RUSSIA: WINTER OLYMPICS - Twin-toilets leave Sochi Olympic visitors flushed with embarrassment but organisers say partitions are coming soon.

Record ID: 344378

  • Title: RUSSIA: WINTER OLYMPICS - Twin-toilets leave Sochi Olympic visitors flushed with embarrassment but organisers say partitions are coming soon.
  • Date: 3rd February 2014
  • Summary: FLAG WITH OLYMPIC EMBLEM SOCHI OLYMPIC FLAGS
  • Embargoed: 18th February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: General,Quirky,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7PYCUWYZRGKDMRA40RF2XBDGN
  • Story Text: Despite Sochi 2014 organisers saying the infamous Olympic twin toilets were errors or aren't in public areas, the controversial two pan toilets seem to be even more common in Sochi than people first feared.
    The first toilet to cause a stink was discovered in the biathlon centre by a BBC correspondent and organisers said the partition had been removed because it was being turned into a store cupboard. It now has been converted into a storage facility..
    Other sightings posted on social media sites were in areas being used by Russian volunteers, but now tandem toilets can even be found where international guests and the media are staying.
    The Washington Post's Moscow correspondent, Cathy Lally, was amazed to see one of the double toilets in the lobby of her hotel in the Sochi Olympic Park.
    "A couple of weeks ago, there were a lot of conversations about this toilet because one was seen in the biathlon centre. Then, Russians started saying 'Oh no! It's not really like that. That was just a place where the partition has been torn down because they were turning it into a store room. So, they were saying that it wasn't true that there are a lot of double toilets. Well, here we have one," Lally told Reuters.
    A maintenance worker at the Ekaterininskiy Kvartal Hotel, Pavel Osipov, echoed organisers saying that the toilets weren't finished, despite appearances, and said that they would be building a partition immediately.
    "The partition and doors will be installed tomorrow because it was the weekend yesterday and we couldn't put it in on time. We apologize to the hotel guests for the inconvenience. This toilet is just not finished yet, and I promise it will be done by the end of tomorrow," Osipov told Reuters.
    The appearance of such antiquated bathroom features have contributed to questions in the media and on social media about the use of public funding to construct such facilities and whether this process is literally flushing money down the toilet.
    For an Olympics that is costing an unprecedented amount of money, the stink about the toilets is not the sort of publicity Russian President Vladimir Putin was looking for.
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