Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic uniforms released, but questions remain before Sochi

The 2014 Sochi Olympics are almost upon us, and the official release of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic team uniforms Wednesday is an indication of that. Wednesday's event, which saw Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes don the new Hudson's Bay Company-supplied uniforms at an unveiling in Toronto (you can see a full gallery of those here), was timed to take place exactly 100 days before the start of the games, as was the CBC's announcement of their coverage plans and broadcast teams. As such, both serve as reminders of how many issues remain to be addressed before the Olympics begin. On a Canada-centric front, we now know what clothing the country's athletes will be wearing while they're not in competition, but we don't yet have a great sense of which athletes are rounding into form in time to contend for medals (as many sports still have high-profile events between now and Feb. 7), and we don't even know how much corporate support certain teams will get. On an Olympic-wide front, the issues go even further.

With just over three months to go, there are still plenty of questions about how the Sochi Games are going to play out. Perhaps the most notable one surrounds the treatment of openly gay athletes and spectators, which has come into question thanks to a new law in Russia that "criminalizes public expression of support for nontraditional relationships" and reportedly led to an increase in homophobic violence. The law has been harshly criticized by rights organizations and Olympic sponsors, and some people have even called for a boycott of the Games, although people like Patrick and Brian Burke and organizations like You Can Play have said that isn't the answer.

Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Wednesday he's received assurances from Russian president Vladimir Putin that gays won't be discriminated against, and Putin himself said "We will do everything to make sure that athletes, fans and guests feel comfortable at the Olympic Games regardless of their ethnicity, race or sexual orientation." While that's appeased some, including Australian chef de mission Ian Chesterman, it's no guarantee that things will go well, especially when Bach declined to meet with Russian gay activists this week. This is a storyline that's likely to run throughout the Olympics, and it's worth watching.

Beyond that, questions remain about how ready the facilities will be. Russia is reportedly spending a total of $51 billion on these games, which would make them the most expensive Olympics ever, winter or summer. (By comparison, Beijing 2008, the previous standard for Olympic price, was estimated to cost $40-44 billion.) Even with that, though, it may not all be smooth sailing. An excellent story in Sports Illustrated last February showed just how vast of an undertaking these games will be, as Sochi had "neither a single venue nor an extensive modern infrastructure" before being given the Olympics. Much of the infrastructure is being finished only shortly before the Games, and that could be interesting. There are security concerns, too, as a Chechen militant leader has called for attacks on the Olympics, and a bombing on a bus in Volgograd last week has many worried. Even if the venues are ready and the security's solid, we'll see if Putin's prediction that there will be no snow shortage will come true.

There may be 100 days before the Olympics officially kick off, but plenty of important things may still happen before then. It's definitely worth watching how Canadians do in World Cup competitions over the next couple of months to see who looks like a medal threat, and there should be no end of interesting news from the various Canadian teams as they gear up for Sochi. On a wider level, we'll see if more comes out about how gay athletes and spectators will be treated, or if more information on the Sochi venues and security threats comes to light. We now know how the Canadian team's going to be dressed, but there's a lot more than that to the Olympics. While this unveiling's notable, it's more of a start to the deeper elements of Olympic coverage than something significant in its own right.