ITALY: WINTER OLYMPICS - Amid final preparations Olympic officials and Turin residents remain optimistic of a successful Winter Games

Record ID: 331997

  • Title: ITALY: WINTER OLYMPICS - Amid final preparations Olympic officials and Turin residents remain optimistic of a successful Winter Games
  • Date: 3rd February 2006
  • Summary: WIDE VIEW OF SLOPES PAN DOWN TO OLYMPIC VILLAGE
  • Embargoed: 18th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA2M94YNRXF0PXTUZOSCQDM9HA3
  • Story Text: Olympic organisers and residents of Turin alike are optimistic that preparations for the Winter Olympics, which open in Turin next Friday (February 10), are well on their way to being completed.
    But across the northern Italian city, construction is still underway amid heavy traffic heading into the region.
    At the Village, based in the central Piazza Solferino, music provided for children skating on a new ice-rink was drowned out by the sounds of workmen erecting the venue's structure.
    But residents of the city and regional and city authorities are optimistic and hope the huge investment will bring about a change in Turin's reputation as a 'grey city' and residents agree that the Olympics could finally defeat lingering misconceptions about the former capital of Italy.
    Others hope the Games will alter how the locals themselves are viewed by the rest of the world.
    "I believe that Turin will be ready without any doubt and it will change a lot the image of Turin and I hope that it will stay like this (after the Games)," one resident told Reuters Television.
    But with signs of another week of hard work still remaining, Valentino Castellani, the president of the Olympic organising committee TOROC, says he is confident that final preparations only involve minor details.
    "Torino is ready. All the main important issues has been solved in these weeks, as usual we are dealing and monitoring all the hundreds of details that have to be followed in order to ensure quality to the Games and looking the work going on, I am confident that we shall deliver excellent Games," Castellani said.
    Fears of low ticket sales are disappearing as queues started to take shape at ticket outlets across Turin on Friday (February 3).
    To date some 700,000 tickets have been sold totalling some 58.8 million euros.
    Concerns of little snow have also been abandoned in the mountain venues such as Sestriere, where ample amounts of snow fell during the past few days.
    Alpine officials in charge of maintaining the slopes say conditions are optimal to hold a successful Winter Games.
    "The last snowfall has helped our work a lot because it covered the last holes. Now our duty for the next few days is to make this snow, which at the moment is very snow, as compact as possible," explained Lieutenant Colonel Stefano Fregona who is in charge of the Alpine officials in Sestriere.
    More snow is expected to fall over the weekend.
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