MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2014 SPORTS Drama, anger and concrete as ski jump complex is built ROSA KHUTOR: When ski jumpers arrived year and be finished in September 2011,” he for an international event at Russia’s new told Reuters. “I said this is impossible, Olympic hill complex in December 2012, because no matter how many workers you they found a construction site. put on a ski jump, they can’t work shoulder “Sochi was very interesting because to shoulder ... you need to do things in the there was no snow, just a lot of mud and right sequence.” dirt ... we only jumped on the normal hill Amid increasing construction delays and because the big hill was not ready with the embarrassing prospect the jumps snow,” Austria’s Gregor Schlierenzauer might not be ready in time, Sberbank recalled in an interview with Reuters. bought out Bilalov’s interests in 2012. The RusSki Gorki jumps in the moun- Any doubts the jumps were in serious tains above Sochi should have been trouble vanished on Feb. 7, 2013, when straightforward to build yet turned into the President Vladimir Putin paid a visit. Putin, most complex of all the projects at the whose legacy depends on staging a suc- Olympics, which are expected to have cost cessful Games, glowered as nervous offi- Russia more than $50 billion. Initially prom- cials revealed the project was two and a ised for 2011, the jumps were finished two half years late and the budget had rocketed years late and went almost seven times from 1.2 billion roubles ($34 million) to 8 over budget as engineers realised the site billion. “1.2 billion turned into 8 billion? Well was highly unstable. done. You’re working well,” he said sarcasti- Two firms tried and failed to complete cally. Bilalov was fired from his Olympic the task and in 2012, Russia’s largest bank, committee position the next day and later Sberbank, stepped in. “Everyone knew that fled Russia, saying he had been poisoned. the project was suffering from significant delays and certain problems,” said Stanislav CONCRETE AND WATER Kuznetsov, deputy chairman of the board at The project he helped build will not win Sberbank. “The geology and the soil condi- any prizes for architectural beauty. tions are complicated. We as builders expe- Designers of ski jumps usually try to tuck rienced enormous difficulties during the them into hills to take advantage of the nat- construction,” he told reporters. Engineers ural contours but the RusSki Gorki complex eventually had to sink 3,600 iron piles 24 juts out from an artificial base. “There was metres into the ground and then drown the no bedrock found in the area when con- site in concrete. So what went wrong? struction started (so) all of the hill had to be elevated above the unstable terrain. The PUTIN STEPS IN amount of concrete poured into the ground KRASNAYA POLYANA: Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud makes a jump to win the gold medal in the men’s super-G at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. — AP One man who knows is Norwegian is enormous,” said Nikolai Petrov, competi- expert Torgeir Nordby, who was hired by a tion manager for the ski jumping and local company in 2006 - even before Sochi Nordic Combined events. Jansrud plunders more gold won the Games - to advise them where to “It would be fair to say that two thirds of put a hill in the mountains. Nordby, who is the venue is under the ground. This was still a consultant to the complex, scouted necessary to stabilise the area.” ROSA KHUTOR: Special qualities are required to we have one and it’s a gold medal. Kjetil has works very hard, very professional coaches the area and pointed out a spot which Nordby says a complicating factor was join the elite ranks of the so-called ‘Attacking done a great job at the Olympic Games.” working 24 hours, a great technician. It’s not a would be ideal to minimise the winds that the decision to make the Nordic Combined Vikings’ and Kjetil Jansrud revealed them in Svindal was the man expected to lead the coincidence.” so bedevil the sport. cross-country course an integral part of the abundance to plunder more gold for Norway in Norwegian assault in Sochi after winning three While Kjus, Jansrud’s idol, paved the way for The firm started construction work but jumping complex. This meant more con- a gripping men’s Olympic super-G race yester- medals in Vancouver but has had his thunder Norway to become a force in Alpine skiing and quickly found out their exploratory probe struction and more concrete to keep the day. Just as Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Lasse Kjus, stolen by Jansrud. the Nordic disciplines it dominates with an had failed to spot an underground creek site stable. the original members, and Aksel Lund Svindal Olympic gold in Lillehammer in 1994, the coun- running right beneath the proposed site. There are still challenges with under- had done before him, the bearded 28-year-old LOWER SECTION try’s latest speed merchant said Svindal drove “Probably this survey ... could have been ground water, which can be seen draining raider from Stavanger risked all as he hurtled Veteran Bode Miller was looking a likely win- him on. more thorough,” Nordby said dryly. They through metal pipes that pierce thick con- down a treacherous mountainside to claim ner down at the bottom when Jansrud, wearing “He’s such a great athlete and he’s been moved the planned location of the jumps crete supportive walls on the road up to the Olympic glory. bib No. 21., attacked, piling on the speed in the dominating for the last two years,” he said. “He’s slightly, only to realise the soil in the area complex. Asked whether the jumps are in Norway have now won five of the eight gold lower section of the course to slice half a second the one I fight with in training. First I’m faster, was so soft they would need to stabilise it. the right place, Nordby answered: “That’s a medals awarded in Olympic super-G, an often off the American’s time. “I didn’t have the best then he’s faster and we always try to push each The first firm quit the project and was good question.” unpredictable event producing the speeds of start but from 30 seconds down to the finish I other. replaced by a company run by Akhmed The normal and large hills are built to downhill but with white-knuckle turns thrown just risked it,” Jansrud told reporters. “Somehow when we come to the Olympics in just to make things a little more interesting. “Super-G is a really difficult race. You just get we end up on the (super-G) podium and that’s Bilalov, a vice president of the Russian modern standards and feature such innova- Jansrud got the taste for Rosa Khutor’s ter- a one-hour inspection and then have to roll at impossible to describe.” Jansrud may not be fin- Olympic Committee. tions as an automatic wind net designed to rain in last week’s downhill when he earned a it. It’s tough but I can’t say it’s too tough today ished yet either and is already looking at next Nordby — who has been on the deflect the kinds of gusts that can mar com- bronze and proved unbeatable on Sunday as a as I nailed it pretty good.” week’s giant slalom. “I can let my shoulders go a International Ski Federation’s jumping hill petitions. “It is one of the best hills in the Norwegian man won the super-G at a fourth Jansrud, who underwent knee surgery last bit then,” he said. committee since 1988 — said the switch world. It has many competitive advantages consecutive Games, following Aamodt (2002, season, suffered a fright when late-starting Norway’s head coach Havard Tjorhom said a ate up valuable months and complained - it can be used year round, it can store a 2006) and more illustrious team mate Svindal American Andrew Weibrecht looked poised to healthy rivalry was key, as well as a determina- Bilalov had been too optimistic. large amount of water ... for making artifi- four years ago. snatch gold but finished 0.30 seconds slower tion to continue the traditions started by Kjus “I think they underestimated the time cial snow,” Kuznetsov said proudly. Nordby No wonder Norway’s watching Prime despite being quickest on all the split times. and Aamodt. “We don’t have any secrets,” he needed to build a ski jump. I said from the has a more prosaic view. “It’s working fine, Minister Erna Solberg was smiling so broadly in “It got a little too exciting there for a while said. very beginning ‘You need two years’ but he even though it doesn’t look that beautiful,” the finish area. “He’s a new idol now,” she told when Andrew was coming down,” Jansrud said. “Both Kjus and Aamodt have been a huge had promised Putin it would be built in one he said. —Reuters reporters. “My legs were jelly but I knew I had been really inspiration for both of our guys and I think both “It would have been great to have two on the quick towards the end of the run.” Axel and Kjetil have been pushing each other podium but I think we should be grateful that “This is like a fairytale but I have a team that further as well.” — Reuters Austria under fire in Olympics medals table men’s team ski jump SOCHI: Winter Olympics medals table yesterday (after four of four gold medal events; note men’s biathlon ROSA KHUTOR: Austria will be looking to without the women this time.