Debriefing of Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games
The official IOC debriefing for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games took place between 28 June and 2 July in PyeongChang, Korea – the host of the next Olympic Winter Games in 2018. 75 representatives from different departments within the Sochi Organising Committee shared their experiences of preparing for, and hosting, the 2014 Winter Games with 400 representatives of the future host cities of PyeongChang 2018, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and the applicant cities of the 2022 Winter Games.
Before the official debrief, ANOC and other Olympic stakeholders organised special debriefs from their own experiences and presentations were then made to the official debrief from the IOC, the NOCs, the IFs, the athletes, the media, the broadcasters as well as the spectators. ANOC’s survey of the NOC’s experiences at Sochi 2014 was presented and will now be sent to all the participating NOCs, the IOC, the IFs and the future Organising Committees.
Speaking after the debrief, ANOC Secretary General Gunilla Lindberg said:
“The official IOC debriefing provided an invaluable opportunity for the host cities of the future Olympic Games to learn from Sochi 2014’s experiences. The Olympic Winter Games in Sochi was a great success, particularly for the NOCs and their athletes, and so it is very important that these lessons and best practices are absorbed and built upon. We hope that ANOC’s report on the NOC’s feedback, and the other presentations that were made, will give the Organising Committees ideas on how to stage the best possible Games but also that they will still implement their own ideas inspired by their unique cultures.”
As well as presenting the NOC’s feedback, Gunilla Lindberg made several presentations to the audience in her role as Chairperson of the Coordination Commission of the PyeongChang Olympic Winter games in 2018.
IOC President Thomas Bach joined the meetings for the last two days. President Bach addressed the participants and thanked the President and CEO of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, and his team for hosting excellent Games and for sharing their best practices with the upcoming Organising Committees. He also wished the Organising Committee of the PyeongChang 2018 Games all the best in their preparations and asked them to take all the lessons from the 2014 Games into consideration, but to make sure PyeongChang 2018 will not be a replica of past Games but a Korean Games, influenced by the rich Korean culture.
