Svetlana Zhurova, an Olympic speed-skating champion, joined Russia Today in Sochi to share her opinion on the progress of the construction of the Olympic complex there.

Russia Today: There’s seven years to go and so much to do. What is in the focus of attention at the moment? 

Svetlana Zhurova: When we just went out of the hall where OIC members told us that we won, they have told us: “Guys, it is just the beginning of your hard work. Before, it was just a game, and now you have to work very hard.” Now we have liabilities to OIC and on August, 6 we have to give them a plan called ‘master plan’ of what we have to do now. The time to fulfill it is quite close, and on August, 27 they are going to come to Sochi. Most of them have not ever been there.

Now we do not know who the chairman of this commission is, they will decide it soon. They will check what we have in Sochi now, taking into consideration what we have promised when making our bid, and work out the plan for future – what they will be doing there. There will be a seminar, a workshop – in Switzerland I suppose, and we have to work together with the IOC. We have to know all the rules that we have to comply with, and all rights that we have, and I think it is very important to do everything in time.

It is not easy, but we know that Russia can build these Olympic facilities fast, and the first thing to do is to build roads – it is what we need to start with. We can build sport facilities much faster than roads, they require more time, so that is one of the most important things that we have to think about now.