2014 Sochi Winter Olympics

[Natalka]

The renowned Greek actress, Ino Menegaki, the third time played the role of the High Priestess and asked the Greek God Apollo to send the sun's rays to earth to light the Flame, and Zeus to crown the winners of the Games with laurel wreaths.
The Priestess then lit the Olympic torch from the sun’s rays and passed the torch, and an olive branch signifying peace, to the first Relay torchbearer, the Greek alpine skier Giannis Antoniou.
The Olympic Flame then was passed to one of the most celebrated Russian athletes, the ice hockey player Alexander Ovechkin. He became the first Russian torchbearer of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay.
2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Feb. 7-23, 2014 in Russia.

The Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay is going to be the longest in the entire history of the Olympic Winter Games. During the Olympic Torch Relay, 14,000 torchbearers will carry the Sochi 2014 Olympic torch through 2,900 settlements of 83 regions of the country. The Relay will end with the Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony in Sochi on February 7, 2014.

[Natalka]

Main site

http://www.sochi2014.com/en/



The Hare, the Polar Bear, and the Leopard have been chosen as the new official mascots of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

[Natalka]

The front of Sochi's medals features the Olympic rings. The reverse side has the name of the competition in English and the Sochi logo. The official name of the games in Russian, English and French is engraved on the medal's rim.

The Sochi 2014 Olympic medals are truly unique and feature Sochi 2014’s “Patchwork Quilt” – a mosaic of national designs from the various cultures and ethnicities of the Russian Federation. The medals depict the landscape of Sochi, with the sun’s golden rays reflecting through a prism of snowy mountain tops onto the sandy beaches of the Black Sea coast.

Gold medal winners at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia could have an extra special glow about them, especially if they happen to win one on February 15.



To mark the one-year anniversary of a meteorite crashing down to earth in Chelyabinsk in the southern part of the country on February 15, 2013, the 7 gold medals won that day will feature a piece of the space rock.




http://www.olympic.org/news/sochi-20...-medals/199839

[Patty Smyth]

Wow love the mascots and the medals too. It will be an interesting games, probably more political than usual. I truly hope no countries boycott and ruin these athletes lives.

[Natalka]

Team Canada's 2014 Olympic hockey jerseys

The red and white jerseys feature a Maple Leaf logo with a stripe across the chest, while the black jersey has "CANADA" written across it in white letters on a gold stripe. All three include 12 gold maple leaves inside the collar to commemorate the eight men's, three women's and one sledge hockey gold medal the country has won at the Olympics.


the jerseys were inspired by the 1920 team that won gold at the Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, with touches from the 1972 national team uniform.




RED JERSEY
The iconic red jersey celebrates the rich history of hockey in Canada. From the vintage-inspired logo on the new lightweight front crest to the Canadian on the sleeve and the maple leaf graphics on the shoulders, the new jersey represents Canada from top to bottom.


WHITE JERSEY
Unmistakably Canadian, the white jersey is the perfect complement to the red. With ‘Canada’ standing out proudly in red on the white background of the front logo and the country’s colours flowing through the asymmetrical stripe on the left arm, this jersey is a perfect representation of the pride Canadians feel when it comes to hockey.


BLACK JERSEY
To round out the exciting collection of jerseys for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Hockey Canada chose to add a black third jersey. Inspired by memorable vintage Team Canada jerseys, this jersey will inspire our Olympians to win again. The bold ‘Canada’ word mark on the chest reminds the world of Canada’s hockey heritage, while the gold piping on the badges and gold maple leaf on the shoulders remind the world of Canada’s goal to win gold medals in Sochi.


http://sports.nationalpost.com/2013/10/08/sochi-2014-here-is-canadas-hockey-jersey-for-the-olympics

[Natalka]

MOSCOW—A rocket carrying the Olympic torch successfully blasted off Thursday from Earth on its way to the international space station and its first spacewalk in history.

The rocket, containing the three astronauts and the Olympic torch launched on Thursday.
Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan beamed at the crowd as they carried the lit torch aboard the Soyuz rocket for its five-day visit.
The torch won't burn on board the space outpost because lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The crew will carry the unlit torch around the station's numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk.

The Olympic torch was taken aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis in 1996 for the Atlanta Summer Olympics, but this is the first it time it will be taken outside the spacecraft.

Last month, the Olympic flame traveled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker. Later this month it will sink to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, and in February it will reach the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) the highest mountain in Russia and Europe.

http://torchrelay.sochi2014.com/en

[VeeVee]

I'm so looking forward to the Olympics!

[Natalka]

Ticket prices - thought I'd check

Opening ceremonies - "A" tickets, $1601.75 CDN; lowest is "D", $192.21 CDN.
Closing - $1185 and lower.

Men's hockey, bronze medal game (sold out) - $608.66 CDN - $128.14

Women's figure skating, free skate - $640.70 CDN, and lower

The majority of the sports are just around the $100 mark and lower - like skiing, bobsleigh, luge, etc.

Mind you, it will be interesting to hear scalpers' prices closer to the games, particularly for the opening ceremonies and the men's hockey final.

[Shwa Girl]

Less than 1 month for Sochi.
It is too bad that there was suicide bombers trying to disrupt the games.
And the US is not sending top officials.
Harper is not going, I think.

I hope the athletes are safe.

[Natalka]

Shwa Girl, most often presidents and prime ministers do not attend, unless it's in their own country.



Canada's men's hockey team announced today

Goalies: Roberto Luongo, Carey Price, Mike Smith


Defence: Jay Bouwmeester, Drew Doughty, Dan Hamhuis, Duncan Keith, Alex Pietrangelo, PK Subban, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Shea Weber

Forward: Jamie Benn, Patrice Bergeron, Jeff Carter, Sidney Crosby, Matt Duchene, Ryan Getzlaf, Chris Kunitz, Patrick Marleau, Rick Nash, Corey Perry, Patrick Sharp, Steven Stamkos (healing broken leg, unsure if will be able to play), John Tavares and Jonathan Toews

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...ticle16228127/

Hoping they get the gold again!
Canada begins defending its Olympic title when it opens the tournament on Feb. 13 against Norway.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/crosby-...#ixzz2pkPi3pJ6

[Lynn49]

Yes, looking forward to the games; it'll help get me through the winter. I hope there are no disruptions and that all the athletes are safe. I understand that there's still quite a bit of building to be done before they officially open.
I can just imagine Putin stressing!!

After a journey of joy across nine time zones and into space, the Olympic torch relay is approaching something the Winter Games' organizers and Russia's leaders didn't plan for and certainly didn't want: A city in mourning.
The Russian city of Volgograd is burying its dead this week — 34 victims of twin suicide bombings that went off just 400 miles (640 kilometers) from where the Sochi Games will be held. And in less than three weeks, the Olympic torch reaches Volgograd, stop 117 on an epic route toward the Olympics' opening ceremony.
These Olympics are being dubbed "Putin's Games." For Russia's top man, eager to impress the world and show he can pull off a major multinational event safely and successfully, that moniker could turn out to be a compliment or a curse.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireSto...curse-21420577

[Shwa Girl]

The Jamaican Bobsled team may be in the winter Olympics, according to the Toronto Star.

The Jamaican bobsled team may be headed to another Olympics.

The catch: It needs a lot of money, and it needs it fast.

Olympic organizers said Saturday that Jamaica has qualified for the two-man competition at next month’s Sochi Games, though it remains unclear if the fledgling squad will get a chance to race.


Funding is a serious problem and sled driver Winston Watts told The Associated Press on Saturday he’s trying to raise as much as $80,000 in the next couple weeks to cover travel and equipment costs.


“Right now,” Watts said, “we’re at zero.”


They are certainly among the world’s most storied bobsled teams, and that has little to do with results. Jamaica first competed in Olympic bobsledding in 1988 at the Calgary Games, a story that inspired the “Cool Runnings” film. For a nation lacking bobsled tradition, or snowy winters, Jamaica has often fared quite well on the international circuits.


It’s been 12 years since Jamaica has had a sled in the Olympics, with Watts finishing 28th at the Salt Lake City Games with Calgary’s Lascelles Brown — now a key part of Canada’s national team. Brown won a medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games, one where the Jamaicans were hoping to compete but were again thwarted by funding issues.


Still, the 46-year-old Watts — who called himself “retired” from sliding for nearly a decade — has held on to hope of sliding again on the sport’s biggest stage.


“We’re pretty good,” Watts said. “We’re not there with the rest of the world, of course. But we if had some more sources for funding, we’d have a better chance.”


He started the season thinking he could get a four-man sled ready for Sochi, before quickly realizing that was too expensive. His focus then shifted to the two-man sled and by racing in a number of lower-tier events at tracks in Park City, Lake Placid and Calgary in recent months, Watts and brakeman Marvin Dixon piled up enough points to get into the Olympic mix.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/sochi2..._to_sochi.html

[Natalka]

^ hope they make it!



The Iceberg Skating Palace will host figure skating and short-track speedskating



Ice Cube - curling centre

[Natalka]

Bolshoy ice dome






Shayba arena

Both are hockey venues.
At the two international test events held at these venues in 2013, Canada won a pair of gold medals.

With its 12,000-person capacity, Bolshoy is one of the biggest Olympic venues in Russia, and it’s state of the art. There are lights built into the roof that turn colours and can even display images, and a road inside the rink means team buses can drop off players right in front of their locker rooms.

Bolshoy and Shayba are located side by side for now, but after the Paralympic Games, Shayba will be moved—yes, the 7,000-capacity stadium is mobile—to another Russian city, where it’ll become the National Sports and Education Centre for Children. Bolshoy will become a multi-purpose venue for both sports and entertainment.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/96-days...oy-and-shayba/

[Natalka]

Fisht Olympic Stadium






Olympic media center will host over 2,000 working journalists and a further 6,000 members of the 70 TV and radio companies accredited for Olympic coverage. It also has four press conference rooms with an overall capacity of 875 people, where all media activities will be translated into eight languages.
The building also boasts its own bank, post office, pharmacy, laundry, supermarket and gym.

http://en.rsport.ru/olympics/20140107/713304624.html