"As builders worked feverishly to get the Black Sea resort ready for winter games so closely tied to President Vladimir Putin's legacy, they failed to notice the effects their work was having on the village below."

"Until the walls of Vorochkova's two-storey home fell. Tell-tale cracks snaked through neighboring houses.

The 58-year-old housewife now lives in an aluminum shack and is fighting a legal battle for compensation over damage she blames on Olympic subcontractors. Other villages near Sochi offer similar complaints of ruined homes, illegal landfills and broken promises that their lives would not be poisoned by construction."

Thomas Grove reports for Reuters January 20, 2014. [2]