ARLINGTON, Virginia, August 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has put in place “possibly the best set-up ever” to ensure that next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi are safe, US men’s Olympic ice hockey coach Dan Bylsma said this week at an event to unveil the US 2014 Olympic hockey jersey.
“I really think the security around the Olympic village and around the Olympic venues is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Bylsma said Tuesday.
“Having seen the Olympic village and the set-up that’s there, I’m looking to seeing possibly the best set-up ever for the Winter Olympic Games in terms of the village, in terms of the area the venues will be at,” he said.
Bylsma said that event venues and the Olympic Village in Sochi will be “centralized,” which will make it easier for Russian security forces to ensure athletes’ and spectators’ safety.
The US Olympic coach was responding to a question from a reporter who said that he had read a newspaper story that said radical groups from Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region have threatened to bomb the men’s hockey final at Sochi. The reporter gave no further details.
“The Russians are going to do an excellent job” in ensuring security at the games, including in the area in Sochi, where many of the venues for events have been built, including the Bolshoi Ice Dome, which is due to host the men’s ice hockey final on Feb. 23, Bylsma said.
News reports in the United States in recent months have warned of the “Islamist insurgency raging across the North Caucasus mountains that tower over the seaside resort of Sochi,” but also assured that Russia’s security services are planning “a massive effort to protect the Olympics.”
