If You're Going To Sochi, Be Ready For This

Meet the unlikely emblem of the Olympic Games: A picture taken in Sochi's Olympic Biathlon Center, which features two toilets in a single men's cubicle, is doing the rounds on Twitter. BBC cameraman Steve Rosenberg snapped and Tweeted the photo with the caption: "Seeing double in the Gentlemen's Loo at the Olympic Biathlon Centre." He then assured his baffled followers: "Just to make clear, this is not photoshopped. You can see my reflection in the flusher."

Cue jokes about the real meaning of "biathlon," and and warnings not to retweet the pic in case it breaches Russia's law against "gay propaganda."

As it happens, twin toilets are quite common in Russia, as revealed by journalist Nikita Likhachev in a blog for Russian news website Tjournal. He's even collected other examples of two-for-one urinals. But the whole furor is pretty embarrassing for Russia: The Biathlon Centre was completed nearly two years ago, with investment from the Russian state gas company Gazprom, and is "one of the biggest and most comfortable structures of its kind in the world." Well, according to Gazprom, that is.

So could the $45 million dollars spent on the Sochi media center really not have factored in an extra stall? And, if not, how about just an extra roll of toilet paper so visitors don't have to deal with that uncomfortable "could you please pass me..." exchange?

At least there won't be any surveillance cameras in Sochi toilets — unlike at the London Games in 2012. Visitors to the facilities can be rest assured, that, whatever the awkward or comedic exchange that takes place at the twin urinals, it will remain their private moment.