Vladimir Putin said the “overwhelming majority” of sites for the Sochi Olympics are “almost ready” and that a “final push” remains with a little more than 100 days before the Games.
The Russian president made the comments while opening a new railway station in Sochi with new International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
“Now that the overwhelming majority of sites are almost ready, there’s a final push left, we need to accomplish this final milestone,” Putin said, according to Reuters. “We need to prepare everything once and for all.”
Bach, 59, praised Russia’s record $50 billion preparations for the Olympics, which begin Feb. 6.
The German is familiar with the Black Sea resort. He was the chairman of the IOC evaluation commission for the city’s bid to host the 2002 Winter Games. Sochi did not make the cut of four finalists. Salt Lake City eventually won the right to host in a landslide.
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“We are fully confident that the Games will be on a magnificent level,” Bach said, according to Reuters.
“We are extremely grateful to you for the magnificent co-operation we developed in recent years. Sochi and the whole region completed a very big, successful development journey and we have been deeply impressed with this path,” he said in comments translated from German into Russian as he sat next to Putin, a fluent German speaker.
Putin also offered another assurance about Russia’s anti-gay law.
“We will do everything to make sure that athletes, fans and guests feel comfortable at the Olympic Games regardless of their ethnicity, race or sexual orientation,” Putin told Bach in remarks broadcast on Russian television, according to Agence France-Presse.
Bach also questioned Putin about the amount of snow for the Olympics, which has been a question. Organizers have stowed about 500,000 cubic meters of snow from this past winter in case of a shortage.
“And we’ll add more, we hope,” Putin said, according to R-Sport.
