Sochi still waiting for the
arrival of foreign fans
FEB 06, 2014 1:53p ET
Olympic fans of the world, where are you?
Sochi is (more or less) ready for you to come to its Winter
Games. Thousands of athletes, soldiers, journalists and herds of smiley
volunteers are in place, eager to help.
So far, though, it seems like the only spectators milling
about are Russian.
Dina Kobolenko is waiting for you at her tourist information
stand near the Sochi train station, armed with maps of this subtropical resort
on the Black Sea. She says that as of two days before the Games, she'd seen
only a single foreigner --€” a South
Korean. They couldn't understand each other, though, so had to communicate in
sign language.
Fears about terrorism and the hassle of reaching Sochi from
points abroad may be keeping some foreigners away --€”
and undermining Vladimir Putin's plans to transform Sochi into a magnet for
international tourism.
A train traveling between Olympic sites and downtown Sochi
cheerily announces to visitors in English: "We wish you a pleasant
journey!" But on a recent ride, its seats were half empty. And a sweep
through four train cars found ... not a single foreign fan.
Here, FOX Sports' Peter Schrager was on the scene for a
lackluster team figure skating debut:
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