SOCHI, September 16 (R-Sport) – In an effort to increase Russia's home advantage, the venues for next year's Winter Olympics will be open to home athletes only from November 19, the chief organizer said Monday.
Open training on the bobsled track from November 8 through 19 will be the last time foreigners are allowed to train in Sochi before the Olympics, whose opening ceremony is February 7.
Many other venues have been unavailable to foreigners for some time.
The bobsled and luge training period in November "will be the last training session. Then all the facilities will be closed to give our athletes the chance to train," organizing committee head Dmitry Chernyshenko said.
Sochi's venues have all hosted extensive programs of test events, although the test competitions for some sports, especially snow events in the mountains, ended as much as a year before the Games.
