Location | Sochi, Russia |
---|---|
Motto | Hot. Cool. Yours. (Russian: Жаркие. Зимние. Твои., romanized: Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi) |
Nations | 88 |
Athletes | 2,747 (1,644 men, 1,103 women) |
Events | 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) |
Opening | 7 February 2014 |
Closing | 23 February 2014 |
Opened by | |
Cauldron | |
Stadium | Fisht Olympic Stadium |
Winter Summer
2014 Winter Paralympics |
The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games (Russian: XXII Олимпийские зимние игры, romanized: XXII Olimpiyskiye zimniye igry) and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (Russian: Сочи 2014), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening rounds in certain events were held on 6 February 2014, the day before the opening ceremony.
These were the first Olympic Games under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidency of Thomas Bach. Both the Olympics and Paralympics were organized by the Sochi Organizing Committee (SOOC). Sochi was selected as the host city in July 2007, during the 119th IOC Session held in Guatemala City. It was the first Olympics to be held in a CIS state and former Warsaw Pact state after the Revolutions of 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic previously hosted the Summer Olympics in 1980.
A record ninety-eight events in fifteen winter sport disciplines were held during the Games. A number of new competitions—a total of twelve accounting for gender—were held during the Games, including biathlon mixed relay, women's ski jumping, mixed-team figure skating, mixed-team luge, half-pipe skiing, ski and snowboard slopestyle, and snowboard parallel slalom. The events were held around two clusters of new venues: an Olympic Park constructed in Sochi's Imeretinsky Valley on the coast of the Black Sea, with Fisht Olympic Stadium, and the Games' indoor venues located within walking distance; and snow events in the resort settlement of Krasnaya Polyana.
The 2014 Winter Olympics were the most expensive Games in the history of the Olympics. While originally budgeted at US$12 billion, major cost overruns caused this figure to expand to US$51 billion, more than three times the cost of the 2012 London Olympics and even surpassing the estimated cost of US$44 billion for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The 2014 Games achieved a record broadcast audience of 2.1 billion people worldwide.[1]
In 2016, an independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed allegations that the Russian Olympic team had been involved in a state-sponsored doping program, active from at least late 2011 through August 2015. The program was active during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, and athletes had benefited from the cover-up.[2][3][4] The IOC stripped thirteen medals from Russian athletes in 2017, but nine were reinstated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In December 2017, the IOC voted to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee, with an option for whitelisted athletes to compete independently during the 2018 Winter Olympics.[5][6]