Breakfast hosted by the International Olympic Committee in honour of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee
February 24, 2014 Sochi
Завтрак от имени МОК в честь Оргкомитета «Сочи-2014»
24 февраля 2014 года, Сочи
Vladimir Putin attended a breakfast hosted by the International Olympic Committee in honour of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee.
PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr President, friends,
Mr President, you said just now that we took a risk in putting forward the Sochi project. I want to say though, that we all took a risk here, and not only the project's Russian participants, but also our friends from the International Olympic Committee. They took a risk too. They had confidence in us, yes, but they nonetheless took a substantial risk, because no one could really be sure that we would manage to accomplish the immense amount of work required to host the Olympics. But they believed in us and decided to take the risk.
We in Russia have a wonderful saying that many know: "only those who take the risk ever get to drink champagne." This makes for an excellent opportunity today to raise a glass of champagne together for our shared achievement. Thank you very much for believing in us.
We are very grateful to Mr Jacques Rogge and to all of the International Olympic Committee members, including you, Mr President, for supporting our bid and for the work you did together with our friend Jean-Claude Killy and with Mr Felli to support the project through each of its stages. This was very important. As I said yesterday when we met in narrow format -- and these are not empty words -- if it were not for this support that we had from you right from the project's very start, we would perhaps not be looking at the success we have seen today.
This really was a huge undertaking. We made a conscious choice to carry out this project in the aim of developing southern Russia and developing global sport. Let me say again that this was certainly a very ambitious project for Russia, but our sole aim right from the start was to promote the Olympic spirit and develop sport in Russia and throughout the world. Right from the start, we completely and absolutely depoliticised this whole project.
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