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27FORMATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY OF WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES Z.M. Kuznetsova, professor, Dr.Hab. A.I. Morozov, postgraduate
Naberezhnye Chelny branch of Volga region state academy of physical culture, sport and tourism, Naberezhnye Chelny
Key words: heritage, environmental legacy, Olympic Games, Winter Olympic Games, legacy concept.
Winter Olympic Games were partially held in ski resorts and hence closer to nature. This fact has evoked opposition of environmental organizations. Protests related to the issues of environmental protection have determined the origin of the environmental legacy of the Winter Olympic Games. Environmental legacy includes a set of environmental principles, developed based on the experience of local organizers of Winter Olympic Games in 1970s.
The legacy concept is a relatively new one in the Olympic circles: it originated in the 1990s during the organizational stage of the Atlanta Olympics 1996. Private organizers of these Games were forced to emphasize that after the Olympics they would leave to the host city, for example, the Olympic Centennial Park, built for the event. In 1993, there was a wasteland with abandoned buildings in its place. And today it is the largest municipal park that has been created in the USA for the last 20 years. In this regard, Richard Cashman has developed the legacy concept, managing to break the legacy into six categories. The purpose of the study was to make a comparative analysis of the environmental legacy of the Winter Olympic Games.
Results and discussion. Having analyzed the results of the Winter Olympic Games, we distinguished three periods of ecological legacy development.
The first one covers the first 40 years of the Winter Olympic Games. The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix (France) in January 1924. Preparations for the Olympics were carried out without any real regard to ecological ideas.
The second Winter Olympic Games were held in St. Moritz (Switzerland) in 1928. Both bobsleigh and skeleton tracks had been laid outdoor on snow and ice without any negative impact on the local environment.
The Lake Placid Winter Olympics in1932 were the first where environmental issues were raised. 2500 trees had to be cut down to build the bobsleigh track and the organizers refused to build the track and cut down trees, therefore bobsleigh and skeleton competitions were excluded from the program. Garmisch-Partenkirchen has been charged to organize the Winter Olympics in 1936. Present places were used for all facilities and there were not any protests with regard to ecology. The absence of protests was also due to the increasing political influence of Germany in 1940s.
The second period of ecological legacy development took place from 1970 to 1980. The First Winter Olympic Games, which had respect to the environment, were held in Sapporo in 1972. A small ski jump was relocated from the originally proposed place and later cleared and planted with trees due to environmental reasons.
Both bobsleigh and sledge tracks are the main "white elephants" of the Olympic facilities. Moreover, huge amounts of ammonia are required to freeze these tracks, which can be potentially dangerous for the environment in case of leakage. The bobsleigh luge skeleton track in Turin is a vivid example of irrational construction in the preparation for the Olympic Games. Its construction cost $108 million and this facility was not used after the event. The track was expected to be used by amateurs and professionals, but it did not attract athletes due to its complexity and dangerousness. Besides, the organizers had made a mistake at the legacy planning stage.
In 1980 the organization of the Lake Placid Olympic Games evoked environmentalists' protests: some of the proposed facilities had been located on the land owned by the Adirondack Park, which caused a significant delay in the construction work.
After the Lake Placid Olympics the Olympic Games in Sarajevo (1984) and Calgary (1988) caused fewer complaints with regard to ecology.
The third period of the formation of the ecological legacy of Winter Olympics fell on the 90's. In 1991 changes were introduced into the regulations for the cities wishing to host the Olympics: candidates had to answer several questions regarding "environmental protection", which in accordance with the rules of the IOC, should be no more than six pages.
In the Winter Olympics in Albertville in 1992 and in Lillehammer in 1994 the concept of "environmental legacy" was consolidated in the minds of the organizing committees' members and above all - the IOC. Albertville running tracks in Les Saisies were evacuated in order to protect the high-rise peat foundation. The new Bellevarde slope had water collection to avoid meadows, where Alpine flowers grew. These were the Olympics that called for the Olympic movement to develop the awareness of the importance of the environmental legacy.
The Olympic Games in Lillehammer were a success in many regards. The environmental coordinator has been appointed in the organizing committee at a very early stage to consider all Olympic projects. Among the results of these actions was moving an arena for speed skating in order to protect the population of rare birds.
In 1995 the IOC established a permanent Sport and Environment Commission and decided to organize a conference on the subject once in two years in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with which a special agreement was signed.
In the period from October 30 to November 1 2013 the 10th IOC World Conference on Sport and the Environment, organized jointly with UNEP by the Government of Russia, Russian Olympic Committee,
Sochi 2014 Organizing committee was first held in Sochi, Russia. The result of the conference was the adoption of the declaration, which urges the international Olympic Committee to raise the requirements to the venue of the Games in view of the Sochi experience. In addition, it was proposed to declare 6 April as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.
In 1998 the Olympic Games in Nagano (Japan) were continued on the course, planned by Albertville and Lillehammer. The places for skiing and biathlon, proposed in the application, were replaced by the existing ones. Special attention was paid to secondary raw materials and the waste left after the Olympics. For example, volunteers' uniform was made of recycled materials.
The adoption of the IOC Olympic Movement's Action Programme-21 in June 1999 was a decisive move in terms of implementing the concept of "viability on the basis of the Olympic movement" at the end of this decade. One of the three main directions of the program was the preservation and the rational use of resources for the sustainable development.
The Winter Olympic Games in XXI century continued the new environmental policy, which was put in practice during the Olympics in 1990s. The Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (2002), Turin (2006) and Vancouver (2010) were progressive in terms of the environmental legacy of the competitions. In accordance with organizing committee's plan, 95% of all waste was recycled and composted in Salt Lake City. Biometallurgical technologies were used for the first time, which enabled the non-waste copper production. More than 100 thousand trees were planted after the Games in Utah by elementary schoolchildren.
The organizing committee of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games went even further: it adopted the environmental management system and was the first to get the ISO14001 certification. The organizers also started the "Heritage Climate Torino" program to offset the estimated 100 thousand tons of greenhouse gas produced during the competition.
The 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver put the event in the category of sustainable development by defining 6 goals, one of which was the responsibility for the environmental legacy and reduction of the negative impact on the environment. In practice this meant building environmentally friendly sports facilities. Vancouver Olympic Centre is a striking example of such a facility, which was awarded the "Golden certificate" LEED. The facility was constructed with the use of ultra-modern eco technologies. The coast of Sochi (Russia) was awarded with the 2014 Winter Olympics by the IOC. In this regard, the government developed and approved a program, which included 37 events on the ecological support for the preparation and hosting of the XXII Winter Olympic Games and the XI Paralympic Winter Games. The Sochi 2014 Environmental Strategy was approved, designed to facilitate the organization of green Winter Games in Sochi and was based on four strategic directions: "Games in harmony with nature"; "Games with Minimal Impact on Climate"; "Zero Waste Games"; "Enlightenment Games". The main goal of the Sochi 2014 Environmental Strategy was to preserve the unique natural environment
of the Sochi region, including the protected natural assets in the Sochi National Park and the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO World Heritage Site "Western Caucasus") and the environment of the Olympic region by developing the regional infrastructure.
Preparation for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi has accumulated innovations in the field of the environmental legacy of all the previous host cities. The environmental legacy of the Sochi Olympics is both tangible and intangible.
Among the key tangible aspects are: ultra-modern and environmentally effective sports venues certified in accordance with the BREEAM international "green" construction standard and the Russian "Green standards" system, which together comprise the first national center for winter sports; the modernization of regional infrastructure.
The key intangible aspects of the environmental legacy of "Sochi-2014" are: increasing the scope of environmental consciousness among the citizens of the Sochi region and Russia as a whole; the development of green standards in building, focused on energy and environmental efficiency; the creation and use of modern and efficient management instruments for nature management and environmental protection; forming and introducing an environmental management system, based on the international standard ISO 14001:2009.
During the preparation for the Olympic Games, over 500 of compensatory measures were taken to preserve the unique natural environment of the Olympic region. One of the examples is 450 animals relocated from the construction area for the Olympic Park to the protected areas of the Imeretinskaya Valley, as well as 1.5 million trees planted and 3 million various young fish released into Sochi rivers. Thus, the results of the conducted study have provoked the following conclusions:
• Given the problems of host cities, the international Olympic committee changed its charter in 2003 and included the fourteenth mission: "to promote a positive legacy of Olympic Games for the host cities and host countries". Thus, the concept of legacy has taken its place among the official resolutions of the IOC.
• Arising problems related to the protection of the environment when organizing and conducting the Winter Olympic Games, contributed to the emergence and formation of their environmental legacy, which had been formed during three periods: phase 1 - 1924 - 1960; phase 2 - 1970 - 1980; phase 3 -1990. Today the environmental legacy is fully integrated into the Olympic rules and ideology by including the thirteenth mission in the long list of the Olympic Charter.
• For a considerable period of time of formation of the environmental legacy the organization of the Winter Games is not oriented to ski resorts but to the towns in the Alpine valleys (Innsbruck, Grenoble, Nagano), not to the Alpine valleys, but major cities of the plain (Calgary, Salt Lake city, Turin), not to large cities, but coastal cities (Vancouver, Sochi).
• The geography of the Winter Olympic Games has been changed due to the increased scope of the Games, as well as due to the fact that large cities can ensure the sustainable use of the post-Olympic facilities.
• Organization and hosting of the Olympic Games-2014 leads to the establishment of the unique environmental legacy in the city of Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, as well as across the country, which is shown mainly in the introduction of "international green standards" in the construction of facilities all over Russia.
Corresponding author: kzm [email protected]
