The President looked over the state of preparations of the mountain cluster facilities for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
The jumping hills are located at a junction of two ridges to protect the jumpers from side winds that can be a big problem in ski-jumping competitions. A 2.5-kilometre-long track for the Nordic combined event has been built adjacent to the RusSki Jumping Centre.
Mr Putin also visited the Gornaya Karusel mountain ski and tourist resort, one of the key Winter Olympics venues, which combines the RusSki Gorki ski jumping facility, the media village with hotels offering more than 2,000 rooms, and service infrastructure facilities.
The President saw how work is progressing on the Krasnaya Polyana railway station. Construction will be completed in April 2013 and the station will open in October 2013. It will handle up to 8,500 passengers an hour at peak times and as a combined train and bus transport hub will handle more than 12,000 passengers an hour.
Mr Putin also visited the Roza Khutor centre, where he spoke with mountain skiing instructors. The instructors currently teach tourists at the centre, but during next year’s Olympics they will work as judges.
The Roza Khutor centre will host events such as downhill competition and giant slalom. The track has a total length of more than 38 kilometres. The centre began work in December 2012, and in March it will host the World and European Alpine Skiing Championships finals.
The President visited the Sanki luge facility. The bobsleigh/luge track is 1,814 metres long, has five start positions and 17 bends. Maximum speed on the track is 135 kilometres an hour. The facility has already hosted an international luge training week and will soon serve as the venue for a bobsleigh and skeleton international training week, and stages in the bobsleigh, skeleton and luge world championship events.
Mr Putin also visited the chronometric centre, which collects all track data, including speed measurements, from all of the video cameras and control data sensors.