Thread: Sochi 2014 - Olympic Winter Games (official site)

I've noticed that there is essentially a "soviet" attitude to criticism of Russia on this site. Critics are accused of being informed by the biased western media. The absurd "Foreign Agent" tag is symptomatic of this paranoia. It shows that some in Russia still have a foot in the past. This is a shame because you can't move forward properly like this.

In fact, I get most of my information about Russia from the Russian media and from meeting Russians.

I invite you to ask yourselves this question: if the Magnitsky scandal had never happened, if there had been no Magnitsky Law in the US, would Russia have still banned Americans from adopting Russian children? In my view, no. The ban was a direct riposte to the Americans - it was cold-war "tit-for-tat". It logically follows from this that the motive for passing a new Russian law which directly affects (and in my opinion, negatively affects) the lives of thousands of Russian children has nothing to do with childcare or improving their prospects: it was passed solely because a country far away passed a law which itself had nothing to do with childcare. This is irresponsible and very very sad, because the only real victims in this are the Russian orphans.

Originally Posted by edvalais

In fact, I get most of my information about Russia from the Russian media and from meeting Russians.

Russian media is also biased. But that's beside the point. I don't even care how or why this law about 'foreign agents' was effected. To my personal opinion this blocks the outside propaganda messages and if it works - fine. What IS propaganda? It's an appeal to emotions of not very bright people. Thinking and smart people will see through the propaganda and know its value, but we have stupid people here too. When they are said 'This HONESTY, Inc Ogranization's experts proven that Russian government is very-very bad' - well that's one message. And another one 'This Foreitn Agent 'Honesty, Inc' Organization's experts proven ...." - that's quite another one.
I insist that the Russian government should have the only and monopolized right of brainwashing its own population. No one else should be allowed. (I'm not joking, I'm dead serious)

Originally Posted by edvalais

I invite you to ask yourselves this question: if the Magnitsky scandal had never happened, if there had been no Magnitsky Law in the US, would Russia have still banned Americans from adopting Russian children? In my view, no. The ban was a direct riposte to the Americans - it was cold-war "tit-for-tat". It logically follows from this that the motive for passing a new Russian law which directly affects (and in my opinion, negatively affects) the lives of thousands of Russian children has nothing to do with childcare or improving their prospects: it was passed solely because a country far away passed a law which itself had nothing to do with childcare. This is irresponsible and very very sad, because the only real victims in this are the Russian orphans.

That's one point of view. The ban was a direct riposte to the Americans indeed, so what? You sound as if there was something bad in it.
As for the 'horrors of a Russian orphanage' - that's still remains questionable is it so hellish being an orphan in Russia and is it so good being an adopted by a couple of foreigners.
And again, even if this was not intended, the number of domestic adoptions has increased since the ban. That's good.

Originally Posted by Ramil

The ban was a direct riposte to the Americans indeed, so what? You sound as if there was something bad in it.

Yes, there is "something bad in it". If a parliament passes a law which affects orphans, I'd like to think that the primary motive is to improve their lives. The only motive here was symbolic - to attack a very small group of Americans. It is an indication of the type of people who sit in the Duma that they were quite prepared to use Russian orphans - some of them handicapped - as pawns in their silly game.

Getting back to the Olympics, I wonder what the long-term impact will be? What perception will remain of your country? Here in Switzerland it has very much focused people's minds on the central role played by Putin. The night before the opening ceremony there was a documentary on Swiss television which discussed his supposedly vast fortune. For many of the Swiss I speak to, Putin and Russia are synonymous. If, as some people claim, Putin is corrupt, what does that say about the country he runs? The answer I get on this site from Russians is a shrug of the shoulders: "So what? What if billions of dollars have been wasted in bribes on the Olympics? What if handicapped Russian orphans have to stay in the orphanage? мне наплевать!"

I'll start from the end of your message:

Originally Posted by edvalais

What if handicapped Russian orphans have to stay in the orphanage? мне наплевать!

More or less that's true, I don't give a @#$! about starving children in Africa, dying wild nature and other terrible things. Well, when I hear somebody tells me about it I'll agree 'How awful! What a shame! Tsk, tsk, tsk..." but that's about all I would do. I found out that many people in the world try to look like they do care (you, for example - how exactly corrupted Putin poisons your existence?)

Originally Posted by edvalais

Yes, there is "something bad in it". If a parliament passes a law which affects orphans, I'd like to think that the primary motive is to improve their lives. The only motive here was symbolic - to attack a very small group of Americans. It is an indication of the type of people who sit in the Duma that they were quite prepared to use Russian orphans - some of them handicapped - as pawns in their silly game.

Well... First, the law about orphans should have been passed long ago (that's my opinion). Second, if the Duma found it convenient to pass this law AND to attack some group of Americans - I don't care either. Third, and the most important: there is a common misconception about Putin's being an absolute monarch here. That's not true. Despite his seemingly authoritarian style of government, quite often the domestic affairs are decided (much to my disappointment) not by him but by the government officials and the Duma. Generally, our Duma is not overly bright and sometimes passes laws that are either not going to work or simply self-contradictory. Russia is NOT Putin and Putin is NOT Russia. Relax.

Originally Posted by edvalais

Getting back to the Olympics, I wonder what the long-term impact will be? What perception will remain of your country?

Oh, they will soon forget about the Olympics. I'm sure Putin will do something more terrible to talk about.

Originally Posted by edvalais

Here in Switzerland it has very much focused people's minds on the central role played by Putin. The night before the opening ceremony there was a documentary on Swiss television which discussed his supposedly vast fortune. For many of the Swiss I speak to, Putin and Russia are synonymous.

What? The Swiss do care about Russia? They saw one 40 min. biased documentary and dare to judge? Come on! That reaction is the same as mine (tsk, tsk, tsk). People DO NOT care about anything outside their house/street/town/country.

Originally Posted by edvalais

What if billions of dollars have been wasted in bribes on the Olympics?

I watched a documentary stating that many of the IOC officials in the past were former Nazis. I read in a newspaper that the bribes at the Olympic bid of 1988 were as astronomical as they supposedly were in Sochi. Same with Nogano, Albertville, Salt Lake city, etc.

Besides, let's speak about facts. We don't know how big were the bribes, we don't even know if they were actually paid. We know that the Russian government has spent about 50 billion dollars during the last 7 years to prepare the site for the Olympics. They didn't include the bribes in the budget or did they? And what YOUR interest in those amounts? Envious that you're not the member of the IOC?

Originally Posted by Ramil

I don't give a @#$! about starving children in Africa, dying wild nature and other terrible things.

Let's be positive: what DO you give a @#$! about? Money? Sex? Having the latest iPhone?

Originally Posted by edvalais

I've noticed that there is essentially a "soviet" attitude to criticism of Russia on this site. Critics are accused of being informed by the biased western media. The absurd "Foreign Agent" tag is symptomatic of this paranoia. It shows that some in Russia still have a foot in the past. This is a shame because you can't move forward properly like this.

We all have a foot in the past, because history is inseparable. Actually I also have question: what do you put into the meaning of the word "Soviet"?
Because today it can have many meanings to many people. To some people it may mean dark past that should be forsaken, to some other people it may mean nostalgia, and to some it may mean neither of it but a legacy they have the right to claim and not be hesitant of it.

Originally Posted by edvalais

I invite you to ask yourselves this question: if the Magnitsky scandal had never happened, if there had been no Magnitsky Law in the US, would Russia have still banned Americans from adopting Russian children?

In my humble opinion it would be done sooner or later. Scandals about Russian orphans being abused by their American adopters had begun long before Magnitsky Law was issued. The latter happened to serve a reason to even out American reaction to Dima Yakovlev Law. The thing I dislike about that is that both these laws gear the names of of two dead people who personally had nothing to do with that.
One more thing, we didn't only ban foreign adoptions but also copied the option to ban certain American officials.

Originally Posted by DrBaldhead

One more thing, we didn't only ban foreign adoptions but also copied the option to ban certain American officials.

Again, another purely symbolic gesture. The American officials will just shake their heads and smile - whereas the Russian chinovniki/judges/police/politicians etc who stole enormous sums of money via the "Magnitsky" fraud and hid it away in the States, in bank accounts and property near to where their children study, will no longer have access to all of that. THAT is why they were so furious at the Magnitsky Law.

Originally Posted by edvalais

Again, another purely symbolic gesture. The American officials will just shake their heads and smile - whereas the Russian chinovniki/judges/police/politicians etc who stole enormous sums of money via the "Magnitsky" fraud and hid it away in the States, in bank accounts and property near to where their children study, will no longer have access to all of that. THAT is why they were so furious at the Magnitsky Law.

I agree. Also, we've all seen Yanukovich's retinue quietly disappeared on its own in an hour after the "asset freezed and visa bans" were declared to be introduced by the EU.

It is sad, but in ex-USSR states the richest people are not businessmen, sportsmen or actors: they are politicians. The president MUST be very rich, and the governors MUST be quite rich (i.e. control many businesses directly). Otherwise, how would they rule?

And you are right, edvalais, many ugly things are considered "normal" among some Russians. We are cynics now.

It seems, that the only deadly insult to the "average Russian" is the hint that some "foreigners" are going to teach us.

Алексей Навальный о том, сколько стоила на самом деле Олимпиада в Сочи |

By an incredible coincidence, now that the games are over, Navalny has been put under house arrest...

Not coincidence. Obviously, he had been watching Olympics and had no time for revolutionary struggle.

Originally Posted by maxmixiv

Not coincidence. Obviously, he had been watching Olympics and had no time for revolutionary struggle.

True. I hear Alyesha is a big fan of women's curling.

Будем болеть за Танечку! С 2013 года она также лыжница.





Tatyana McFadden



About Tatyana

At the University of Illinois Tatyana McFadden’s teammates on the school’s wheelchair racing team have nicknamed her Beast. Why? Because Tatyana is strong. In the gym people stop and gawk at how much she is lifting. In a road race spectators marvel at how she flies up hills that bring other racers to a crawl. On the track her competitors hang their heads as they see Tatyana’s rippling shoulders cross the finish line ahead of them. Tatyana is strong as a beast.

When Tatyana hears the nickname, however, she giggles. Being strong is not something Tatyana has ever had to think about, it is something that she has embodied her whole life.

By all accounts Tatyana should not be one of the top female athletes in the world. She probably should not be alive. She was born in 1988 in St. Petersburg, Russia, with an underdeveloped spinal cord resulting in paralyzation below the waist and a hole in her spine, a condition know as spina bifida. When operated on immediately, spina bifida is rarely life threatening. Tatyana was left for 21 days before doctors operated. Only her innate strength of will kept her alive.

As an unwanted disabled child, Tatyana was immediately sent to an orphanage after her surgery. She grew up in a place so poor they could not buy crayons for the children to color with let alone a wheelchair for Tatyana to get around in. Unfazed, she spent the first six years of her life using her arms as legs and walking on her hands as if the were feet.

In 1994, Debbie McFadden, working as the commissioner of disabilities for the U.S. Health Department, visited Tatyana’s orphanage on a business trip. When she met Tatyana, she immediately felt a connection with the young girl and decided to adopt her and bring her to the United States.

For Tatyana the adoption meant freedom, it meant a real family, and it meant her first wheelchair, but the excitement was short lived. When she arrived in the US she grew very sick. She was severely anemic and grossly under weight and doctors thought she would only survive a few more months. For a second time in her short life Tatyana’s innate strength would defy the odds.

To aid in her recovery Debbie began to enroll Tatyana in various youth sports groups. Tatyana began taking swimming lessons at the local pool and, a year after she arrived in the US, began participating with the Bennet Blazers, a Baltimore, Maryland area wheelchair sports organization.

No longer having to use her strength for survival, Tatyana quickly found she could use that strength to excel in athletics. She tried every sport she could find from archery, to ping-pong to basketball, but from the start she fell in love with wheelchair racing.

It did not take long for Tatyana’s racing career to take off. In 2004, at the age of 15, she was the youngest member of the USA track and field team at the Athens Paralympic Games, her first international competition. She shocked the world in the process, winning a silver medal in the 100 meters and a bronze in the 200m.

Two short years later, Tatyana etched her name in the record books, winning the gold medal in the 100m in world record time at the 2006 IPC World Championships in Assen, Netherlands. She followed that performance with two silver medal performances in the 200m and 400m, securing a spot as a “Beast” in international wheelchair racing heading in the 2008 Beijing Parlaympic Games.

Tatyana did not disappoint in Beijing, coming home with four medals, winning silver in the 200m, 400m and 800m and a bronze in the 4x100m relay.

Off the track Tatyana is pursuing a degree in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Illinois, and works as a national advocate for equal access for people with disabilities. Learn more about Tatyana’s off-the-field work in Causes.

Major Achievements


2014: World Cup Oberstdorf, 9th 12k, 10th 1km, 11th 5km;
U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing National Championships, 1st 1km, 3rd 5k

2013: World Cup Cable, Wis., 4th 15km, 5th 5km, 1km;
World Cup Canmore, 7th 1km, 11th 5km;
U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing National Championships, 1st 1km;
Named to U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing National Team

2013: London Marathon, 1st;
Boston Marathon, 1st;
Chicago Marathon, 1st;
New York City Marathon, 1st;
IPC Athletics World Championships, 1st 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m

2012: London 2012 Paralympic Games, 1st 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3rd 100m;
Chicago Marathon, 1st

2011: IPC World Championships, 1st 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3rd 100m

2010: New York City Marathon, 1st

2009: First place, Chicago Marathon

2008: Silver medals, 200m, 400m, 800m; bronze medal, Women's 4 x100m relay - Paralympic Games, Beijing, China.

2007: Gold medals, 200m, 800m - U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships, Atlanta, GA;
Gold medals 400m, 800m - Visa Paralympic World Cup, Manchester, UK;
Gold medal 200m (WR) - Boiling Point Wheelchair Track Classic, Windsor, Canada

2006: Gold medal, 100m (WR); Silver medals, 200m, 400m - IPC World Championships, Assen, The Netherlands

2005: Gold medal, 100m; Silver medals, 400m, 800m; Bronze medal, 200m - IPC Open European National Championships, Espoo, Finland

2004: Silver Medal, 100m; Bronze medal, 200m Paralympic Games, Athens, Greece

Skiing with Tatyana McFadden


http://universalsports.com/2012/06/0...f-fulfillment/

Bravo, Tatyana, you amazing, inspirational woman! Bravo, Debbie McFadden!

As for those people who've taken away the opportunity to live a better life from handicapped Russian orphans - shame on you!

Танечка со своей биологической мамой в окружении родственников.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-birth-mother/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2014/03/10/tatyana-mcfadden-sochi-paralympics/6268867/


...In track, her accomplishments are unrivaled. Last year, McFadden completed an unprecedented Grand Slam, winning Boston, London, Chicago and New York marathons in one year. At the world championships she won six golds in six different distances. In between preparing for Sochi in her new sport, she graduated from the University of Illinois in December.

Still, she's a rookie when it comes to sports on snow. After returning with three golds from the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London, she tried skiing for the first time, made the national team and earned five top-10 finishes in the first three World Cups of her Nordic career.

Learning the technique, adjusting to the various course conditions has been a challenge. "This (12K) race is absolutely the hardest for me because distance races take a lot of technique and a lot of strength so I am really proud of myself," said McFadden, who prefers the sprint races, which are still to come.
"In Germany at the World Cup I was in ninth, so to go from ninth to fifth in the last couple of weeks makes me extremely happy."