2014 Winter Olympics starts in Sochi ..

 

The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, is a major international multi-sport event being held in Sochi, Russia. Officially scheduled for 7 February through 23 February 2014, opening rounds in figure skating, skiing, and snowboard competitions were held on the eve of the Opening Ceremony, 6 February 2014. Both the Olympics and 2014 Winter Paralympics are being organized by the Sochi Organizing Committee (SOC). Sochi was selected as the host city in July 2007, during the 119th IOC Session held in Guatemala City. The Sochi Olympics will be the first Olympics in the Russian Federation since the breakup of the USSR in 1991. The USSR was the host nation for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Various postal administrations have issued stamps to commemorate this event. Here are some beautiful stamps issued   for this great sports event !!

98 events in 15 winter sport disciplines will be held throughout the Games. A number of new competitions—a total of twelve accounting for gender—will be 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 will be held around two clusters of new venues; an Olympic Park was 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 will be held in the resort settlement of Krasnaya Polyana.