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3 Jul, 2007 16:15

Interview with Vyacheslav Fetisov

Vyacheslav Fetisov, the chairman of the Russian Federal Agency for Sport and renowned ice hockey player, spoke to RT about Sochi's bid team and the IOC decision on the host of Winter Olympics 2014.

Russia Today: What's the atmosphere like between the Sochi Olympic bid team now?

V.F.: We've just finished the rehearsal for the IOC session here when the three candidate cities will show presentations. I think that during the last few days here in Guatemala our team – it was mentioned by different sources – was the strongest to put together its candidate for the Olympic Games. We worked hard. We had practical training. We tried to build up a good atmosphere inside the team and to make sure that all our advantages are shown well in the presentation.

RT: Talking about advantages, what do you think Sochi has to offer in terms of making the IOC uphold its bid?

V.F.: The support of the people – I think it's very important. More then 80% of Russia's population support Sochi's bid. We also enjoy support from our president, who will lead our team tomorrow in the presentation. The government also backs Sochi's bid – we have several programmes aimed at improving the region in various aspects: infrastructure, electrification, environmental plan. Also we have Olympic legacy, as Russia has more Olympic champions then many other nations and we get support from those legendary athletes – many are here too to support the team.

Another advantage is the compactness of Olympic facilities in Sochi. We have two clusters, one in the mountains for skiing competitions and one at the seashore for ice events. The coastal cluster also includes IOC headquarters, media centre etc. And of course there is the short distance between the two clusters. With the new transportation system one could get from the coastal cluster to the mountain cluster in just 30 minutes – it's really unprecedented in the history of the Olympic Movement.

Plus – there is the hospitality of Sochi citizens. And again – we've been good partners for the olympic movement for more then 50 years.

RT: All three bids are deemed very strong. How close do you think the race is? Are you nervous?

V.F.: No. I mean I've been in situations like this in my life. The atmosphere you can feel here is very much like the atmosphere at Olympic finals. Of course, the bids go very close to each other in this race. Every voting has some subjectivity in one way or another. We all hope that our presentation and our strong support from the people, the president, the government, the parliament will give us advantage. We want to show the rest of the world the new Russian democracy, our hospitality of Russian people. And we guaranty it's going to be the best Olympic Games.

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