July 07, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 21, 1428

GUATEMALA CITY, July 6: The head of the victorious bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, Dmitri Chernyshenko, said on Thursday that having celebrated victory late into the night after the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi won they now had to turn their promises into reality.

The 40-year-old advertising guru added that by winning the Games - becoming the first Russian venue to host the Winter Olympics - it would bring about truly great changes in Russia.

“Now it is time to turn the promises into reality,” said Chernyshenko, who will fly to see IOC personnel in Lausanne, Switzerland on Monday.

“Before it was a matter of projection and all future development programmes. Now it has to become solid. The government has to meet the critical needs of the IOC and we have to manage all the stakeholders such as the management and the investors.

“It will not just be a process of construction because winning these Games will see the implementation of new laws and changes in Russian society,” added Chernyshenko, who had already held his first meeting with the IOC on Thursday morning.

Chernyshenko, who was set to fly back with his 250 strong team to Moscow later on Thursday and hold a celebratory party, said he was confident that Sochi would meet all the requirements and pledges that they had made prior to beating Korean candidate Pyeongchang by 51 votes to 47 on Wednesday.

“This belief is based on the history of the country and the president's (President Vladimir Putin) pledge to be the best partner of a new concept of the Winter Olympics. This concept is a great legacy for Russia and the world. We will succeed as we have now a very experienced team who had one single goal - bringing the Olympic Games to Russia.”

Chernyshenko, who led the project from being virtual no hopers two years ago to Wednesday's stunning victory, said despite criticism from certain quarters that it appeared only large countries with huge budgets could win the Games, the IOC could use FIFA as an example in helping poorer countries develop their sports structure.

“We are not exactly a financially secure country,” he said. We really bid because we as a country needed the Games. For the future I think the IOC should be inspired by the experience of the FIFA programme in developing football in Africa.”

“It has changed the whole life of a whole continent. It was a brave decision by FIFA boss Sepp Blatter. He is a great man.”—AFP