Scenic view of the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains in Sochi, Russia. Four venues located in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains will play host to the outdoor winter sports.
The Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games kicks off in just over a year, with approximately 250 of Team USA's finest athletes competing over 17 days across 98 medal events, with events starting on Feb. 6. Less than two weeks later, nearly 60 U.S. athletes will compete in Sochi at the Paralympic Winter Games across 72 medal events.
Sochi was selected as the host city for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on July 4, 2007, during the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City, defeating bids from Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea. The city of Sochi has a population of 400,000 and is situated in Krasnodar, the third largest region in Russia.
As far away as the Games are in geography, proximity will be a hallmark of the Games once the athletes arrive. The Games will take place in two areas: a coastal cluster in Sochi and a mountain cluster only 30 minutes away in Krasnaya Polyana. The newly constructed Sochi Olympic Park is situated along the Black Sea and includes all five ice venues, plus the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Village, the International Broadcast Center and the Main Press Center. Meanwhile, the mountain cluster will be home to all the skiing and sliding sports, with an average distance of 2.5 miles between the mountain sub-village and the venues.
Save the date for Feb. 6, when, for the first time, Winter Games events will begin -- with figure skating (team), freestyle skiing (moguls) and snowboarding (slopestyle) -- before the Opening Ceremony (Feb. 7).
Throughout the run-up to the Games, return often to TeamUSA.org/Sochi2014, where we'll have the Team USA schedule, broadcast information, dozens of features, sport previews, photo galleries and much, much more.