2014 Winter Olympics Totally Explained

Everything about 2014 Winter Olympics totally explained

The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXII Olympic Winter Games, is an international winter multiple sports event that will be celebrated from February 7 to February 23 2014. The host city, Sochi, Russia, was elected on July 4 2007, during the 119th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Guatemala City, Guatemala. This will be Russia's first time hosting the Winter Olympics (the Soviet Union had previously hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow). While not strictly true, it's claimed that this will be the first Winter Olympics ever held in the subtropics.

Venues

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

Sochi Olympic Park

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

Krasnaya Polyana

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

Additional sports

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

Ski orienteering (External Link

)

Ski mountaineering (External Link

), (External Link

)

Winter triathlon (External Link

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

) New disciplines within the existing Olympics winter sports may be added until 2009, while events of existing Olympic disciplines may be added until 2011.

Bid process

2014 Winter Olympics bidding results
City	NOC Name	Round 1	Round 2
Sochi		34	51
PyeongChang		36	47
Salzburg		25

Organizing Committee

The Sochi 2014 Olympic Organizing Committee (SOOC) 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.

Head

Dmitry Chernyshenko (CEO)

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

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

Construction of the olympic infrastructure is expected under direction of the Federal Target Programme (FTP).

Telecommunications

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

network of TETRA mobile radio communications for 100 user groups (with capacity of 10 thousands subscribers);

700 km of fiber-optic cables along Anapa-Dzhubga-Sochi highways and Dzhubga-Krasnodar branch;

digital broadcasting infrastructure, including radio and TV broadcasting station (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, telecommunications backbones of UTK, Rostelecom and TransTeleCom providers will be used.
Fiber-optic channel is created in Sochi between Adler and Krasnaya Polyana. The 46 km long channel will enable videoconferencing and news reporting from the Olympics.

Power infrastructure

By July 2007 the total output of Sochi power stations was 350 MW. Planned before 2011 is construction and improvement of four power stations and four cascaded hydroelectric power stations with total output of 1129 MW. Operations cost is expected to approximate 83.6 billion rubles ($3.2 billion). It is expected to

double Sochi thermal power station output;

reconstruct Krasnopolyanskaya hydroelectric power station;

build Krasnodarskaya and Adlerskaya CHP power stations;

build power complex of four cascaded hydroelectric power stations on Mzymta river;

build combined cycle (steam and gas) power stations near Tuapse and Novorossiysk cities. Power generation will take 33.7 billion rubles ($1.3 billion), while investments in power infrastructure, power grids (that will be totally rebuilt) will require 49.9 billion rubles ($1.9 billion). Construction of a cable-wire powerline, partially on the Black Sea bottom, is planned as well.
   At the Sochi airport, where a new terminal has been built, a runway extension is planned up to 3.5 km, 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 to allow docking for cruise ships with capacities of 3000 passengers. The terminal is to be placed 1.5 km away from the shore. Cargo terminal of the sea port is to be moved off the Sochi centre.
   Road ways will be detoured. Some will go around construction site. Others will be cut off.

Other infrastructure

Besides that, funds will be spent on construction of 15 modern sport venues and some hotels for 10,300 guests.
There are also plans to build «Federation» island in the sea near Lesser Akhun subdistrict of Khostinsky City District. The shape of the island will reflect that of the Russian Federation. The island is to be filled with hotels and offices.
Significant funds are to be spent on construction of sewage treatment facilities in Sochi.

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 a 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.

Security

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

Financing

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

Total funds to be approved and invested according to the Federal Target Programme is 327.2 billion rubles. 192.4 billion rubles must come from the Federal budget and 7.1 billion rubles — from Krasnodar Krai budget and from Sochi budget.
   Financing from non-budget sources (including private investor funds) is distributed as follows:
Local environmentalists have also objected to the choice of Sochi for the games. Tatyana Lysenko, deputy chairwoman of the Maikop Society for the Protection of Nature, said that the construction involved will damage the unique landscape of the North Caucasus. «For the first time in history, Olympic facilities will be built in specially protected territories that are a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site», she said.
According to IRN.Ru analytical agency, prices for new Sochi houses, located next to the shoreline, reach $15000 per square metre, 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%», — assumes Irina Tyurina, press secretary of Russian Tourist Industry Union. This leads to decrease in tourist interest to Sochi, which already has fallen below Anapa, Gelendzhik and Adler. Prices for Sochi coastal lands reach $150000 per 100 m². IOC virtually ignored numerous expert statements that broad buildout with sport venues of buffer area of Caucasus Biosphere Reserve, placed under UNESCO protection, and Sochi national park, especially untouched Grushevyi (Pear) Ridge, is unacceptable. «Greenpeace of Russia», right after IOC voting results were announced, said that since then IOC along with Russian Government are fully responsible for any damage to «West Caucasus» natural UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to Sochi bid, in Grushevyi Ridge area it's planned to build a cascade of hydroelectric power stations on Mzymta River, sewage treatment facilities, high-speed railroad, Mountain Olympic Village, track for luge and bobsleigh, and biathlon venue. Alpine skiing venues are being constructed in Rosa Khutor plateau and Psekhako Ridge area. Environmentalists propose to build up Krasnaya Polyana instead of destroying nature protection sites. Plans for construction of «so called olympic venues» are called by environmentalists as «just occasion» for change of zone partitioning of Sochi national park and to allow sale of most valuable lands of the Reserve for buildout by private sector. Territory of the national park is being filled with «non-olympic» and «non-resort» objects: nine private elite sport venues, including golf club and spa centre.
   Environmentalists oppose to construction of cargo terminal for ships in the mouth of Psou River in Imereti Lowland, because this leads to destroying the largest areas of sea-flooded shore and water-marsh ranges.
   In 2006 Accounts Chamber, during its review of spending of budget funds for development programme of Sochi as a mountain climate resort, discovered numerous violations of law. For example, only 5 out of 18 checked national park land leases had necessary permits and environmental review findings.
   After IOC Evaluation Commission visited Sochi in February 2007, local authorities promised to buy the lands from Lower Imereti Bay long-time residents for true market price. But during the followed half a year no local resident could get approved his land as private property.

«The votes given by representatives of Asian countries in the International Olympics Committee… were given to Russia thanks to the goal-oriented work of the representative of Uzbekistan, the vice-president of the Olympic Council of Asia, executive director of the International Federation of Amateur boxing Gafur Rakhimov».

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