MOSCOW, June 29 (R-Sport) – The head of Russia's Olympic committee insists that there will be no snow deficit for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Russia has tried to calm fears that unseasonably warm weather could spoil the country's first Winter Games and is storing huge quantities of snow in refrigerated reservoirs.
"There will be no problems with snow," the president of Russia’s Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov said Saturday. "The Olympics in Sochi will go ahead in any weather. In the mountain region this year a certain reserve of snow has already been gathered," he said.
"I'm confident that we will be able to hold all the mountain disciplines."
Some test events, including stages of the Cup of Russia Nordic combined event, had to be cancelled this winter due to balmy temperatures.
The city of Sochi on the Black Sea enjoys a subtropical environment, but the outdoors events for the Winter Olympics will take place in the mountains above the coast.
Some 450,000 cubic meters of snow has been held in reserve, awaiting deployment next February when the Games begin. At cost of some 250 million rubles ($8 million) it is stored in seven special on-site reservoirs, the largest of which has a capacity of 100,000 cubic meters.
