Sochi: On Track for 2014 Success

SOCHI, Russia (Feb. 16) – Following the successful completion of the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup men's test events at Rosa Khutor Resort, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Committee confirmed this week that all athletic venues will be completed by the end of the calendar year and commissioned for competition. The massive project features the construction of 10 new venues to produce the most compact Olympic Winter Games in history.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Successful men's alpine World Cup races were staged in Rosa Khutor for the first test events among all Winter Olympic sports.
• Women's alpine will host a downhill and super combined Feb. 18-19 at Rosa Khutor.
• The 22nd Olympic Winter Games are slated for Feb. 7-23, 2014.
• 98 medals will be awarded, 12 more than were awarded in Vancouver 2010
• 2014 will mark the debut of women's ski jumping, halfpipe skiing plus slopestyle skiing and snowboarding.
• All ski and snowboard sports will be located in the village of Krasnaya Polyana, a 30 minute train ride from coastal Sochi.
• The ski and snowboarding venues are closest to each other in Olympic history

QUOTES

Bill Marolt, President and CEO U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association
The Sochi organizing committee has done an excellent job in venue development and logistics. The mountain and city "pods" will strengthen the Olympic community by keeping the atmosphere of the Games close together. We've never had an environment with all of our ski and snowboarding events so close together. Olympic fans worldwide will see an amazing resort at Rosa Khutor that will be a global showcase for skiing and snowboarding.

Jean-Claude Killy, IOC Coordination Commission Chairman
The Sochi 2014 venues and operations will be tested, re-tested and tested again over the next two years. We have now seen two of the most difficult sports events to stage on the winter Olympic programm take place on these new Olympic courses. The fact that the venues have been so well-received is a credit to the five years of hard work undertaken by the local organizers and their partners, their teamwork and their ability to deliver.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, Sochi 2014 President and CEO
It has been thrilling to see world class winter sport on Sochi's Olympic slopes this week. We have remained on the right track during our planning and construction to date, with today marking the exciting transition to the readiness phase, in which we will robustly test our venues to guarantee we are fully prepared for 2014.

Bode Miller, Five-time Olympic medalist
The venue, the mountain is world class. It’s as nice as any of the places we ever go and it’s going to be amazing to host the Olympics here. I hope they really do as good a job they can, because the Olympics is such a perfect opportunity to showcase a venue, an area, a culture and a country and I think Russia right now is very due for that.

Lindsey Vonn, 2010 Olympic downhill champion
I'm really excited to go to Sochi. It's the first chance we're going to have to look at the Olympic course. I've heard a lot of things about it, but I've never seen it. It will be my first trip to Russia so I'm really looking forward to getting a good look at the course and hopefully putting down a few good runs on it so I can prepare myself for the Olympics.