of recent protests and such). Thank goodness the Games will go on sans boycott.

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend the Team USA Olympic Media Summit in Park City, Utah, to visit with many Sochi Olympic hopefuls and to learn about winter Olympic training underway at many venues across the USA and around the world.

During the next 100 days, I'll strive to post daily some of the athlete photos and stories learned at the Summit, and to delve into Sochi Olympic sponsor activation, observations on Olympic public relations (good or otherwise) and Olympic travel or Sochi Cultural Olympiad items in the news.

I'm most excited to witness the debut of women's Olympic ski jump and the combine male/female team events (ticket leads are appreciated).

The Sochi Olympic Torch Relay now underway is also very interesting as the largest single-nation relay in history, almost taking the flame to the moon and back (they reached the North Pole a few days ago, as I understand it, and the notion of the Torch aglow under the Northern Lights is inspiring).

What do you want to see and learn through this Olympic blog? Share via comments and I'll see what I can do.

C U in Sochi!

Screen grab image via OMEGA Watches; North Pole photo via Sochi.ru

315 and Counting

With just 315 days until the Opening Ceremony for Sochi 2014, today's New York Times featured a full-page photo essay by Moscow-based photographer James Hill.

The online gallery gives a good overview of the upcoming Winter Olympic host city, so sharing it here.

The palm trees remind me of New Orleans.

Photo by James Hill via NYTimes.com

Sochi 2014 in 365



Where will we be one year from today?

For this guy, there's hope of blogging near the banks of the Black Sea, as the waterfront city Sochi beckons for the 2014 Winter Games. The opening ceremony is set for Friday, February 7, 2014, and I will work toward acquiring a seat at Fisht Olympic Stadium.

This time yesterday I was confused -- why did the U.S. Olympic Committee, NBC and other Olympic Movement organizations eagerly declare today (Feb. 6) as the one year to go milestone?

At last, clarity arrived today via the New York Times report noting the XXIIth Winter Olympic Games include some pre-Opening Ceremony competitions that stretch the event to 18 not 16 days. Mark your calendars for NBC's Winter Olympic broadcast launching on this night (Feb. 6) in one year.

Though work hours prevented tuning in live this morning, a TODAY Show segment showcased a good array of Sochi facts and figures. It makes me smile that there are palm trees in Sochi (sort of looks like Savannah, Ga.); with that said, a quick spin of the globe shows Russia's seaside resort is as far north as past Winter Olympic sites Torino, Italy; Nagano, Japan; and even Lake Placid, N.Y. (a few clicks west of Vermont ski resorts). Rest assured, there will be snow.

The U.S.O.C. Road To Sochi site features an array of 2014 details and links to Team USA athletes on deck for next year.

Bring on the Games of Sochi!

Photo via Sochi2014.ru

Mikaela Shiffrin = Crazy Good

Catching up on some New York Times articles this evening, it was fun to read about rising U.S. Ski Team star Mikaela Shiffrin. Bill Pennington's report introducing readers to Shiffrin filled almost two full pages of all the news that's fit to print.

This high school student spent the last few weeks racking up three World Cup victories, earning her, among other accolades, the status of "crazy good" from Olympic Champion Ted Ligety in this post later quoted in the huge Times story.

Scanning Shiffrin's results online, the U.S. Ski Team site includes good video of the recent wins via Universal Sports. It will be fun to see another Mikaela excel on the lead-in to Sochi 2014 -- let's just hope Shiffrin can do it sans "not impressed" distractions of other athletes by the same first name.

Photo via this link by AFP/Samuel Kubani

Talking TOTEM by Cirque du Soleil

When Cirque du Soleil is in town, I'm there. Well, most of the time.

My introduction to the Montreal-based entertainment extravaganza took place under the Grand Chapiteau at Turner Field's parking lots in 1999, when the big top tour of "Dralion" arrived in Atlanta. The Headline Group -- the boutique public relations agency for which I was then a new employee -- worked with Cirque du Soleil from their early 1990s Atlanta debut through the end of that decade, and my boss and mentor managed the local team for "Dralion." Jolly good show.

We missed a 2002-03 tour on a technicality: Edelman acquired The Headline Group, so with THG showing up as "closed" our agency missed the option to pursue the Cirque du Soleil project the one time it was in suburban Cobb County (we also represented a competing entertainment property, so timing did not work).

But the sun did not set for our team as we renewed contact in time for 2005 when "Corteo" arrived at Atlantic Station and our team at Edelman landed this entertainment project. It was great fun working on this dream-inspired tour, and we later enjoyed collaboration for "KOOZA" and "OVO" before "Dralion" returned on an arena tour just a couple of years ago. C'est magnifique!

On my own dime, I experienced the magnificent water-themed "O" in Las Vegas, the arena tour for "Alegria" in Oklahoma City, and Cirque du Soleil's racier "Zumanity" (also in Sin City) in recent years. Each show brings to mind special memories -- though there are similar themes from one tour to another, they are all unique in as many ways. "O" remains the one to beat in my personal scorekeeping for Cirque du Soleil thrills.

It was my good fortune to work on the "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour" earlier this year as a freelance P.R. partner for Cirque du Soleil, and it was bittersweet to learn their selection of another communications counselor for the new big top tour -- "TOTEM" -- now at Atlantic Station through December 30. But the "sweet" part meant that, as in 1999, I could again experience an Atlanta big top stop as a spectator.

"TOTEM" delivers the goods.

In Cirque du Soleil's words from the official program (a beautiful publication), the new tour "traces humankind's incredible journey -- from our original amphibian state to our ultimate quest for flight."

The journey begins with "Crystal Man" (an artist beautifully covered head to toe by thousands of tiny mirrors) descending from the heavens, unveiling turtle shell-inspired staging around which colorful amphibians gaze upon the audience. As these sequin-clad reptiles warm up the crowd, they reveal the carapace as their playground for gymnastic leaps and trampoline bounds. Welcome to Cirque du Soleil!

I loved that the first act quickly moved to a First Nations feature (that's Canadian for Native American). The Hoop Dancer -- U.S. born Eric Hernandez -- delivered an elaborate performance showcasing many skills with five rings (the closest "TOTEM" gets to the Olympics -- though there are Olympians who are part of Cirque du Soleil's other tours, none are part of this tour). Beautiful. And the live band and musicians' many talents really started to shine in support of Hernandez.

The rest of the first act included a blur of amazing: more gymnastics via the Ring Trio (two males and one female dangling from way, way up); five Chinese-born performers who earned a standing ovation for their brass bowl and teapot tossing -- and catching -- on elongated unicycles; and two "Crystal Ladies" (a duo of Belarus beauties with the same surname, Tsodikova) who seemed to arrive from the future to showcase fine foot juggling skills (I made note of their costumes' similarity to outfits donned by Zhora at Taffeys Bar in "Blade Runner" and now feel I have an answer to what Harrison Ford watched in the film's fictional night club scene).

Cirque du Soleil also brought in the clowns -- this time in the form of Italy's answer to Elvis (with horse jockey physique) and a playful introvert with the morose eyes of The Cure's Robert Smith. They each take center stage several times throughout the show, twice in boats which "float" atop a well-executed stage configuration that blends video projection to create water.

A scene in which the evolution of man from monkey to modern office worker played out nicely and with good cheer.

"TOTEM" also included a few scenes that left me, and more than a few fellow audience members, scratching our heads.

I was not sure what to make of the Robert Goulet lookalike and his teammates in the "Perches" performance (their act includes plenty of daring feats, mind you, but it was the least connected scene for the evolution theme). A character named "The Tracker" also was a non-sequitur, as was the Spanish dancer and the Darwin-like "character" who worked to electrify the audience from within a giant beaker. Each of these fell flat, at least for this blogger.

But "TOTEM" included a lovely couple on the Fixed Duo Trapeze (breathtaking and beautiful -- I now have a crush du soleil on the Canadian performer Sarah Tessier) and a welcomed return of the Hoop Dancer with his female partner. And at this point in the second act, when the woman behind me exclaimed, "roller skates!?!" I must admit to some initial apprehension about wheel-clad Native Americans setting up for a spinning dance on an enormous drum -- but they brought down the house (it was spectacular; something I'll tell to my grand kids at a future Cirque du Soleil show).

It was during this latter pair of First Nations performances when I realized the "turtle shell" staging resembled an enormous Dream Catcher aloft in the big top. A lot of good dreams captured in "TOTEM."

I won't write much here about the final act, Russian Bars, which brought the evening's second "from the future" (???) moments. Were they supposed to be amphibians from outer space? Or going to outer space? Still not sure. But then, part of the beauty of Cirque du Soleil is the wiggle room for audience interpretation.

And with that in mind, my take was that this Russkiye act (with the help of Kym Barrett, costume designer extraordinaire) gave us a mini-preview of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic "Look of the Games," if only by coincidence (their costumes are similar to the upcoming winter Olympic outerwear and advertising, with an array of vivid colors and complexity). They are bright, glow in the dark, and they are strong.

Is "TOTEM" a great entertainment experience? Absolutely! Is it worthy of the $43.50 to $153.50 ticket price? Well ... I'll leave that to readers to decide (suggestion: though there is not a bad seat in the house, this show may be better experienced in the price level one or premium seating).

For a second take on "TOTEM" check out the AJC review by Wendell Brock, which provides more than a few apt notes on this tour experience (his colleague Howard Pousner also wrote some great reports about the tour, starting with the January 2012 advance story my team secured via P.R. circles last December).

Looking forward to the next Cirque du Soleil and to "TOTEM" talk with friends. Enjoy the show!

Photos via Cirque du Soleil by OSA Images

Running Across Russia

Just the other day, organizers unveiled the massive route for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay. It's impressive. By the numbers:

• Begins Oct. 7, 2013
• On the road 123 days
• Visiting 2,900 communities
• 14,000 torchbearers
• 65,000 km
• Within a one-hour drive of 130 million potential spectators (90 percent of Russian residents)
• 30,000 volunteers
• Three partners: Coca-Cola, Ingosstrakh Insurance Company and JSC Russian Railways Co.
• This is Coke's ninth Olympic torch relay as presenting sponsor
• According to published reports north of the border, the international space station is one stop on the 2014 Olympic torch relay route.

No word yet on the selection criteria to carry the Olympic torch, but I anticipate nomination process details will be unveiled very soon. Where will you be watching the 2014 Olympic flame?

Photo via Ivan Sekretarev/Associated Press

NBC Loves The Olympics $4.38 Billion Ways

Today in the International Olympic Committee's hometown Lausanne, Switzerland, I suspect several fishermen cast their lines from the northern banks of Lake Geneva.

But NBCUniversal landed the catch of the day -- and the next four Olympiads -- securing the 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games' U.S. broadcast rights for a staggering $4.38 billion, according to published reports.

I once paid $4.38 for a Coca-Cola beverage in Lausanne, so maybe something in the water there gets people spending money.

The Los Angeles Times ran an interesting video and print report highlighting the NBCUniversal bid and the IOC. Though I was looking forward to a potential change up from NBC's "storytelling" from the Games (as noted in previous Olympic blog post), there is some comfort knowing that Bob Costas may be at the helm at the Games for another decade.

With Fox bidding, I shuttered to think of Bill O'Reilly spewing Olympic "commentary" for even a second.

Photo via Wikipedia

Jumping For Joy

Delighted to read in The New York Times and USA Today that women's ski jumping will debut as an Olympic sport at Sochi 2014. Ski jump is one athletic feat that always intrigued me, but never enough to drop fund for an Olympic ski jump ticket. I plan to check it out when we get to Russia in three years. Photo via The Ski Channel website

Sochi Mascot Competition

Across the world in Sochi, organizers of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games kicked off a mascot competition with a public selection process involving 11 finalist mascots.

Scanning the choices on Fourth Place Medal and RIA Novosti, I quickly narrowed the field with three Nick picks.

First, take out all of the animals. The bears (one is too similar to the 1980 Moscow Olympic mascot, Misha), the leopard, the too-close-to-Twitter-mascot bird, etc., all seem too silly and too difficult to replicate as a body-suit costume.

Next, take out the foursome of Russian dolls (too many mascots clutter the field).

This leaves Father Frost (St. Nick of Russia ... for some reason, a Saint Nicholas Olympic mascot has a nice ring to it), the Snow Flake girl and Fire Boy.

Earlier today, the first time I saw the renderings, these last two options (the girl and boy) appeared as a pair, and they seemed decent as a duo. Too bad I have just one ballot.

Photos via Novosti

Hitting the Olympic Wall

It happens every Games. Its nickname: The Wall

And it's a bummer! Lots of it going around, sadly.

"The Wall" of the Olympic world is, of course, sheer Games fatigue that sets in after one's second or third week of nights with fewer than four hours of sleep.

This is the antithesis of "Olympic Fever" when folks who are otherwise Olympic fanatics start to pick mundane activities such as laundry or household chores as "a welcome break" from Olympic activities.

What is sad is that, in a few weeks or months (or even years), looking back at the Games, many will kick themselves asking "why was I worried about laundry when I could have been at an Olympic event?!"

For the first-timers enjoying their premiere Olympics, a.k.a rookies, "The Wall" during Vancouver (and past Games) started to show up in conversations around February 17-18.

Sophomore class Wall conversations in VanCity started popping up on February 20-21.

Senior class wall (for those at their third, fourth or more Games) is dropping in right about now (Feb. 24). And tomorrow brings "the final stretch" to the Closing for everyone (for the brave veterans, could mean little or no sleep for 2-3 days to tap the Games for every last bit of fun).

It's a marathon, not a sprint. Bell lap comes around on Saturday.

Two "walls" for me this Games struck thus far ... first, I hit a brick wall when my laptop crashed last Friday, costing me about three hours of precious work. The second wall came yesterday, after about the third instance of slapping myself across the face to stay awake! I also sold a couple of tickets to figure skating on the street, and accidentally left my Feb. 24 speedskating ticket in the envelope handed to a complete stranger (a $200 mistake -- DOH!)

Fortunately last night I got a few more hours of rest. Today was OK. But the rain makes me tired. Can hardly believe this time next week I'll be back in Atlanta, and a week after that in Dallas and Oklahoma City!

Lots of very, very cool experiences have not yet been written for the blog. I hope there won't be another "wall" and to post the interviews with Carl Lewis, Kristi Yamaguchi, B.C. Premiere Gordon Campbell (press conference) and visits to hotspots including USA House, Visit Britain's media night, the B.C. to Sochi mayor's handover presser, speedskating, pin trading, condo dwelling and new friends made.

Here are a few activities that are highly recommended for the home stretch:

-- Check out the Swiss House on Granville Island.

-- Pop into the Panasonic pavilion at LiveCity Yaletown (both the pavilion and LiveCity are clients of Edelman, the P.R. firm where I work). Be certain to view the video of Sarah Brightman created just for the Vancouver Games.

-- Head over to False Creek for the very fun Saskatchewan House (a pleasant, very laid back pavilion that had some great home-province musicians and one of my favorite Olympic pins for the Games).

-- Find a way into Sochi House, the preview pavilion for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. I really hope to get there (the only "access denied" venue for yours truly at the Vancouver Games ... but I will get in!).

-- Walk around B.C. Place to view the Olympic-colored lights installed around the base of the inflated dome (a nice touch).

-- Count the Canada flags on the high rise apartment buildings. On one tower alone near Yaletown and the Marina, there are more than 30 Maple Leaf emblems on display.

-- Take the bus through East Vancouver to the Pacific Coliseum, and be sure to view the statue celebrating the two runners who completed the perfect mile in the same race.

-- Snap some photos of the Allstate U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame chalk artwork, visible from the corner windows of USA House (on Seymour across the street from Irish House).

Hoping to make it to one of the mountain events on Saturday. Tickets, anyone?

Thank you for reading the blog.

Sochi2014.ru Afterthoughts

The more I've reflected on it during recent days, the more the new Sochi2014.ru logo is growing on me.

But also, it still troubles me. Here's ... the .RUb:

While the logo is original and "a first" to incorporate the organizing committee's URL into its official mark, this logo may also prove to be "the first" that -- in the future -- will cause Olympic historians and anyone to look at the Sochi logo with a smirk of "What were they thinking?"

Why?

From my view, with the fast pace of the Internet changing and being constantly reinvented --taking only months, weeks, days or hours for something/anything online to become "outdated" -- the Sochi2014.ru mark puts a neon sign on their Games for thinking short-term marketing over long-term staying power (will the URL even function come 2016?).

In other words, I think it's logical that in 10 years (or fewer?), the Internet will have changed to the point where ".ru" or ".com" or ".gov" (or any similar nomenclature for a Web address) will be extinct, leaving future generations to gaze upon Sochi2014.ru and scratch their heads with wonder "what is the purpose of .ru? What does '.ru' mean?"

Oh, bother. It's likely the International Olympic Committee, Russian Federation and Russian Olympic Committee -- as well as the Sochi 2014 Olympic officials -- considered all of the potential T.ruth or Consequences of their decision.

Sochi, .RU Kidding Me?

Late yesterday I heard that the Sochi 2014 Olympic office planned to unveil their new official logo today, delayed by recent news events in Russia.

A few minutes ago I found the new Olympic logo news online, and my brain is still processing Sochi2014.ru (that's it!).

Knee-jerk initial reaction: Not crazy about this logo design, which for the first time is simply a custom font with the URL for the organizing committee. Unlike the clever "intercrossed C's" for Calgary 1988, the Northern Lights-inspired look for Lillehammer's 1994 logo, or the detailed skyline/snowflake for Salt Lake 2002, the Sochi 2014 Olympic logo does not really stir the soul.

According to the Associated Press ...

" ... The word 'sochi.ru' appears above the number '2014' in an apparent reflection, symbolizing the southern city's water-based location on the Black Sea ... Interbrand produced the logo, which was subsequently approved in a series of national and international surveys, [officials] said. [Officials] said the new logo would help break Western stereotypes of a Russia stuck in the past, instead promoting the country as a dynamic and modern nation capable of reaching out to new audiences in a digital age."

Borrowing a phrase from an English:Russian translation site: Ya ne paneemau.

It may take some time, and reading a few hundred pages of "Dr. Zhivago," to help me respond "da" to the new Sochi 2014 logo, but I'm sure in time my five-ringed brain will come to terms with the [dot] .ru - infused logo, and eventually the Sochi 2014 typeface will get added to favorite fonts.

I do like the video for the new logo, and encourage folks to view it in Russian or English. The views of the Black Sea and snow-capped Russian mountains are inspiring.

In honor of the new logo, I'll send a Moscow 1980 Olympic pin to the first international reader of this blog who posts a comment with their views on this new Sochi 2014 logo. Thanks/спасибо for reading!

With a name like Smucker's ...

... it had to be good.

And it was, er, they were -- the interviews with 2006 Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen and 1998 Olympic gold medalist Ilia Kulik, that is.

Both skaters are now touring with Smucker's Stars On Ice, which stopped by Atlanta's Philips Arena on Wednesday (the tour continues with several dates through April 11).

I'll let the videos and Cohen/Kulik speak for themselves -- both Olympians were helpful and direct with their answers on camera, and cordial off-camera. The biggest surprise: Cohen apparently is an AC/DC fan, given her T-shirt and lip-synching to a couple of the band's tunes during a pre-event warm-up session.

The main question for Sasha -- what's up regarding Vancouver 2010? For Kulik: His involvement with Sochi and the 2014 Winter Games preparation to date, as well as future plans for getting in the mix for Russia's first Winter Olympics.

Many thanks to the tour and venue publicists for their help and time to accomodate the interview requests.

And if you were one to "Elf Yourself" a few holiday seasons back, you might enjoy transforming your headshot photos and friends into Stars On Ice skaters.

That Is So Sochi!

As noted in previous Sunday Gymnastics post, that day was on track to become "best day ever" by noon. The later hours of the day proved to be fantastic!

On the way back to the B.C. Canada Pavilion from the Olympic Green, the skies opened up on Beijing. Big, fat rain! This was a welcome relief from the heat. But the torrential downpour filled the metro station by the pavilion with three inches of standing water in the entryway, where a nice local lady sold me an umbrella that survived for about an hour (made in Taiwan?).

My Edelman colleagues Lorraine and Andrew stopped by for a visit to the pavilion just before many of our Canada colleagues and I embarked for a drenched evening at The Russia House, a spectacular party pavilion that spans several blocks of lakeside property and hutongs.

Sunday night's Russia House party theme was a Vancouver 2010/Sochi 2014 celebration, toasting the 2010 Winter Games and the recently confirmed 2014 Winter Olympic site, Sochi, Russia, which is on the banks of the Black Sea (coincidence they rented a lakeside space here, perhaps).

Oh, man! What an amazing event!

At every turn there was a VIVIP! Jean Claude Killy (yes, that Jean Claude Killy), Vitaly Smirnov and other IOC Members to Japan, Korea and many other nations all spotted on site. Also, Dr. Liston Bochette, former Atlanta Olympic international relations head Charlie Battle (a fellow Atlantan) and about every Russian news organization and several of Russia's gold medal athletes were a buzz. Russian beer and watermelon-infused vodka mojitos contributed to the good times had by all.

The event provided a great introduction to Sochi and what will certainly be an outstanding future Olympiad. Gonna have to ease up on the mojitos the next time we visit Russia House.