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Sochi's Frenetic Finish Is What Is Expected In Russia, Financial Times Observes

At Sochi’s Olympic Park last week workers "furiously painted, planted and hammered," according to Courtney Weaver of the FINANCIAL TIMES. They "laid fresh asphalt in the pouring rain and when it was ruined they re-laid it." Inside the Olympic Park, corporate and country-themed pavilions "were miraculously taking shape within days, or even hours." Former German Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once remarked, “Russians are slow to saddle the horse. But they drive fast." True to form, the last-minute preparations "suggest as much." They are "also a lesson in Russia’s love for superlatives." The Games, for both Russia and President Vladimir Putin, are, of course, "much more than a sporting event." More than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin "is anxious to show it can still triumph on the world stage." Sochi doctor Lyudmila Kalinina said, “Russia wants to do something that [will] make people go: 'Wow!'" Russia "is not one to do things by halves." Kalinina: “When they do something, they do something. If you’re going out on the town, you really go out on the town.” Others "are less pleased." The Russian saying, “We tried our best, you know the rest” is "a frequent grumble among locals" (FT, 1/29).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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