You're reading: Lifestyle Blog: Sochi Olympics website puts Kyiv in Russia

Toilets and unfinished hotels were not the only things that went wrong at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Organizers failed the georgraphical and language challenges too, making numerous mistakes in the profiles of the Ukrainian athletes listed on the Olympics official website.

One explanation is simple error. But many ascribe a deeper motive, suggesting that it’s more evidence that the Kremlin — which ruled parts of Ukraine for centuries — still cannot accept that Ukraine is an independent sovereign nation. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in particular, is criticized for harboring imperialistic ambitions over Ukraine and for his unwillingness to accept the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

For example, the last
name in the profile of biathlete Olena Pidhrushna is mistakenly written as Pidkhrushna (Пидхрушна) in Russian.

Olena Pidhrushna

The Ukrainian cities listed as residence places of some Ukrainian athletes were declared Russian. The cities of Ternopil, Chernihiv and Sumy
appeared to have become part of Russia.

Artem Pryma

Valentyna Semerenko

Andriy Deryzemlya

It still
remains unclear how the mistakes happened. Even Ukraine’s capital was listed as a Russian city. Organizers mentioned “Kyiv,
Russia” as a place of
residence of Ukraine’s biathlete Yulia Dzhyma.

Yuliya Dzhyma

The website removed the false information on the athletes’ profiles shortly after the errors came to the public’s attention on Feb. 9. Now the place of residence field is empty in the profiles the athletes in question. 

This is not
the first time such mistakes have occured.

During the 2012 Summer Olympics in London more, than 30 Russian Olympic athletes who were born
outside Russia had their
birthplaces changed to Russia on
the official Olympic website. Also, Alexey Korovashkov, who canoed for the Russian Federation,
was listed as being born in “Ukraine Region”. Some Ukraine-born athletes were
listed as being born in “Lvov Region (RUS)” or
“Lutsk (RUS).”