February 16-23, 2014: Winter Olympics

Sochi was chosen as the host city of the 2014 Olympic Games during the 119th session of the International Olympic Committee in Guatemala on July 4, 2007.

Russia will host Winter Olympics for the first time. 84 complete sets of medals in 15 sports will be awarded.

Sochi was chosen as the host city of the 2014 Olympic Games during the 119th session of the International Olympic Committee in Guatemala on July 4, 2007.

Russia will host the Olympic Games for the second time. It hosted the Summer Olympics of 1980, and will host the Winter Olympics for the first time.

During the 2014 Winter Olympics 84 complete sets of medals in 15 sports will be awarded. Apart from the main games, Paralympics will also be held.

The Olympics have five mascots. There was an All-Russian mascot contest. The competition of 24,000 designs has been won by the Polar Bear, the Leopard and the Hare; Ray of Light and Snowflake having become mascots of the Paralympics.

As part of the preparations for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, two Olympic villages will be built, the main village being situated on the Black Sea coast, the second one being located in the mountains. The process of construction will comply with the strictest international environmental standards.

11 new sport facilities will be built as two compact complexes. The average distance between the coastal sport facilities and the Olympic village will make up 6 km, the distance between mountain sport facilities and the second Olympic village constituting 4 km. The complexes will be 48 km away from each other.

The coastal facilities for ice competitions will be situated at the Imeretin Valley, along the Black Sea coast, and will comprise all the ice facilities, including the Bolshoi Ice Palace, the Maly Ice Palace, the Olympic Oval, the Sochi Olympic Skating Centre, the Olympic Curling Centre, the Central Stadium and the main Olympic village, as well as the International Centre of TV and Radio Broadcasting and the Main Press Centre.

The mountain facilities will be located at Krasnaya Polyana and will comprise skiing and toboggan facilities.

The Main Press Centre will be situated inside the coastal facilities in close proximity to transportation routs and the Black Sea coast. The second press centre will provide services for the mountain complex in Krasnaya Polyana.

The improved transport infrastructure will include the Olympic highway, Olympic trails and the new tunnel connecting the coast with Krasnaya Polyana.

Modern facilities and hotels will accommodate the Olympic family and the spectators in a most comfortable way. They will make it possible to minimize harmful environmental effects and to ensure a high level of security to enable an impeccable Olympics.

The role of Russia in the Olympic movement will be boosted, as the winter sports centre on the mountainside of Krasnaya Polyana will provide athletes and the international sport federation with modern sports facilities that can be used for training and for competitions.

The Olympic facilities to be constructed

• The Bolshoi Ice Palace — hockey, 12,000 spectators.
• The Maly Ice Palace — hockey, 7,000 spectators.
• Skating Centre — skating, 8,000 spectators.
• The Ice Palace — figure skating, short track, 12,000 spectators.
• Curling Arena — curling, 3,000 viewers.
• Olympic Stadium, 40,000 spectators.
• The Main Olympic Village.

The telecommunications infrastructure of the region will be modernized. The following is planned to be built: mobile radio network of the TETRA standard, 700 km of optic-fibre links, infrastructure for TV and radio broadcasting.

A special railway line between Adler and Krasnaya Polyana will be constructed that will connect the Olympic Park, the airport and Krasnaya Polyana facilities. The existing railway Tuapse-Adler is to be reconstructed. The Sochi airport, where a new air terminal has been built, will see the extension of the take-off runway of up to 3.5 km. An alternate airfield will be built in Gelendzhik, Mineralniye Vody and Krasnodar. The Sochi marine port will see the construction of a remote terminal that will enable the port to accept cruisers with the capacity of 3,000 passengers.

Federation Island with hotel and recreation facilities is one of the artificial islands due for construction. More than 10 artificial islands will be built.