Putin’s eyeball destroyed: “Completely dead”

The 2014 Olympic hills are almost deserted.

The apple of the eye of Russian autocratic President Vladimir Putin has been destroyed.

– That village was completely dead. I didn’t see any ski jumpers there during the week, as the hills weren’t in use, says Finnish ski jumping destination expert Jussi Miettinen.

He visited the 2014 Olympic ski jumping center in Gorki, in the Krasnaya Polyana mountains, in the 2021–22 season before Putin’s forces began an offensive war in Ukraine.

According to Skisprungschanzen, a German website that keeps very accurate ski jumping statistics, the Olympic giant hill has only been competed on 21 occasions since the 2014 Olympics. The most recent results are from 2022.

No international competition has been organized since the Olympic Games.

– The framework was still good at least three years ago, Miettinen reports.

Into the quicksand

Putin’s ski resort was a waste of money and was accompanied by a lot of fuss. Iltalehti reported on the twists and turns that were like those in an agent movie in 2018.

The cost estimate for the Gorki ski resort was 29 million euros, but the costs rose to a shocking 194 million euros (at 2014 exchange rates).

The entire project shocked the sports community, as the hill towers were built on terrain filled with quicksand.

In honor of Midsummer, Iltalehti is publishing the year’s most memorable sports stories. The story of the Gorki ski jumping center was first published on February 24, 2025.

In honor of Midsummer, Iltalehti publishes the year’s most memorable sports stories. The story of the Gorki ski jumping center was first published on February 24, 2025.