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22nd Olympic Winter Games: Sochi 2014

2014-03-24 16:41 COC

Date: 7-23 February 2014
Country of the host city: Russia


- 17 days of Olympic competition
- 7 sports
- 15 disciplines
- 98 events (including 12 newly-added ones)
- 11 competition venues
- 2,876 athletes (More than 40 per cent of the athletes are women)
- 88 participating NOCs
- 25,000 volunteers
- 8,000 media representatives
- More than 1.1 million tickets sold
- Six million users downloaded the Sochi 2014 app to follow the Games with their mobile devices
- 2,667 doping tests (477 blood tests and 2,190 urine tests)
- 88,000 hours of coverage on TV and digital platforms
- More than 300 TV channels broadcasting the Games
- 382 Olympic Solidarity scholarships for athletes, out of which 244 qualified for Sochi 2014 and 15 won medals, 13 of them
women.

Other Candidate cities:
PyeongChang (Republic of Korea)
Salzburg (Austria)


The 22nd Olympic Winter Games were held in Sochi, a city on the Black Sea coast in Russia, on 7-23 February 2014, with a record 88 countries and regions competing in the Games and 26 making it to the medal table.

Host nation Russia led the overall medal standings with 13 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze for 33 total medals - also the highest ranking by total number of medals. Norway finished second with 11-5-10-26 and Canada was third with 10-10-5-25. About one fourth of Russia's golds came from former South Korean Victor An, who won Russian hearts by sweeping three golds and one bronze to be the most successful athlete in Sochi. Norway's cross country superstar Marit Bjoergen, 33, won a record sixth gold in the women's 30km mass start, equalling the record of Soviet speed skater Lidia Skoblikova and Russian cross country skier Lyubov Yegorova in taking six golds at Winter Olympics, the most by any woman.

It was China's 10th Winter Olympics, and a successful one. A total of 66 Chinese athletes competed in 49 events of four sports in Sochi. As a result, China, in 12th place, led Asia's "Big Three" with a total of nine medals, comprised of three golds, four silvers and two bronzes, compared to 5-2-4-11 from Vancouver 2010. Korea followed in 13th place with 3-3-2-8, Japan in 17th on 1-4-3-8 and Kazakhstan 26th on 0-0-1-1. Of the 18 Asian NOCs that participated in the Sochi Games, only four of them claimed a medal.

Zhang Hong earned China's first ever speed skating gold in the women's 1000m. In men's short-track speed skating, nine Chinese skaters made to the finals, grabbing two silvers and 1 bronze. The men's curling team, which was almost unknown before the Sochi Games, challenged their formidable opponents to rank fourth, which was the best result ever achieved by China's male curlers in Winter Olympics history. As for snowboard halfpipe, despite the fact that none of the five Chinese finalists succeeded in gaining any medal, they showed the progress and potential of the Chinese athletes in this newly-emerged winter sport. Moreover, the short-track speed skating team who, united as one, stood the tremendous pressure from the withdrawl by injured four-time Olympic champion Wang Meng to achieve two golds, three silvers and one bronze. The courage and never-say-die spirit they showed in the men's 5000m relay, earned them a precious bronze medal they fully deserved. Members of the freestyle skiing aerials team were also courageous enough to do their stunts in the finals. Their self-confidence and devotion to the sport won respect from many spectators and fans.

In Sochi, a number of young Chinese talent and Olympic debutants came to the fore, namely short trackers Fan Kexin, Han Tianyu and Wu Dajing, speed skater Zhang Hong, curler Ba Dexin, figure skaters Peng Cheng and Yan Han, and snowboarders Zhang Yiwei and Li Shuang, who put on an impressive show at the Games, taking most of the credit for keeping China in the upper-middle of the medal table. Needless to say, they will become the crack force for China in future major world tournaments.

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