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The 2014 Olympic Winter Games were the first time that the Russian Federation hosts the Winter Games; the Soviet Union hosted
the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. The host city Sochi has a population of 400,000 people and is situated in Krasnodar,
which is the third largest region in Russia.
The Games were organised in two clusters: a coastal cluster for ice events in Sochi, and a mountain cluster located
in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains. This made it one of the most compact Games ever, with around 30 minutes travel time
from the coastal to mountain cluster.
The Sochi Olympic Park was built along the Black Sea coast in the Imeretinskaya Valley, where all the ice venues such as the Bolshoi Ice Palace,
the Maly Ice Palace, the Olympic Oval, the Sochi Olympic Skating Centre, the Olympic Curling Centre, the Central Stadium, the Main Olympic Village
and the International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre, had been built anew for the 2014 Games. The Park ensured a very compact concept
with an average distance of 6km between the Olympic Village and the other coastal venues.
The notions of simplicity and modernity are at the root of the design of the official emblem for the Games in Sochi. For the first time,
there was no image or drawn elements but rather a typographical exercise, featuring the novel inclusion of the internet address on the
first line of text. Below, the figure 2014 next to the Olympic rings vertically mirrors the letters of the word Sochi.
“To prove our commitment to innovation, the Sochi 2014 emblem is clearly digital”, explained Dmitry Chernyshenko,
President of the Organising Committee for the XXII Olympic Winter Games. “Today we welcome tomorrow. Our emblem challenges people
to look beyond what they expect from our country. We believe sochi2014.ru can become an international symbol of a sporting, social,
economic and environmental legacy that lasts for generations.”
Bely Mishka (Polar Bear), Snow Leopard (leopard), Zaika (the dore hare)
The mascots for the Olympic Games were selected after a contest that was first held across the whole of Russia,
then internationally. Some 24,048 drawings were received in total. Ten proposals were chosen by a jury of experts
for the second phase of the contest. Professional designers then worked on them to reveal their final shape.
The final decision was taken in a vote by the Russian public as part of a TV programme entitled
“Talismaniya Sochi 2014 - The Final” on 26 February 2011.
In 2012 Russia introduced is a new 25-ruble coin, and the Sochi 2014 mascots had the honour to be featured on it
