KAZAN, Russia — In his first trip abroad, Michael Weiss visited a place he had a hard time locating on a map. Was Kazan a sports destination or an exclamation popularized by the television character Gomer Pyle?
Weiss arrived with the United States swim team competing at the 2013 World University Games and eyed the decrepit Soviet-era buildings juxtaposed with new construction in the crane-filled skyline. He noted the mosques side by side with churches, the gun-toting troops patrolling entrances, and a few recognizable United States-based fast-food chains.
And he became more disoriented.
How to make sense of all these sports complexes coated in construction dust inside a fortress?