22nd edition of Winter Olympics, in Sochi, Russia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXII Olympic Winter Games, is the 22nd Games of the Winter Olympics. It is an international winter sports event that was held from February 7 to February 23, 2014. The host city was Sochi in Russia. It was chosen on July 4, 2007, during the 119th International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Guatemala City, Guatemala.[1] This was Russia's first time hosting the Winter Olympics (the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow though). These were also the first winter games in a subtropical city.
Host city | Sochi, Russia | ||
---|---|---|---|
Motto | Hot. Cool. Yours. (Russian: Жаркие. Зимние. Твои., Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi) | ||
Nations | 88 | ||
Athletes | 2,873 | ||
Events | 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) | ||
Opening | 7 February | ||
Closing | 23 February | ||
Opened by | |||
Cauldron | Irina Rodnina Vladislav Tretiak | ||
Stadium | Fisht Olympic Stadium | ||
Winter | |||
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Summer | |||
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Fifteen winter sports were played in the 2014 Winter Olympics program. Sports included were ones that are generally played in the winter. They include skiing, ice skating, ice hockey, and curling. A total of twelve new events was contested to make it the largest Winter Olympics to date.[2] The following sports were played:
Most of the stadiums will be built at a place called Sochi Olympic Park near the Black Sea coast All of the venues(stadiums) being used are new. The venues are near each other. This will provide a great compactness of the concept with the Olympic Stadium and all indoor venues of the Olympics will be gathered within walking distance.
Hoewever, some parts of the Olympics, mainly skiing and snowboarding, will take place away from the main area. These events will take place at Krasnaya Polyana (Mountain Cluster)
Rosa Khutor Plateau Olympic Village
The opening ceremony of the Games was held on 7 February 2014. It was held from 20:14 to 23:02 local time.[3] The Games were officially opened by Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia. There was an audience of about 40,000 people.[4] The performance part of the ceremony was mainly about Russian classical music.[5] The pop duo t.A.T.u performed as well.
The site of the opening ceremony was Fisht Olympic Stadium. This was built just for the games. It will be used only for the opening and closing ceremonies.[6]
In 2013, a law against 'homosexual propaganda' was made in Russia. Cher chose not to perform at the Winter Olympics because of the law.[7] On 27 January 2014, the mayor of Sochi said that there are no gay people living in Sochi.[8] On the first day of the Olympics, 7 February 2014, four gay rights activists were arrested in St Petersburg, including one pregnant woman.[9]
Organizers received several threats prior to the Games. In a July 2013 video release, Chechen Islamist commander Dokka Umarov called for attacks on the Games, stating that the Games were being staged "on the bones of many, many Muslims killed ...and buried on our lands extending to the Red Sea."
Threats were received from the group Vilayat Dagestan, which had claimed responsibility for the Volgograd bombings under the demands of Umarov, and a number of National Olympic Committees had also received threats via e-mail, threatening that terrorists would kidnap or "blow up" athletes during the Games. However, while the IOC did state that the letters "[contained] no threat and appears to be a random message from a member of the public", the U.S. ski and snowboarding teams hired a private security agency to provide additional protection during the Games.
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