Sochi Winter Olympics 2014

Read our guide for all you need to know about the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Events to look out for as well as favourites to win gold. And if you are lucky enough to be considering going, we advise on how best to get there.

The Winter Olympic Games will be held in Sochi 7-23rd February 2014. 5,500 Olympic athletes, 1,350 Paralympic athletes, 25,000 volunteers and 13,000 press members will descend on Sochi on Russia's Black Sea coast.

The Sochi 2014 games will be the most compact winter games in the history of the Olympic movement as it will be possible to get from one venue to another in just a matter of minutes. This will be the first time that the Russian Federation will have hosted the Winter Games, the old Soviet Union hosted the 1980 summer games in Moscow.

How Many Disciplines

The games will be holding events in 15 disciplines of 7 winter sports. These are:

Biathlon
Bobsled
Curling
Ice Hockey
Luge
Skating
Skiing(includes Cross Country and Snowboarding)

Sochi

The host city Sochi has a population of 40,000 people and is situated in Krasnodar, which is the third largest region in Russia. The city of Sochi is spread out among the foothills of the Caucasus and along the shores of the Black Sea. Sochi is known for its unique combination of Mediterranean and Alpine climates, hence it is often called the 'Russian Riviera'. The games will be organised in two clusters, a coastal cluster and a mountain cluster. Travelling between the clusters will take about 30 minutes, hence the claim that this will be the most compact games ever held.

(Ice Skating Arena)

Olympic Park

The Sochi Olympic Park will be built along the Black Sea coast where all the ice venues will be built including the Bolshoi Ice Palace, the Olympic Curling Centre and the Olympic Skating Centre. The Olympic Park will be able to accommodate about 70,000 visitors when full. The mountain cluster will be home to all the skiing and sliding sports and will include Biathlon and Ski Complexes, a Bobsleigh Track, a Ski Centre,a Ski Jump Complex and Freestyle Centre.

Paralympics

The Sochi 2014 Paralympic games will be held 7-16th March 2014 and will be holding events in 5 winter sports:

Alpine Skiing
Biathlon
Cross Country Skiing
Ice Sledge Hockey
Wheelchair Curling

Planning your visit to Sochi

If you are a foreign national and do not reside in the Russian Federation then you must apply for a Russian visa,purchase a ticket, apply for a spectator pass and if necessary reserve hotel accommodation. To obtain tickets contact-tickets.sochi2014.com. The fastest way to get to Sochi is by plane. Sochi has direct air connections with many cities in Russia including Moscow and St Petersburg. There are more than 15 direct flights into Sochi every day from Moscow airport.

By Will Smith