Venue of the Winter Olympic Games. XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi

Incredible facts

The 2014 Winter Olympics start on Friday February 7 in Sochi and ends on February 23.

The Winter Olympics are not as big as the Summer Olympics. The Winter Olympic Games include only 15 sports, while in summer - 41 sports.

Here are some interesting facts about the upcoming Olympics.

Cost of the Olympics in Sochi

1. This most expensive Olympics throughout history. Its costs exceeded $50 billion, exceeding the original budget of $12 billion. By comparison, the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver cost $8 billion.

Participants of the Olympics in Sochi

2. Never before have so many countries participated in the Winter Olympics. Total will be presented 88 countries. For the first time, Paraguay and Zimbabwe will participate.

3. The largest countries are sending the most athletes this year. Russia will represent 225 athletes, from the USA - 230 and from Canada - 220.

Mascots of the Sochi 2014 Olympics

4. Selected for the Winter Olympics in Sochi three mascots: Polar Bear, Bunny and Snow Leopard. They were chosen by viewers through voting during all-Russian competition game mascots.

New Olympic competitions

5. Expected 12 new competitions, which will debut at the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014, including mixed team competition figure skating and women's ski jumping.

Medals of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi 2014

6. Athletes who win gold on February 15 will receive special gold medals with meteorite pieces, fell in Chelyabinsk on February 15, 2013.

7. Each medal weighs between 460 and 531 grams and each took approximately 18 hours to produce. These will be the largest medals, the diameter of which reaches 10 cm. A total of 98 sets of awards will be drawn and awarded 1300 medals.

Olympic gold medal

8. Gold medals will be made of silver, but they will be gold-plated. Its cost is estimated at $6,000. The last time, by the way, medals made of pure gold were awarded at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.

Olympic Torch Relay 2014

9. The Olympic flame passed record distance on the way to Sochi – 65,000 km. Among the modes of transport in which the Olympic flame made its way were: car, plane, train and even a reindeer team. The torch passed through more than 2900 settlements, and 14,000 people served as torchbearers.

Winter Olympic Games in Sochi 2014

10. Sochi will become one of warmest cities hosting the Winter Olympics. The city is known for its subtropical climate and in winter it is quite warm and the temperature rarely drops below 12 degrees Celsius.

winter Olympic Games 2014 (XXII Winter Olympic Games)- an international sporting event that took place from February 7 to 23, 2014 in the Russian city of Sochi.

Select city

On June 22, 2006, IOC President Jacques Rogge named three candidate cities out of seven applicants (Haka, Almaty, Sofia, Borjomi, Sochi, Salzburg, Pyeongchang). They were Sochi, Salzburg and Pyeongchang.

On July 4, 2007, the next, 119th session of the IOC took place in Guatemala, at which the host city of the Olympics was chosen.

Immediately before the voting, presentations of the candidate cities were held. Sochi was represented by athletes: Svetlana Zhurova, Evgeniy Plushenko, Mikhail Terentyev (Paralympian) and Alexander Popov; sports functionaries: Vyacheslav Fetisov, Elena Anikina, Shamil Tarpishchev, Dmitry Chernyshenko and Vitaly Smirnov; politicians: Vladimir Putin, Alexander Zhukov, German Gref, Alexander Tkachev, Viktor Kolodyazhny.

In the first round of voting, in which 97 participants representing IOC countries took part, Austrian Salzburg was eliminated. In the second round, Sochi's application won, beating Pyeongchang by 4 votes (51 versus 47). Thus, Russia became the host country of the Winter Olympic Games for the first time.

Jacques Rogge demonstrates the name of the city that won the fight for the right to host the 2014 Games

Talismans

Polar Bear, Leopard and Bunny were chosen as the mascots of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

They chose mascots with difficulty and adventure. Several votes were declared invalid, winning options were rejected, and voting dates were postponed.

The final voting results were as follows:
Leopard (author Vadim Pak, Nakhodka) - 28.2% of votes
White Bear (author Oleg Serdechny, Sochi) - 18.3% of votes
Bunny (author Silvia Petrova, village of Novoye Buyanovo, Yantikovsky district, Chuvashia) - 16.4% of the votes.

The choice was criticized. In particular, it was pointed out that the composition of the Sochi mascots (Leopard, Polar Bear and Bunny) is almost identical to the trinity of Olympic Games mascots (Coyote, Bear and Hare). The graphic design of the Polar Bear in general, and especially the muzzle and large round head, is more typical of brown bears than of white bears, which have an elongated head. Also noted is the close resemblance to plagiarism between the Polar Bear and the mascot of the Moscow summer bear cub Misha, which is also pointed out by the creator of the latter’s image, Viktor Chizhikov.

The World Wildlife Fund in Russia proposed to the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee to edit the drawing with the Leopard, citing the fact that the color of the fur of the depicted animal is more similar not to a leopard, but to a snow leopard, which has never lived in the Caucasus.

Olympic torch relay

The Sochi 2014 Olympic torch relay is the longest and largest in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. It started on October 7, 2013 and will end on the opening day of the Olympics on February 7, 2014.

The route of the Olympic flame through the regions of Russia was presented by the Sochi 2014 organizing committee exactly a year before the start of the relay. Over the course of 123 days, the torch of the Games in the hands of athletes will travel more than 65 thousand kilometers in cars, trains, planes, as well as on Russian troikas and reindeer sleds in front of 130 million residents of 2,900 settlements in Russia, and will visit the capitals of all 83 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The design of the torches was developed by the creative team of the Center for Industrial Design and Innovation “AstraRossa Design” under the leadership of Vladimir Pirozhkov and Andrey Vodyanik. 207 million rubles from the Russian budget were spent on the purchase of 15,000 torches.

The entire course of the relay was accompanied by incidents. In the first 24 hours alone, the fire, despite the designers’ assurances that “the torch will not go out either under water or in space,” went out four times. The whole world saw footage of the first extinguishment, when the extinguished torch was set on fire by an FSO officer with an ordinary lighter.

The torch continued to go out throughout the relay. And then it started to explode. So, in Kostroma, a torch exploded in the hands of a 13-year-old girl. The victim received a shallow burn to her arm, but was able to run her leg of the relay.

And a few days later, Santa Claus almost burned to death in Vologda.

The Olympic flame was extinguished in the hands of high-ranking officials. Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky also ran with the extinguished torch.

Then the torchbearers themselves began to burn. Thus, Pyotr Makarchuk, a famous Russian bobsledder, carried the flame of the Olympics in Abakan already at the final stage. During the relay the torch went out several times. And at the finish of the relay, the flame spread to the sleeve of the bobsledder’s jacket. The accompanying people extinguished the torchbearer.

The opening ceremony

The ceremony began at 20:14 Moscow time.

As part of the ceremony, a traditional parade of Olympic Games participants took place. 88 delegations took part in the parade. The Russian team came out last, completing the parade. The delegation was headed by standard bearer Alexander Zubkov.

Alexander Zubkov

Afterwards, the spectators at the stadium saw a theatrical performance that demonstrated the main milestones of Russian history - from Ancient Rus' and the times of Peter I to Soviet Union.

The opening ceremony was attended by 1,200 dancers and 980 acrobats, as well as 200 aerialists.

During the official part of the ceremony, addresses were made by the head of the Games organizing committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The President of Russia declared the Olympic Games open.

Tennis player Maria Sharapova carried the Olympic flag into the stadium. After this, several more eminent Russian athletes carried the torch, and Irina Rodnina and Vladislav Tretyak lit the fire in the arena.

Maria Sharapova

Irina Rodnina and Vladislav Tretyak

The ceremony was also marked by a couple of incidents. So at the beginning of the performance one of the five Olympic rings did not open.

A ex-president Russia, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev fell asleep right in the middle of the ceremony.

Sleeping Dmitry Medvedev at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic Games began on February 23 at 20:14 Moscow time at the Fisht stadium and lasted for 2.5 hours. The main theme of the show was Russian culture through the eyes of a European. The ceremony was staged by Italian theater director Daniele Finzi Pasca.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the main heroine of the opening of the Games, the girl Lyuba, appeared before the audience, who this time was joined by two friends - Valya and Yura, named after cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Yuri Gagarin. First, the children sailed in a boat across the sea, in which 700 people in sparkling costumes danced. The dancers in the stadium formed different figures - the yin-yang sign, infinity, starfish. In the end, four groups of dancers stood in the four Olympic rings, and the fifth group huddled in a circle, representing the ring that did not open at the opening on February 7.

After the first part of the performance, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, were introduced to the stadium. To the left of Putin this time sat two-time Olympic champion in bobsleigh, Russian Alexander Zubkov, who was the standard bearer at the opening of the Olympics.

The Russian flag was carried to the Fisht by the Sochi Olympic champions from the Russian team, including Viktor An, Ekaterina Bobrova, Alexey Volkov, Tatyana Volosozhar, Vladimir Grigoriev, Elena Ilinykh, Yulia Lipnitskaya, Dmitry Malyshko, Evgeni Plushenko, Adelina Sotnikova, Alexander Tretyakov, Vic Wilde, Evgeny Ustyugov, Anton Shipulin and others. The anthem was performed by a children's choir conducted by Valery Gergiev and accompanied by an orchestra conducted by Yuri Bashmet. After the official part, the drummer ensemble of the Moscow Military School performed, and then the parade of athletes began. This time, first 88 flag bearers entered the stadium at once, and then all the teams rose from three sides.

After the parade, the last awards ceremony for the 2014 Olympics took place. First, Norwegian skiers Marit Bjorgen, Teresa Johaug and Kristin Steira received their awards, taking the first three places in the 30 km race. Then the winners of the men's 50 km mass start - Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin and Ilya Chernousov - stood on the podium.

After the awarding of the Olympians, the performance continued, in which Russian culture was told through painting, music, ballet, literature and circus art. Part of the ceremony was dedicated to the transfer of the Olympic flag to the capital of the future Winter Games - the Korean city of Pyeongchang. After the presentation of the 2018 Olympics, the president of the Sochi 2014 organizing committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, took the stage. He thanked everyone who participated in the preparation of the Olympics and announced that Russia “kept what it promised.” In turn, the head of the IOC, Thomas Bach, addressed those present in Russian, saying: “Goodbye, Sochi!” After this, Bach declared the Olympic Games in Sochi closed. Three Olympic mascots appeared on the stage - Bear, Bunny and Leopard - and three main characters. Reminiscent of , a fragment of Alexandra Pakhmutova’s music “Goodbye, Moscow” was played at the stadium, after which Mishka blew out the Olympic flame.

On May 30, 2013, the medals of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi were presented in St. Petersburg. The Olympic rings were depicted on the front side of the medal, and the name of the type of competition on the reverse side. English language and the emblem of the Sochi Games. Depending on the value, the weight of Olympic medals varied from 460 to 531 grams. In total, about 1300 pieces were produced.

In total, a record 1.5 trillion rubles in the history of the games were spent on preparing Sochi for the Olympics, which then corresponded to $51 billion. Of this, the federal budget spent 100 billion rubles on the construction of sports facilities and over 400 billion rubles on the infrastructure of Sochi. Investments attracted for infrastructure amounted to about 900 billion rubles and 114 billion rubles for sports facilities.
The preparation and holding of the Games contributed to the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises throughout Russia, and the total number of jobs in the country's economy created or supported by the Olympic project amounted to 560 thousand.
In total, preparations for the Olympics came from many regions.

Much of the Olympic spending has historically only developed as a summer resort.

In total, 380 structures were built in preparation for the Olympic Games: coastal and mountain cluster facilities, transport, energy and hotel infrastructure.

For the Olympics, 11 sports facilities with a total capacity of 200 thousand spectator seats were built. Among them are the Fisht stadium, the Iceberg Ice Palace, the Big and Small ice hockey arenas, the Adler Arena speed skating stadium, the Laura biathlon complex, the Sanki bobsleigh track, a snowboard center and many others. . The largest facility of the 2014 Games was "" - a single complex for holding competitions in alpine skiing disciplines.

The 2014 Winter Olympics flame was lit from a parabolic mirror in Ancient Olympia, Greece on September 29, 2013 by actress Ino Menegaki, who played the role of the high priestess of the goddess Hera. The solemn ritual marked the beginning of the Olympic torch relay, which passed through Greece for five days. On October 5, the torch was handed over to the delegation of the Sochi 2014 organizing committee and transported to Moscow, where it was lit on October 7.

The Russian Olympic torch relay Sochi 2014 became the longest in the history of the Winter Games. The flame traveled to 2,900 settlements in all 83 federal subjects, and 14,000 torchbearers took part in the relay.
For the first time in the history of the Olympic movement, the fire traveled into space. In addition, the Olympic flame traveled to Avacha Sopka, an active volcano, and to the bottom of Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world. The fire also reached the North Pole: the world's largest transported it to the very heart of the Arctic. nuclear icebreaker Rosatomflot "50 years of Victory".

On February 7, 2014 at 20:14 Moscow time, the Olympic Games took place at the Fisht stadium. The opening ceremony reminded viewers around the world that Russia is a country with a rich culture. The basis of the show was.

At the end of the ceremony, the Olympic flame was lit. Using a torch that had been in space, it was lit by three-time Olympic champions Vladislav Tretyak and Irina Rodnina. The opening ceremony was crowned by.

3.5 thousand people took part in the parade of athletes.

Television audience of the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi.

2,876 athletes representing 88 countries took part in the Sochi Games. The strongest athletes were identified - Olympic champions and competition winners - in 98 types of programs in 15 sports and disciplines.

For the first time, six new countries took part in the Winter Olympics: Malta, Paraguay, East Timor, Togo, Tonga and Zimbabwe.

The Russian Olympic team included 241 athletes.

Russian athletes took part in 95 of the 98 events of the Games program (with the exception of the women's snowboard disciplines of halfpipe, slopestyle and snowboard cross).

The Russian team completed the Winter Olympics in Sochi, taking first place in the medal standings and updating national records for gold and the total number of medals at the White Games. In the piggy bank Russian team: 13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze.

Olympic medals at the Games in Sochi were won by representatives of 26 countries, and gold medals by representatives of 21 countries.

On February 23, 2014, the closing ceremony of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi took place at the Fisht stadium. The ceremony was divided into several conventional parts that told the audience about the various cultural traditions of Russia.

For Russian viewers, one of the most touching moments was the episode with the blowing out of the Olympic flame. The authors of the ceremony gave this honor to one of olympic mascots- a huge white bear cub. An animatronic representing a bear on stage blew out the fire in the stadium, while extinguishing it in a huge torch bowl outside the Fisht. Part of the episode was accompanied by the song “Goodbye, Moscow” by Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov as a memory of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, to which the symbol of those Games - a brown Olympic bear cub - flew away from the Luzhniki stadium. The torch itself is from Nikita Mikhalkov’s cult film “One among strangers, a stranger among one’s own.”

According to the IOC, the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi generated about 3.25 billion rubles ($53.1 million).

According to the President of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the operating income of the Organizing Committee, of which 3.25 billion rubles is in cash.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

From 7 to 23 February 2014 took place in Sochi XXII Olympic winter Games (hereinafter referred to as the Winter Games), at which Russia took first place in the medal standings.

The Winter Games were held on the territory of our country for the first time. According to the forecasts of the Russian Ministry of Sports, they were supposed to be the largest in terms of the number of participants and the number of awards. So, took part in the Games about 6 thousand people(participants and officials), of which 3 thousand athletes from more than 90 countries of the world, among whom the 98 sets of medals. For comparison: at the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, 86 sets of medals were awarded. It was assumed that the number of spectators who will attend the Games will be more than 1 million people, and the television audience that is expected to watch them will be about 3 billion people.

It is curious that the only Olympic Summer Games currently held in Russia (Moscow, 1980) were also XXII.

The Olympic Games are the largest international sporting competition. They are carried out once every four years under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (hereinafter referred to as the IOC). The organization, events and activities of the Olympic movement and the conditions for holding the Games are regulated by the Olympic Charter. The first Olympic Winter Games took place in 1925 in Chamonix, France. From 1924 to 1992, the Winter Games were held in the same years as the Summer Games (they were canceled in 1940 and 1944 due to World War II). The next Winter Games took place in 1994, that is, two years later, rather than four, due to the decision to make a two-year interval between the Summer and Winter Games.

According to the IOC classification, there is seven winter olympic sports(based on the number of International Sports Federations that are members of the Association of International Federations winter species sports):

• Biathlon – International Biathlon Union (IBU);
• Bobsleigh – International Federation of Bobsleigh and Toboggan (FIBT);
• Curling – World Curling Federation (WCF);
• Ice Hockey – International Ice Hockey Federation (IIXF);
• Luge (Luge) – International Luge Federation (FIL);
• Speed ​​skating – International Skating Union (ISU);
• Skiing – International Ski Federation (FIS).

In addition, speed skating, skiing and bobsleigh are divided into disciplines. In Russia, classification taking into account these subspecies is more common, so it stands out 15 Olympic sports:

1. Biathlon– a winter Olympic sport that combines cross-country skiing with small-caliber rifle shooting. Part of the Olympic program since 1960.

2. Bobsleigh– downhill on a special ice track in the form of a chute on a sled (bob). It has been part of the Olympic program since the very first Winter Games - since 1924.

3. Skeleton– downhill on a double-sleigh sleigh with a weighted frame bobsleigh track. Became an Olympic sport in 2002.

4. Curling- a team sports game on an ice rink. During the competition, participants of two teams alternately launch special heavy granite projectiles (“stones”) across the ice towards a special field marked on the ice. Athletes try to get their stone to stop in a certain place or to knock opponents' stones out of the scoring zone. Curling officially became an Olympic sport in 1998, although demonstration competitions were already held at the 1924 Games.

5. Ice hockey– a sports game during which players of two teams (on skates), guiding the puck with their sticks, try to throw it into the opponent’s goal without letting it into their own goal. Into the Winter Games program men's hockey has been included from the very beginning - since 1924, and the first ice hockey tournament as part of the Games took place at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Women's ice hockey was only included in the Winter Games program in 1998.

6. Luge– downhill racing on single and double sleighs along a bobsleigh track. This sport was included in the program of the Winter Games in 1964.

7. Figure skating– a speed skating sport that involves the movement of athletes on ice on skates, with changes in the direction of gliding and execution additional elements(rotation, jumping, combinations of steps, lifts, etc.) to the music. Figure skating is one of the earliest winter disciplines: figure skating competitions were held at the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920.

8. Speed ​​skating- another type of speed skating. Men have competed in it at the Winter Games since 1924, and women since 1960.

9. Short track– a type of speed skating: skating along a short track. Included in the Olympic Games program in 1992.

10. Alpine skiing– a discipline of skiing, which involves descending from the mountains on special skis. Officially, this sport has been included in the Olympic program since 1936.

11. Ski racing– ski racing over a certain distance on a specially prepared track. Men competed in this sport at the first Games in 1924, and for women it has been included in the Olympic program since 1952.

12. Ski jumping– a discipline that consists of ski jumping from specially equipped springboards. Included in the Olympic program since 1924. Women will compete in this sport for the first time at the Olympic Games in Sochi.

13. Nordic combined, which is also called the "Nordic combination", combines two disciplines: ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Individual biathlon has been part of the Winter Games program since 1924, and in 1988 team competitions in this discipline were added to it.

14. Snowboard- the youngest of ski types a sport that involves descending from snow-covered mountain slopes on a special apparatus. First entered the Olympic program in 1998.

15. Freestyle- another type of skiing. Included in the Winter Games program since 1992.

In the course of preparation for the next Games, the issue of including new types of competitions in the Olympic program may be brought up for consideration by the IOC Executive Committee. So, at the Olympics in Sochi will be presented for the first time:

• ski jumping (women);
• team competition in figure skating;
• luge relay;
• freestyle halfpipe (men and women);
• mixed relay in biathlon;
• freestyle slopestyle (men and women);
• slopestyle in snowboarding (men and women);
• parallel slalom (men and women).

Paralympic Winter Games

From 7 to 16 March 2014 Sochi will also host XI Paralympic Winter Games. Just like the Olympic Winter Games, they will be held on Russian territory for the first time. It is expected that they will take part more than 1.4 thousand people(participants and officials), including 700 Paralympic athletes from more than 40 countries, among whom the 72 sets of medals.

The first Paralympic Winter Games were held in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik (Sweden). Since 1992, the Paralympic Winter Games have been held in the same cities as the Olympic Winter Games. The organization responsible for the development of the Paralympic movement in the world is the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Refers to Paralympic five sports:

1. Biathlon. Visually impaired and hearing impaired athletes, as well as athletes with amputations and musculoskeletal disorders, can take part in it, but athletes with the same category of disability compete among themselves.

Biathlon was included in the Paralympic program in 1994.

2. Alpine skiing. Men and women take part in the competition different types disabilities: spinal injury, cerebral palsy, amputation, blindness or partial loss of vision. However, the competition is carried out between athletes with the same category of disability in order to ensure equal conditions for all athletes.

The first alpine skiing disciplines were included in the program of the very first Paralympic Games in 1976.

3. Ski racing. Like alpine skiing competitions, cross-country skiing involves athletes with different types of disabilities, but the competition is between athletes of the same disability category. In relay races, teams are made up of three athletes with different types of disabilities.

This sport has also been included in the Paralympic program since 1976.

4. Wheelchair curling. It is played by two teams, whose goal is to hit a stone thrown across the ice as close as possible to the center of the drawn target. Team compositions can be mixed, that is, they can consist of both men and women.

Curling has been part of the official Paralympic Games program since 2006. This year our country will be represented in this sport for the first time.

5. Ice sledge hockey. The game consists of a confrontation between two teams, which, passing the puck with their sticks, try to throw it into the opponent’s goal as many times as possible, without letting it into their own goal. Athletes with functional impairments participate in it. lower limbs, the degree of which does not allow skating while standing. During the game, athletes move while sitting on a sled and use two sticks, serrated at one end and curved at the other. Using metal teeth, players push off the ice and use the curved end to hit the puck.

This sport was officially included in the Paralympic Games program in 1994. The Russian Paralympic sledge hockey team will take part in this sport for the first time at the upcoming Games in Sochi.

Besides sports

The Olympic and Paralympic Games (hereinafter referred to as the Games) remain in the memory for a long time not only because of the spectacular ceremonies and exciting competitions, but also because of the unique artifacts and memorabilia that are in particular demand among collectors and fans of the Olympic movement. Among the artifacts of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and the XI Paralympic Winter Games, in addition to mascots with the symbols of the Games in Sochi, it is worth highlighting philatelic products and numismatics.

Thus, for the 2014 Games in Sochi, four postal blocks, 45 different postage stamps, cardmaximums and postcards, as well as sets of all issued postage stamps in artistic cover. The subjects for postal products were winter sports, Olympic sports venues, as well as views of the Krasnodar Territory.

The Sochi 2014 coin program runs from 2011 to 2014 and provides for the release of coins (commemorative and investment) from both precious and non-ferrous metals. It should be noted that for the first time a commemorative banknote (with a face value of 100 rubles) was issued for the Games in Sochi.

Do you know that:

• the Winter Olympics have never been held in the Southern Hemisphere;
• artificial snow was first used at the XIII Winter Olympic Games in 1980 in Lake Placid (USA);
• the first Games that took place outside of North America and Europe were the XI Winter Olympic Games - they were held in Sapporo (Japan) in 1972;
• the only time in the history of the Games had to be postponed: in 1976 they were supposed to take place in Denver (USA), but due to financial problems of the organizers they were moved to Innsbruck (Austria). By the way, it was there that the official mascot of the Winter Games was first presented - it was a snowman named Tyrolin;
• the Great Britain team that won the World Hockey Championship at the 1936 Winter Olympics was composed almost entirely of Canadians;
• At the 2002 XIX Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (USA), a unique event occurred in figure skating: the Canadian couple Sale/Peletier received gold medals not by the decision of the judges, but as a result of public pressure. As a result, both the Russian couple Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze, who took first place, and the Canadians were awarded gold medals;
• Russian figure skater Alexei Yagudin, Olympic champion in 2002, is also a four-time world champion and three-time European champion, but has never won the Russian championship;
• The Sochi 2014 Olympic torch relay will be the longest and longest in the history of the Games. From October 7, 2013 (Moscow) to February 7, 2014 (Sochi), the Olympic flame will travel more than 65 thousand km, visiting more than 2,900 settlements in all 83 regions of the country. The total number of torchbearers is about 14 thousand people;
• A record number of awards were produced for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi - 1,300 medals. Their production took about 3 kg of pure gold, 2 tons of silver and 700 kg of bronze.

From 7 to 23 February 2014 in Russian city- the Sochi resort hosted the XXII Winter Olympic Games.
The opening and closing of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the results, the symbols, all this is history.

Let's remember how it was.

Choosing the capital of the 2014 Olympics

Sochi was officially announced as the venue for the 2014 Olympics in July 2007 at the 119th IOC session held in Guatemala.

In a tough competition to become the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Russia defeated South Korea (PyeongChang) and Austria (Salzburg).

Symbols of the Olympics in Sochi

Leopard, Polar Bear and Bunny were chosen as the mascots of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The process was difficult and adventurous. Many options were rejected, voting dates were often postponed, but, nevertheless, these three cute, cute creatures forever went down in the history of the Olympic movement, just like the 1980 Olympic Bear.

Olympic torch relay

It became the largest and longest in the history of all Winter Olympic Games. The start was given on October 7, 2013, and ended on the opening day of the Games on February 7, 2014.

• In 123 days, the torch of the Winter Olympics in Sochi traveled more than 65 thousand km.
• He traveled by car, plane, train, and even by reindeer sled and Russian troika.
• The Olympic torch relay passed through 83 capital cities Russian Federation, 2900 settlements R.F.
• He was greeted by 130,000 people.

The path to Olympic Sochi was not easy and was accompanied by incidents. Only in the first day the fire went out 4 times, and then more than once. At the finish line, the flames got onto the sleeve of the bobsledder's jacket, and those accompanying him extinguished it.

Opening of the Olympics in Sochi 2014

The ceremony began exactly at 20:14 Moscow time. A parade of Olympic Games participants took place, in which 88 delegations took part. According to tradition, the parade in honor of the opening of the Olympics in Sochi was completed by the Russian team as the host country of the 2014 Winter Olympics. At the head was the standard bearer Alexander Zubkov.

Next, the audience saw an interesting theatrical performance that covered the main stages of Russian history - from Ancient Rus' to the Soviet Union. In total, 980 acrobats and 1,200 dancers, as well as 200 aerialists, took part in the opening ceremony.
Of course, it was not without the Olympic mascots who greeted those gathered and assured everyone that the Olympics in Sochi, the results of which will certainly go down in the history of sports, will be held at the highest level.

The official part of the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics included: the head of the International Olympic Games Thomas Bach, the head of the organizing committee of the Sochi Games Dmitry Chernyshenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who declared the Olympics in Sochi open.

The Olympic torch was carried by tennis player Maria Sharapova, the flag was carried by several famous Russian athletes, and the flame in the arena was lit by the legendary figure skater Irina Rodnina and hockey player Vladislav Tretyak.

A couple of incidents at the opening of the games: at the beginning of the performance, one of the five Olympic rings opened, the former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, fell asleep in the midst of the ceremony.

The opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi ended with a grandiose fireworks display.

Competitions

As part of the XXII Winter Olympic Games, competitions were held in 15 disciplines combined into 7 winter sports:

• Biathlon.
• Bobsled.
• Skeleton.
• Sports competitions on ice skating.
• Skiing sports.
• Luge.
• Ice hockey.

Athletes from 88 countries came to compete for Olympic medals in Sochi, which was a new Olympic record.
For the first time, exotic countries such as Malta, Paraguay, East Timor, Togo, Tonga and Zimbabwe took part in the Winter Olympics.

The winner in the team event was the Russian Olympic Team, which won
13 gold, 11 silver, and 8 bronze medals at the Sochi Olympics.

Closing ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi

The closing ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic Games lasted for 2.5 hours at the Fisht stadium. It started on February 23, at 20:14 Moscow time. The main topic was Russian culture through the eyes of a European. The production was carried out by Italian theater director Daniele Finzi Pasca.

At the beginning of the closing ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi, the girl Lyuba, the main character of the opening of the Games, appeared in front of the audience, and Valya and Yura (in honor of cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Yuri Gagarin) joined the audience.

After the first part, the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke. who summed up the results of the Olympics in Sochi.

The Russian flag was carried into the stadium by the champions of the Sochi Olympics from Russia: Viktor An, Alexey Volkov, Ekaterina Bobrova, Vladimir Grigoriev, Tatyana Volosozhar, Elena Ilinykh, Dmitry Malyshko, Yulia Lipnitskaya, Evgeni Plushenko, Alexander Tretyakov, Adelina Sotnikova, Vic Wilde, Anton Shipulin , Evgeny Ustyugov and others.

The children's choir conducted by Valery Gergiev performed the anthem. Next, the audience saw and heard a drummer ensemble from the Moscow Military School. A parade of athletes took place, 88 flag bearers came out, and all the teams rose from three sides. The last awards ceremony for the winners of the 2014 Olympics took place.

The second part of the performance told about Russian painting, ballet, music, literature and circus.

After handing over the Olympic flag to the Korean city of Pyeongchang, host of the 2018 Olympics, IOC head Thomas Bach said in Russian: “Goodbye, Sochi!”

Three symbols of the Sochi Olympics appeared on the stage: the Bunny, the Bear and the Leopard. To the sounds of Alexandra Pakhmutova’s music “Goodbye, Moscow” (Olympics 80), Mishka blew out the Olympic flame.