Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Logos
Sochi 2014 Mascots and Slogan
The mascots of the Olympic Games - the Leopard, the Polar Bear, and the Hare.
The mascots of the Paralympic Games - the Snowflake and the Ray of Light.
The slogan of the Sochi Olympics - “Hot. Cool. Yours.”
Mascots of the Games
Sochi Winter Olympics mascots
Sochi Winter Paralympics mascots
Unofficial symbol of Sochi 2014 - Zoich
Sochi 2014 Main Places
The Games took place in two main areas (clusters): the Coastal Cluster and the Mountain Cluster.
The Coastal Cluster (the Olympic Park)
The Olympic Park is located on the Black Sea coast in the Imereti Valley. It was the central object of the Coastal Cluster combining all sports facilities, parkland and infrastructure.
First time in the history of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games all the ice arena were within walking distance from each other.
Major facilities of the Coastal Cluster:
- Olympic Stadium “Fisht”, 40.000 seats. The stadium was used for the opening and closing ceremonies, ceremonies of awarding medals.
- Ice Dome “Bolshoy”, 12.000 seats, hockey.
- Ice Arena “Shayba”, 7.000 seats, hockey.
- Curling center “Ice Cube”, 3.000 seats, curling.
- Skating Palace “Iceberg”, 12.000 seats, figure skating, short track.
- “Adler-Arena”, 8.000 seats, speed skating.
- Main Olympic Village, a place where most of the participants of the Games lived.
The Mountain Cluster (Krasnaya Polyana)
The Mountain Cluster is situated at a distance of 48 km from the Coastal Cluster, approximate travel time between clusters - 30 minutes by railway.
Major facilities of the Mountain Cluster:
- Cross country ski and biathlon center “Laura”, 7.500 seats.
- Alpine center “Rosa Khutor”: ski center and extreme park, 17.750 seats, skiing, snowboarding, freestyle.
- Jumping center “RusSki Gorki”, 7.500 seats, ski jumping.
- Sliding center “Sanki”, 5.000 seats, bobsled, skeleton, luge.
- Mountain Olympic Village
Interesting Facts about Sochi 2014 Olympics
Olympics in Sochi were the 22nd Winter Olympic Games. Moscow was hosting the 22nd Summer Olympic Games in 1980.
The actual cost of the Games including the construction of infrastructure facilities was more than $ 50 billion USD. This figure is a record not only in absolute terms in the history of the Olympic Games, but also on the excess over the original estimates (more than 4 times).
Sochi city is one of the few places in Russia where the snow in the winter time is a rare natural phenomenon.
On the territory of Sochi Olympic facilities you could use cash or only Visa cards for payment purposes.
98 sets of medals were played at the Games, 12 more than it was in Vancouver, Canada in 2010.
Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay
October 7, 2013, the torch relay began in Moscow. February 7, 2014, it will end in Sochi.
This torch relay is the longest in history - 123 days and more than 40 thousand kilometers. Olympic flame will visit the capitals of all 83 subjects of the Russian Federation.
During this relay, the torch was in many unusual places. Russian cosmonaut on board of the International Space Station took it with him for a walk in open space; the torch was lowered to the bottom of Lake Baikal, etc.
Unfortunately, during the relay, Olympic flame died away repeatedly. For the first time it happened just after the beginning of the relay, on the territory of the Kremlin in Moscow.
Olympic torch was lit again immediately but with the help of a lighter of one of the agents of Federal Security Service guarding the Kremlin. This fact was the reason of a lot of jokes on this subject among Russians.
The Winter Games 2014
Olympic torch lit in the Kremlin
Coastal Cluster - the Olympic Park
Mountain Cluster - the ski jumping venue
Problems and Criticism of the Olympic Games in Sochi
Sochi Olympics cause a mixed reaction of Russian citizens. It is well known that the level of corruption in the country is one of the highest in the world.
The total cost of the Olympic venues and infrastructure exceeded the estimated many times, i.e. there are extensive corruption schemes.
The very idea of the Olympic Games in a country where there are serious problems with the health services, education, roads and other infrastructure also causes numerous complaints.
Sochi Olympics took place just a hundred kilometers from the armed conflict in the North Caucasus.
The epicenter of the conflict is a little further from Sochi, near Dagestan Republic, where only during the first nine months of 2013 more than 400 men were killed. But armed resistance is quite active in some areas located closer to Sochi, for example in Kabardino-Balkaria Republic.
That’s why the territory of the Games was closed to public access during the Olympics (you had to have either a local registration, accreditation or special passport of the Olympic fan). The territory was controlled by FSB (Federal Security Service); airspace was controlled by air defense brigades of the Russian army.
Also, during construction, there were numerous violations of the rights of migrant workers; compliance with all environmental regulations remains in question too.
Future of Sochi and all constructed facilities after the Olympic Games is also very vague, because it is unlikely that the city will become the tourist capital of the world level.
Sochi Winter Games - Hot. Cool. Yours
Sub-tropical Sochi
Sochi 2014 Mountain Cluster
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