2014 Winter Olympics

"2014 Olympics" redirects here. For the Summer Youth Olympics, see 2014 Summer Youth Olympics.

The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXII Olympic Winter Games, is an international winter multiple sports event that will be held from February 7 to February 23, 2014. The host city, Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, was elected on July 4, 2007, during the 119th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Guatemala City, Guatemala. This will be the first time that the Russian Federation will host the Winter Olympics; the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.

The Games will be organized within two clusters, a coastal cluster in Sochi and a mountain cluster in Krasnaya Polyana.

Emblem

"sochi2014.ru" is the only Olympic emblem to include a web address. The ".ru" in the emblem is Russia's web-domain address, and shows that Sochi 2014 is an Olympic Winter Games hosted by a whole nation, as well as the Black Sea sub-tropical city of Sochi. The mirror of "Sochi" and "2014" 'reflects' that Sochi is a meeting point between sea and mountains. As the main component of the Sochi 2014 emblem, the Olympic rings sit large and in color to show that this is a symbol of progress for the Olympic Movement. The change of colours and inner design of the rest of the emblem encourages people to express themselves, with some expected to transform it using traditional images, while others will take an ultra-modern approach.

Sochi Olympic Park

This sketch shows the Olympic Park concept with all venues gathered around the Medals Plaza

The Sochi Olympic Park will be built along the Black Sea coast in the Imeretin Valley. All the venues listed below are new and need to be built. The venues will be clustered around a central water basin on which the Medals Plaza will be built. This will provide a great compactness of the concept with the Olympic Stadium and all indoor venues of the Olympics gathered within walking distance.

• Major Ice Arena - ice hockey, 12,000 spectators.
• Minor Ice Arena - ice hockey, 7,000 spectators.
• Speed skating Centre - speed skating, 8,000 spectators.
• Ice Palace - skating, short track speed skating, 12,000 spectators.
• Curling Arena - curling, 3,000 spectators.
• Olympic Stadium - 40,000 spectators.
• Main Olympic village
• International broadcasting center and main press-room

Krasnaya Polyana

• Psekhako Ridge — Biathlon, Cross-country skiing and Nordic combined
• Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort — Alpine skiing, Freestyle Sking and Snowboard
• Alpica Service Mountain Resort — Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton
• Russian National Ski-jumping Centre — Ski jumping and Nordic combined
• Rosa Khutor Plateau Olympic Village

Additional sports

Several sports applied for inclusion into the official sport program of these olympic games. The sports included:

• Ski-orienteering [2]
• Ski mountaineering [3], [4]
• Winter triathlon [5]

On November 28, 2006, the Executive Board of the IOC decided not to include these sports in the review process of the program.

The International Biathlon Union has formally applied to the IOC to have the event of mixed relay biathlon included in 2014 Games. The IOC will make a decision at the end of 2011.

Bid process

Main article: Bids for the 2014 Winter Olympics

2014 Winter Olympics bidding results
City	NOC Name	Round 1	Round 2
Sochi	Russia	34	51
PyeongChang	South Korea	36	47
Salzburg	Austria	25	-

Organizing Committee

Countdown to the Olympics in Sochi

The Sochi 2014 Olympic Organizing Committee was established on October 2, 2007 by the Russian Olympic Committee, the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sports, and the Administration of the City of Sochi.

Chief Executive Officer

• Dmitry Chernyshenko

Supervisory Board

• Alexander Zhukov (Chair)
• Dmitry Kozak
• Dmitry Chernyshenko
• Semen Vainshtok
• Viktor Kolodyazhny
• Alexei Kudrin
• Alexander Tkachyov
• Leonid Tyagachyov
• Viacheslav Fetisov
• Viktor Khotochkin
• Vitaly Smirnov
• Shamil Tarpischev
• Alexander Popov
• Vladimir Lukin
• Tatiana Dobrokhvalova

Mr. Belter

Functions

• Planning and managing of all the events of the 2014 Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi;
• Provision of IOC regulations and observation for the project planning and construction of sports venues and infrastructure facilities as well as the IOC regulations for transportation system, security issues, medical service and others;
• Execution of financial planning and monitoring of the Sochi 2014 budget implementation; provision of financial reports for the IOC on a regular basis;
• Provision of financing for all the activities in the framework of the Sochi 2014 preparation and execution including educational, cultural and promotional events;
• Protection of the IOC intellectual property rights.

Construction

The Olympic infrastructure is being constructed according to a Federal Target Programme (FTP). In June 2009 the Games organizers reported they are one year ahead in starting building the main Olympic facilities as compared to all of the latest Olympic Games.

Telecommunications

According to the FTP, $580 million will be spent on construction and modernization of telecommunications in the region.

Expected to be built:

• A network of TETRA mobile radio communications for 100 user groups (with capacity of 10 thousand subscribers);
• 700 km of fiber-optic cables along the Anapa-Dzhubga-Sochi highways and Dzhubga-Krasnodar branch;
• Digital broadcasting infrastructure, including radio and TV broadcasting stations (building and communications tower) with coverage from Grushevaya Polyana (Pear Glade) to Sochi and Anapa cities. The project also includes construction of infocommunications centre for broadcasting abroad via three HDTV satellites.

During the Olympic Games, the telecommunications backbones of UTK, Rostelecom and TransTeleCom providers will be used.

The fiber-optic channel links Sochi between Adler and Krasnaya Polyana. The 46 km long channel will enable videoconferencing and news reporting from the Olympics.

Power infrastructure

A five year strategy for increasing power supply in the Sochi region was presented by Russian energy experts during a seminar on May 29, 2009, held by the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, and attended by International Olympic Committee (IOC) experts and officials from the Russian Ministry of Regional Development, the Russian Ministry of Energy, the State Corporation Olimpstroy and the Krasnodar Region’s administration.

The event was a part of the Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKM) program by the IOC.

According to the strategy, the capacity of the regional energy network will increase by two and a half times by 2014, guaranteeing stable power supply during and after the Games.

Power demand of Sochi in the end of May 2009 was 424 MW. Power demand of the Olympic infrastructure is expected to be about 340 MW.

• «Poselkovaya» electrical substation became operational in early 2009.
• Sochi thermal power station is being reconstructed (expected power output is 160 MW).
• «Laura» and «Rosa Khutor» electrical substations, currently in design phase, will be completed in November 2010.
• «Mzymta» electrical substation will be completed in March 2011.
• «Krasnopolyanskaya» hydroelectric power station will be completed in March 2010.
• Adler CHP station design and construction will be completed in 2012. Expected power output is 360 MW.
• «Bytkha» substation, to be constructed with two transformers 25 MW each, will include dependable microprocessor-based protection.

Earlier plans also include building combined cycle (steam and gas) power stations near the cities of Tuapse and Novorossiysk and construction of a cable-wire powerline, partially on the floor of the Black Sea.

Transportation

The transportation infrastructure being prepared to support the Olympics includes many roads, tunnels, bridges, interchanges, railroads and stations in and around Sochi.

The Sochi Light Metro will be constructed between Adler and Krasnaya Polyana to connect the Olympic Park, the airport and the venues in Krasnaya Polyana.

The existing 102 km Tuapse to Adler railroad will be reconstructed to provide double track throughout, increasing capacity and enabling a reliable regional service to be provided. The railroad will also be extended to the airport. In December 2009 Russian Railways ordered 38 Siemens Mobility Desiro trains for delivery in 2013 for use during the Olympics, with an option for a further 16 which would be partly built in Russia.

Russian Railways is going to establish a high-speed Moscow-Adler link and a new railroad (more than 60 km long) passing by the territory of Ukraine.

At the Sochi airport, a new terminal has been built and a 3.5 km runway extension is planned, possibly overlapping Mzymta river. Backup airports will be built in Gelendzhik, Mineralnye Vody and Krasnodar by 2009.

At the Sochi sea port, a new offshore terminal will be constructed 1.5 km from the shore to allow docking for cruise ships with capacities of 3000 passengers. The cargo terminal of the sea port is to be moved from the Sochi centre.

Road ways will be detoured, some going around the construction site and others being cut off.

In May 2009 Russian Railways started the construction of tunnel complex No.1 (the total will be six) on the combined road (automobile and railway) from Adler to Alpica Service Mountain Resort in Krasnaya Polyana region. The tunnel complex No.1 is located near Akhshtyr settlement in Adlersky City District, and includes:

• escape tunnel, 2.25 km, to be completed in Q1 2010,
• road tunnel, 2153 m, to be completed in Q1 2013,
• one-track railway tunnel, 2473 m, to be completed in Q2 2013.

Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin said the road construction will cost more than 200 billion rubles.

Other infrastructure

Funds will be spent on construction of 15 modern sport venues and some hotels for 10,300 guests. The first of the Olympic hotels, «Zvezdny» (Stellar), will be rebuilt anew.

«Federation» island will be built in the sea near the Lesser Akhun subdistrict of Khostinsky City District. The island will be shaped like the Russian Federation. It will hold hotels and offices.

Significant funds are to be spent on construction of advanced sewage treatment system in Sochi, being designed by Olimpstroy. The system meets BREF standards and employs top available technologies for environment protection, including tertiary treatment with microfiltration.

Logo and mascot

Along with 2008 Russian presidential election, on March 2, 2008 there was an unofficial referendum held in Sochi to elect the mascot for the 2014 Winter Olympics. 270,000 voters along with their ballots received a coupon with four mascot candidates: Ded Moroz, a snowflake, a polar bear and a dolphin. According to a representative of Sochi city administration, the majority of Sochians voted for the dolphin. However, representatives of the Sochi Organizing Committee for the Games, which is to officially elect a logo and a mascot, commented, that while respecting the opinion of Sochians, such a procedure is usually held later, the mascot is to be elected not earlier than 2011 and the logo in the middle of 2009. They also pointed out, that the final version of the mascot should be a consensus of opinions of all citizens of the country and the result of work by professional designers and market analysts. On December 1, 2009 the official 2014 Winter Olympic logo was released. International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge, said of the logo: "It's very appealing. It's very creative, innovative. I think it will appeal especially to the young population."

Security

The Russian military have offered to provide the S-400 Triumf advanced surface-to-air missile system as part of the large-scale security measures during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The South Ossetia armed conflict which occurred in 2008, have sparked concerns regarding the preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which is located close to the disputed region of Abkhazia. In the aftermath of the war, the Georgian National Olympic Committee asked, in November 2008, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reconsider its decision to hold the Olympics on the territory “adjacent both to the [Russian-] occupied Abkhaz conflict zone, and to the extremely unstable and volatile North Caucasus”. The IOC responded that ensuring security at the Sochi Olympics was up to Russian organizers, and rejected this Georgia's request.

Financing

According to Sochi 2014 Olympic Organizing Commettee President and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko, the successful partnership and commercial programs will allow to use funds generated by Sochi 2014 for the 2009-2010 development period, postponing the need for the state funds guaranteed by the Russian Government. He confirmed that the Organizing Committee has successfully generated more than $500 million through the marketing program in the first five months of 2009.

Russia will provide nearly 327 billion rubles (approximately US$ 10.85 billion) for the total development, expansion and hosting of the Games. 192.4 billion rubles must come from the Federal budget and 7.1 billion rubles — from the Krasnodar Krai budget and from the Sochi budget.

The following funds have been approved within the Federal budget for the development of Sochi:

Funds approved from 2006 till 2014
Year	Billions of rubles
2006	4.9
2007	15.9
2008	31.6
2009	27.3
2010	22.2
2011	27.1
2012	26.3
2013	22.1
2014	8.4

Financing from non-budget sources (including private investor funds) is distributed as follows:

• Tourist infrastructure — $2.6 billion;
• Olympic venues — $500 million;
• Transport infrastructure — $270 million;
• Power supply infrastructure — $100 million.

Calendar

A calendar of events was submitted as part of Sochi's bid. The calendar is subject to change, and does not include any events that have been or may be added to the programme (such as skicross) after the proposed calendar was created.

Criticism

Environment

Despite several expert statements that the construction of Olympic venues in the buffer area of the UNESCO protected Caucasus Biosphere Reserve and Sochi National Park could be harmful, the IOC approved the plans. Greenpeace of Russia said that the IOC and the Russian Government assume all responsibility for any damage to the West Caucasus natural UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the Sochi bid, an array of construction is planned in the Grushevyi Ridge area. These include a cascade of hydroelectric power stations on the Mzymta River, sewage treatment facilities, a high-speed rail link, a Mountain Olympic Village, a track for luge and bobsleigh (which is now being relocated), and a biathlon venue. Alpine skiing venues are being constructed in the Rosa Khutor plateau and the Psekhako Ridge area. Environmentalists propose building up Krasnaya Polyana instead of destroying nature reserve sites. Plans for construction of Olympic venues have been criticized by environmentalists as an opportunity to re-zone and partition the Sochi National Park, to allow sale of land to the private sector for development.

Environmentalists also oppose the plan of construction of a cargo terminal for ships in the mouth of the Psou River in the Imereti Lowland, because this could lead to the destruction of the largest areas of sea-flooded shore and marshes.

On July 3, 2008, Vladimir Putin directed some of the Olympic venues, such as the luge and bobsleigh track, to be relocated. He said "In setting our priorities and choosing between money and the environment, we're choosing the environment."

Economy

According to IRN.Ru analytical agency, prices for land, located next to the shoreline, reach $150,000 per 100 m², while price per square metre in average panel apartment building on the outskirts of the city already reaches $2000. "As a result of 2014 Olympics euphoria prices will rise annually by 15-20%," speculates Irina Tyurina, press secretary of Russian Tourist Industry Union. This could lead to decrease in tourist interest to Sochi, which already has fallen below Anapa, Gelendzhik and Adler.

After the IOC Evaluation Commission visited Sochi in February 2007, local authorities promised to buy the lands from Lower Imereti Bay long-time residents for a fair market price. But during the following half a year, no local resident could get his land approved as private property.

Circassians

Circassian organisations in the North Caucasus have also spoken out against the Olympics, pointing out that the games will take place on the land that had been inhabited by their ancestors until the 1860s, when the Russian-Circassian War, which they claim to have been a genocide, forced 97 percent of the Circassians to move to the Ottoman Empire. The moderate groups have not expressed outright opposition to the Olympics but argue that symbols of Circassian history and culture should be included in the format, as Australia and Canada did with their indigenous populations in 2000 and 2010 respectively.

Broadcast rights

• Brazil - Rede Globo, Rede Bandeirantes, Rede Record and Sportv
• Italy - SKY Italia and a free-tv broadcaster due to compulsory free broadcasting of the event
• Mexico - TV Azteca, Televisa
• India - Kerala Vision
• South Korea - SBS
• United Kingdom - BBC
• Netherlands - NOS

• 2014 Winter Paralympics
• Olympic Games
• Winter Olympic Games
• International Olympic Committee
• IOC country codes

External links

• Sochi 2014 from the International Olympic Committee
• Official website
• International Olympic Committee
• Olimpstroy state corporation