Universiade-2017: Athletic Village is ready

Just a few weeks are left before the start of the Winter Student Games in Almaty - the Universiade-2017. Tengrinews.kz correspondent visited the Athletic village, where the final preparations are going on for a meeting of foreign delegations and participants of the Student Games.

According to the Department for preparation and holding of the 28th World Winter Universiade in 2017 in Almaty, in the whole, facilities in the athletic village are 100 per cent ready.

Athletic village started to be built in Alatau district of Almaty in December 2014, and its construction was completed in August 2016. In less than a year, an entire district with the appropriate infrastructure has emerged, which is located in the immediate vicinity of "Almaty Arena" Ice Palace. The total area of ??the village is 24, 41 ha, the living space - 125 thousand square meters. In total, there are 1748 apartments, in which athletes will be staying during the competition.

Foreign athletes will start arriving on 24 January and will spend about 18 days here. A special permit must be granted in order to get to the athletic village.

The visitors and athletes will be welcomed in the building called "Pyramid." Here the athletes and delegates will be accredited and will continue to be distributed to residential housing.

"It is the" Pyramid" to become a place where the athletes and members of delegations will arrive at first. It is also our main operation center, where introscopes with an average throughput of 2-4 minutes per person are set. Security check is mandatory for all. All the service units such as accreditation centre, bank offices, the main game information centre, and waiting area will be located.” - the head of the Athletic village management Department Sanym Sharipova said.

For security reasons, the territory of Athletic Village will be surrounded by a fence, in fact, there will be  about 500 cameras located on the site: along the perimeter, in residential units, on every floor, in public places. A wall with videos from all the cameras will be displayed in full in the control station, located in the territory. Needless to say, the order in the Athletic Village will be provided by the police.

On the second floor of the "Pyramid" there is a 24/7 restaurant for athletes at the 1000 seats. There are five types of cuisines on the menu: Asian, European, Kazakh, vegetarian and halal. "Athletes will be provided with only natural foods. All dishes containing at least 4000 calories are to be prepared in the Athletic Village’s kitchen." – Sanym Sharipova said.

In his spare time, foreign visitors will be able to visit the interactive museum of national instruments, which is located on the top floor of the "Pyramid". It exhibits the unique Kazakh instruments played by great Kazakh musicians - Amre Kashaubaev, Zhambyl Zhabayev, Kenen Azerbaev and others.

Athletes and people accompanying them will be staying in the new residential buildings with 1-, 2-, 3-person rooms. Rooms are equipped with washing machines, TVs, safes, minibars and other necessary household items. After the Games, all the furniture and appliances will be donated to children's homes and hospitals, while the apartments will be distributed among those on the waiting list.

In addition, the Athletic Village has its own clinic, on the basis of which doping controls will be carried out. A fitness center with swimming pool, spa and a beauty salon, a supermarket, an Internet cafe, a library and prayer rooms for the representatives of different faiths will also be available.

According to the architectural plan the design of the Athletic Village is U-shaped with a large playground in the middle.

The organization and staging of the Games attracts  about three thousand volunteers, who are trained to work in stressful situations and communicate with foreign guests.

 "The volunteers will be employed in more than 30 areas. Sport volunteers will assist in sports facilities, welcome athletes. Some will meet  guests at the airport.  The others are to accompany the delegates, athletes and guests during the event. There will also be transport, catering and accommodation volunteers", - head of the Department on work with volunteers Ablay Kondybai said. All volunteers will be equipped with warm clothing - jackets, sweatshirts, hats, scarves.

The programme of events includes figure skating, curling, ice hockey, short track, alpine skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, freestyle skiing and speed skating. Opening and closing ceremonies of the World Winter Student Games will take place in "Almaty Arena" Ice Palace, which has been specially built for the Universiade-2017. Competitions will be held in the "Arena of Almaty", "Halyk Arena", the Palace of Sports Baluan Sholak, "Medeo" skating rink, and at "Sunkar" International Ski Jump Complex and Shymbulak ski resort.

Tickets for the Universiade-2017 can still be purchased on the official website of the Games. The cost of entry to the competition is on average from 300 to 1 500 KZT. Tickets for the opening ceremony will cost more- from 12 to 15 thousand KZT.