Sochi 2014. Fifth Olympic Games with curling.
The Sochi Olympics are the fifth time in modern history that curling has been a proper medal sport. Always curling has been commentated from the Prague studio and this year for the first time (in July) the offer to commentate directly from the Olympic venue came. This is undoubtedly a sign of the rising prestige of our sport in competition with other sports and also the result of systematic hard work in the past period. I have been in Sochi since yesterday. Together with eight hockey players, a number of TV sports editors, other athletes and officials we landed on time at the airport in Sochi. The organization is a bit scratchy at times, but it's within limits and pretty good so far. We know the ice cube center, where the Olympic tournament will be played, from the 2013 World Junior Championships. It's a nice hall, almost finished inside and around. Hans Wuthrich and his team have had about 12 days to prepare the ice and Mark Callan says everything is ok, except perhaps that the technology switches on not when they need it, but when it wants to. I've met Germans and Norwegians. They're excited for two days of training - Saturday and Sunday. We'll be watching to see what we can tell you. Russian TV is running all sorts of historical footage of past Olympics on several channels, including a lot of old curling (1920s). I'm becoming more and more aware of how we've moved on tremendously and evolved into a full-fledged sport. The only athletes who spent yesterday morning in hotel fitness were curling (e.g. the Swiss). The actual tournament starts on Monday at 9.00 local time and the first match that CT will broadcast is Sweden - Switzerland (men), i.e. world champions versus European champions. Can you think of a better invitation?