The Winter Olympic Games were held in the city. Sochi Olympic Games

Olympics in Sochi-2014: opening of the Olympics, areas of holding, Olympic Games 2014, anthem and symbols, dates of the Olympics in Sochi-2014.

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On February 7, 2014, the XXII Winter Olympic Games opened in Sochi. This is the second Olympics for Russia, the first - the Olympics-80 - is remembered even by those who were just a child at the time it was held in Moscow. But that was summer, and this winter - everything is completely different, and the country was again worried, as for the first time. The fact that Sochi, a resort city and the “summer capital” of Russia, was chosen as the venue for winter sports competitions, at first led to confusion. However, it immediately became clear that this was just another challenge, an additional reason for pride: Sochi became the first city with a subtropical climate to host the Winter Olympics.

Sochi's bid to host the 2014 Games was declared the winner at the 119th session of the International Olympic Committee on July 4, 2007. Traditionally, at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, the solemn handover of the Olympic flag to Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov took place, after which the Russian flag flew over the stadium and the audience in the stands and at the TV screens witnessed the presentation of Sochi as the host of the next Winter Olympics. Model Natalia Vodianova, prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina, figure skaters Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, opera singer Maria Guleghina, and the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev took part in the performance. At the end of the performance, a huge logo of the Sochi Olympics appeared at the stadium.

The 2014 Games were held at two venues. The Krasnaya Polyana ski resort, 39 km from the city, hosted open-air sports: bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, etc. Among other Olympic facilities, the Rzhanaya Polyana luge and bobsleigh track, the Rosa Khutor ski complex ” (its first stage was opened at the end of 2010) and the mountain Olympic village.

And in Sochi itself, a grandiose Olympic park was built to hold competitions in figure skating, hockey, skating, curling - in general, those sports that require indoor spaces.

The Olympic Park in Sochi included the following facilities:

• Big ice arena - hockey, 12000 spectators,
• Small ice arena - hockey, 7000 spectators,
• Speed ​​skating center - speed skating, 8000 spectators,
• Ice Palace of Sports - figure skating, short track, 12,000 spectators,
• Arena for curling - curling, 3000 spectators,
• Olympic Stadium, 40,000 spectators,
• Main Olympic Village.

The Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games in Sochi presented the logo of the Games on December 1, 2009, and on February 26, 2011, the results of the popular vote were summed up and three mascots of the upcoming Olympics were chosen - a polar bear, a leopard and a hare. The anthem of the games was a song recorded for Sochi's application to the IOC by Russian pop stars.

The Olympic Games in Sochi lasted 17 days, 92 sets of medals were played in 15 sports. The right to host the Olympics in itself means the recognition of Russia as a strong player in the international arena. And such a major sporting event always contributes to the development of the infrastructure of the region in which it is held, increasing the level of attractiveness of the region for tourists and the international prestige of the host country.

Sochi became the first city with a subtropical climate to host the Winter Olympic Games.

In order to be involved in the most important sporting event in the life of the country, it was not at all necessary to be a member of the organizing committee of the Games. The Olympic and Paralympic Games would not have been possible to organize and hold without the participation of enthusiastic volunteers. 25,000 volunteers were involved in the Sochi Olympics.

Historical trailer from the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi

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In February 2014, Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the 22nd Winter Olympic Games. In Russia, the Olympics will be held for the second time and for the first time the Winter Olympics. Prior to that, in 1980, Moscow, the then capital of the USSR, hosted the XXII Summer Olympics.

The opening ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympics will take place on February 7, and the closing ceremony of the Sochi Olympics on February 23, 2014, and promises to be a hot battlefield. After the end of the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014, the same arenas will host the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games from 7 to 16 March.

If you are not interested in all the details and history of the Winter Olympic Games, but only need the results and medals of the Olympics, then please go to the following link:

Choosing a City to Host the Winter Olympics 2014

On June 22, 2006, Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, named three of the seven candidate cities, which were Salzburg (Austria), Sochi (Russia) and Pyeongchang (South Korea). It is worth noting that Borjomi (Georgia), Haka (Spain), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan) also expressed their desire to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

On July 4, 2007, at the regular 119th session of the International Olympic Committee, which was held in Guatemala, a choice was made. Sochi became a candidate to host the 2014 Olympics.

Immediately before the voting itself, presentations of candidate cities were presented. Sochi was represented by athletes: Evgeni Plushenko, Svetlana Zhurova, Alexander Popov and Mikhail Terentiev (Paralympic athlete), sports functionaries: Shamil Tarpishchev, Elena Anikina, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Vitaly Smirnov, Dmitry Chernyshenko; politicians: Vladimir Putin, German Gref, Alexander Zhukov, Viktor Kolodyazhny and Alexander Tkachev.

After the first round, which was attended by 97 representatives of the countries of the International Olympic Committee, Salzburg dropped out. In the second round, Sochi, ahead of Pyeongchang by 4 votes, won. Thus, Russia will host the Winter Olympic Games for the first time.

Emblem and mascots of the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014

Emblem

The Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014 will be held on a grand scale. We love and know how to splurge

On December 1, 2009, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee presented the emblem of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. The ceremony for this occasion was held in Moscow on Red Square, flooded with a large skating rink. The emblem of the Sochi 2014 Olympics was presented under fantastic fireworks. It is a blue-and-white inscription sochi2014.ru, under which the Olympic rings are located, and is the first emblem in history that also indicates the web address of the current site. Mirror projection of the word Sochi and 2014 denotes mountains reflected in the Black Sea. The white background of the emblem of the Sochi 2014 Olympics was chosen by the designers for a reason. This was done with the aim that everyone could not only change the color, but also add elements at their own discretion.

Talismans

Winter Olympic Games in Sochi 2014. The mascots are ordinary, but the bear was repainted from the 1980 Olympics 🙂

On September 1, 2010, the organizing committee of the Sochi 2014 Olympics announced a mascot competition in which everyone could take part. A total of 24,048 works were submitted for the competition. Voting was held on the official website of the mascots of the Olympic Games in Sochi. Until December 2010, Mittens and Zoich, who were not included in the final list, received the most votes. Prior to this, Pedobear was the leader of the voting.

On February 26, 2011, the Organizing Committee of the Winter Olympics in Sochi decided to make not one, but three characters, the Leopard, the Bunny and the White Bear, the official mascots.

Snowflake and Ray became the mascots of the 2014 Paralympic Games.

It is worth noting that, along with the victors, the Sun, Brown Bear, Snow Girl, Fire Boy, Bullfinch, Dolphin and Matryoshka also claimed victory in the competition.

Preparation for the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014

For the organization of the Olympics in Sochi 2014, the then Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov was appointed responsible, however, since October 2008, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak was reassigned responsible. In August 2007, the President approved the draft Federal Target Program for the Development of Sports in Russia, which had the code name "Result".

Construction of facilities and infrastructure for the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2012 is carried out in accordance with the Federal Target Program by the state corporation Olympstroy. Completion of construction work is scheduled for 2012-2013.

In accordance with the target program for the development of Sochi, it is planned to allocate and invest 327.2 billion rubles, of which 7.1 billion rubles should be allocated from the budget of the Krasnodar Territory, and 192.4 billion rubles will be financed from the federal budget.
From extrabudgetary sources, including private investors, funding will be distributed as follows: Olympic venues - $500 million, tourism infrastructure - $2,600 million, energy conservation facilities - $100 million and transport infrastructure - $270 million.

Already in 2006, 4.9 billion rubles were financed from the federal budget, in 2007 - 15.9 billion rubles. In 2008 it was planned to allocate 31.5 billion rubles from the budget, in 2009 - 27.2 billion rubles, in 2010 - 22.3 billion rubles, in 2011 - 27.2 billion rubles, in 2012 - 26.4 billion rubles, in 2013 - 22.2 billion rubles and 8.5 billion rubles - in 2014.

But in January 2008, it was officially announced that this program for the development of the city of Sochi for 2006-2014 was being curtailed. It will be replaced by a seven-year program for the development of Sochi and the construction of facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

In accordance with the requirements of the International Olympic Committee for the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014, 14 large sports facilities should be built, which will provide accommodation for 200,000 seats. Now they are divided into three categories, according to their further use. 8 objects will remain sports. Of the remaining six, four are planned to be dismantled and transported to other regions in the future, the other two are to be redeveloped.

Among other things, the draft target program includes the creation of an infocommunication center that will provide broadcasting in the HDTV standard via three communication satellites to foreign countries.

Also, by 2012 it is planned to supply gas to all settlements adjacent to the Olympic zone. A remote terminal with a capacity of up to three thousand people will be built in the seaport of Sochi. The terminal will be located 1.5 kilometers from the coast. It is planned to move the cargo area of ​​the port from the city center.

The city authorities of Sochi are planning to ban non-resident vehicles from entering the city. This is due to the construction of transport routes and sports facilities for the Winter Olympics 2014. Today, all the necessary conditions are being provided for the upcoming Olympics in Sochi, namely, hotels and new sports complexes are being built, territories are being improved, roads are expanding.

Already in almost finished form in the Imeretinskaya Valley there is a large Ice Arena. Four thousand tons of concrete, glass and metal went into its external construction. Inside there are two ice fields, 16 dressing rooms, transformer platforms, stands with easy chairs. And in two years, hockey players will compete for Olympic gold here.

At the Fisht Olympic Stadium, named after the peak of the Caucasus, the installation of the roof has begun. After the work is completed, it will justify its name and will be like a snow-capped peak. The Palace of Winter Sports was recently covered with a roof, which will host competitions in short track and figure skating. Inside, only finishing work remains to be done.

The Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014 are two years away, but the Olympic Park still resembles a large construction site, with thousands of workers hard at work in three shifts.

Winter Olympics program in Sochi 2014

The program of the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014 will be replenished with three new sports. The International Olympic Committee approved the inclusion of new sports in freestyle, snowboarding and parallel slalom into the Olympic Games program. Thus, the number of medals was increased.

At the Executive Committee, the International Olympic Committee decided to include the following new disciplines in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games Program: parallel slalom in snowboarding, slopestyle in snowboarding and slopestyle in freestyle. In each sport, both women's and men's competitions will be held.

According to the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, slopestyle has become very popular in recent years. This type of competition enables snowboarders and skiers to perform acrobatic jumps on pyramids, springboards, railings, darts, counter slopes. But it's worth noting that the US Ski and Snowboard Association has played a pivotal role in promoting slopestyle. It is the Americans in these disciplines that are considered the main contenders for victory.

In addition, medals will also be awarded in six new types of programs, such as women's ski jumping, team luge, team figure skating, ski half-pipe (men and women), mixed biathlon relay.
Thus, 98 sets of awards will be played at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and competitions will be held in the following sports: Biathlon, Skeleton, Bobsleigh, Curling, Figure Skating, Speed ​​Skating, Short Track, Nordic Combined, Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding, Jumping ski jumping, cross-country skiing, luge, freestyle and ice hockey.
In addition, from February 7 to 23, 2014, demonstration competitions in bandy will be held as part of the World Championship.

Objects of the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014

The Sochi 2014 Olympics will leave behind useful sports facilities, hotels and developed infrastructure

The main Olympic venues in Sochi are located in two zones: coastal and mountainous, the distance between which is about 50 km. Infrastructure facilities and an Olympic village are being built in each zone. The mountain zone is located in Krasnaya Polyana and includes a snowboard park, ski jumps, ski resorts, a bobsleigh track and freestyle.

From February 25 to March 7, 2012, test competitions were held at the Rosa Khutor ski resort. The coastal zone is located in Adler. Its central object will be the Olympic Park, which will unite the park area and all sports facilities. For the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics, all ice rinks will be one step away from each other.

The Olympic Park can accommodate 70,000 visitors. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic competitions will be held in it. The park will also host competitions for figure skaters, hockey players, speed skaters and the awarding of Olympic winners. The main objects of the Olympic Park are the Olympic Stadium, the Ice Palace, the large and small arenas, the skating center, the outdoor skating rink, the curling arena, the training arenas and the Olympic village.

The opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014, as well as the awarding of the winners of the Olympic Games, will be held at the Olympic Stadium.
Figure skaters will perform at the Ice Palace, which can accommodate 12,000 spectators. Large and small arenas, which will host hockey competitions, also have a similar capacity.

The skating center is smaller in capacity and has 8,000 spectators. Participants of the Olympic competitions will live on the territory of the Olympic village. In order to be able to watch all the competitions, they plan to install large screens. Among other things, excursions will be organized for those wishing to see the Olympic facilities.

Olympic money

For the Olympics in Sochi 2014, in addition to commemorative coins with the symbols of the Olympic Games, it is planned to issue new banknotes - paper Olympic money, a denomination of one of the denominations of 50, 100 or 500 rubles. Up to this point, paper money with Olympic symbols has never been issued in Russia. For the first time, Olympic commemorative money was issued for the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008. Therefore, Russia has a chance to become the second country to issue a commemorative banknote for the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014.

Action everywhere, from the Black Sea coast to the Krasnaya Polyana mountains. Superb competition venues for spectacular events, historic performances and numerous records – the XXII Olympic Winter Games kept all their promises. Here are the most memorable athlete exploits that took place in Sochi between 6 and 23 February 2014:

At 10.55 p.m. on Friday 7 February 2014, Russian three-time Olympic champions Irina Rodnina(pairs figure skating) and Vladislav Tretiak(ice hockey) lit the Olympic cauldron.

Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen, winner of the sprint 10km and the new Olympic event, mixed relay, brought his medal count to 13, after starting at the Nagano Games in 1998 (8 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze). He thus overtook his compatriot, Bjørn Daehlie, to become the Olympic Winter Games athlete with the most medals.

Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen won three more gold medals in Sochi (skiathlon, team sprint and 30km freestyle), making a total of six since her first title in Vancouver in 2010, as well as a total of 10 medals won since the Games in Salt Lake City in 2002, becoming one of the Olympic Winter Games female athlete with the most medals (with Smetanina and Belmondo).

In Alpine skiing, gold medals were won by the youngest-ever Olympic champion in the history of the discipline, American Mikaela Shiffrin, 18 years and 345 days old, and the oldest, Austria's Mario Matt, aged 34 and 10 months. American Bode Miller, third in the Super-G at the age of 36 years and 127 days, became the oldest-ever medalist in his discipline.

Japan's Ayumu Hirano, 15 years and 73 days old, became the youngest ever medallist on the snow in the history of the Games, when he won the silver medal in the snowboard half-pipe competition.

Russian Luger Albert Demchenko Japanese ski jumping champion Noriaki Kasai, both in their forties, were competing in their seventh edition of the Games, both winning two medals in Sochi. Kasai also equalled the record for the longest interval between two (silver) medals: 20 years!

Like Marit Bjorgen, Belarusian biathlete Darya Domracheva Russian short-track speed skater Victor An won three gold medals at the XXII Olympic Winter Games. But the athlete who won the most medals at these Games was Ireen Wust, with five speed skating medals (two gold, three silver)!

Ireen Wüst was a member of the Netherlands speed skating team which won 23 medals, achieved four top-three clean sweeps and was present on every one of the 12 podiums, men's and women's alike. A unique domination of one discipline at the Games.

For the first time in figure skating, the 100-point barrier was broken in a short program, by Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu(101.45), who went on to win the gold medal.

Bronze medallist in 1994, silver in 1998, gold in 2002 and 2006 and bronze in 2010 and 2014, Italian luger Armin Zoggeler became the first athlete to win six consecutive medals in six editions of the Winter Games.

The first winners of the 12 new Olympic events were:

Russia (team figure skating), Germany (luge relay), Norway (biathlon mixed relay), Germany's Carina Voigt (women's ski jumping), Canadian Dara Howell and American Joss Christensen (ski slopestyle), Americans Maddie Bowman and David Wise (ski half -pipe), Jamie Anderson and Sage Kotsenburg (snowboard slopestyle), Austrian's Julia Dujmovits and Russian Vic Wild (snowboard parallel slalom).

On May 30, 2013, the medals of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi were presented in St. Petersburg. On the front side of the medal, the Olympic rings were depicted, on the back - the name of the type of competition in English and the emblem of the Sochi Games. Depending on the dignity, the weight of the Olympic medals ranged from 460 to 531 grams. In total, about 1300 pieces were made.

In total, 1.5 trillion rubles, a record for the history of the games, was spent on preparing Sochi for the Olympics, which at that time corresponded to 51 billion dollars. Of these, the federal budget spent 100 billion rubles on the construction of sports facilities and over 400 billion rubles on the infrastructure of Sochi. Attracted investments for infrastructure amounted to about 900 billion rubles and 114 billion rubles for sports facilities.
The preparation and holding of the Games contributed to the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia as a whole, and the total number of jobs in the country's economy created or supported due to the Olympic project amounted to 560,000.
In total, in preparation for the Olympics, there were from many regions.

The bulk of the Olympic expenses which historically developed only as a summer resort.

In total, 380 structures were built in the process of preparation for the Olympic Games: objects of the coastal and mountain clusters, transport, energy and hotel infrastructure.

For the Olympics, 11 sports facilities were built with a total capacity of 200,000 seats. Among them are the Fisht stadium, the Iceberg Ice Palace, the Large and Small ice hockey arenas, the Adler-Arena skating stadium, the Laura biathlon complex, the Sanki luge and bobsleigh track, a snowboard center and many others. . The largest object of the Games-2014 was "" - a single complex for holding competitions in alpine skiing disciplines.

The fire of the 2014 Winter Olympics was lit from a parabolic mirror in Ancient Olympia in Greece on September 29, 2013 by actress Ino Menegaki, who played the role of the high priestess of the goddess Hera. The solemn ritual marked the beginning of the relay of the Olympic flame, which for five days passed through the territory of Greece. On October 5, the torch was handed over to the delegation of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee and transported to Moscow, where it was lit on October 7.

The Russian Olympic torch relay "Sochi-2014" became the longest in the history of the Winter Games. The fire visited 2,900 settlements of all 83 subjects of the federation, 14,000 torchbearers participated in the relay race.
For the first time in the history of the Olympic movement, fire has traveled into space. In addition, the Olympic flame visited the Avachinskaya Sopka, an active volcano, and at the bottom of Baikal, the deepest lake in the world. The fire reached the North Pole: it was delivered to the very heart of the Arctic by the world's largest nuclear-powered icebreaker of Rosatomflot "50 Years of Victory".

On February 7, 2014 at 20:14 Moscow time, the Fisht Stadium hosted the Olympic Games. The opening ceremony reminded viewers around the world that Russia is a country with a rich culture. The basis of the show was.

At the end of the ceremony, the fire of the Olympic Games was lit. Three-time Olympic champions Vladislav Tretiak and Irina Rodnina lit the torch with the help of a torch that had been in space. He crowned the opening ceremony.

3.5 thousand people took part in the parade of athletes.

TV audience of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi.

The Games in Sochi were attended by 2,876 athletes representing 88 countries. The strongest athletes were determined - Olympic champions and prize-winners of competitions - in 98 types of the program in 15 sports and disciplines.

For the first time, six new countries took part in the Winter Olympics: Malta, Paraguay, East Timor, Togo, Tonga and Zimbabwe.

The Russian Olympic team included 241 athletes.

Russian athletes took part in 95 of the 98 types of the Games program (with the exception of the women's snowboard disciplines "half-pipe", "slope-style" and "snowboard cross").

The Russian team finished the Winter Olympics in Sochi, taking first place in the medal standings and updating national records for gold and the total number of awards for the White Games. In the piggy bank of the Russian team: 13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze.

Olympic medals at the Games in Sochi were won by representatives of 26 countries, gold - by representatives of 21 countries.

On February 23, 2014, the closing ceremony of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi was held at the Fisht stadium. The ceremony was divided into several conditional parts, which told the audience about the various cultural traditions of Russia.

For Russian viewers, one of the most touching moments was the blowing out of the Olympic flame. The authors of the ceremony gave this honor to one of the Olympic mascots - a huge white bear cub. An animatronics posing as a bear on stage blew out the fire in the stadium, at the same time extinguishing it in a huge torch bowl outside the Fisht. Part of the episode was accompanied by the song "Goodbye, Moscow" by Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov as a memory of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, under which the symbol of those Games - a brown Olympic bear cub - flew away from the Luzhniki stadium. The torch itself is from the cult film by Nikita Mikhalkov "Friend among strangers, stranger among friends".

According to the IOC, about 3.25 billion rubles ($53.1 million) came from the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

According to the President of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the operating income of the Organizing Committee, of which 3.25 billion rubles - in cash.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

The Fisht stadium in Sochi hosted a colorful and technically ambitious opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The show was based on an excursion into the history of Russia and a ballet performance based on Natasha Rostova's ball, and a view of our planet from space was projected onto a special floor of the arena.

Spectators attending the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi on February 7.

Sunset over the Olympic Park.

The ceremony began at a symbolic time - 20:14. The show was created by a creative team led by Channel One CEO Konstantin Ernst.

The main theme of the performance is "Dreams about Russia", and the main character is a girl named Lyubov. By the way, this is it, hovering over the arena on the ropes.

A little girl (she is seen in the frame, hovering over the stadium) sees in a dream Russia and its history in different periods.

Islands and volcanoes float around the arena. Sailing Chukotka with deer and yurts. Actors appear from the fog, symbolizing the peoples inhabiting Russia. Huge hanging decorations. It looked really great.

Then 5 huge snowflakes increased and turned into the Olympic rings.

Vladimir Putin on the podium. Next to him is Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee.

After that, athletes from different countries with flags began to enter the stage. The organizers promised the audience in advance that they would not be bored even during the most conservative part of the ceremony - the sportsmen's parade. By tradition, the founders of the Olympic Games, the Greeks, began the parade.

The parade of athletes was turned into an unusual disco with a DJ and dance music. Team Germany.

Russian team. They go out to the song "Tatu" "They won't catch up with us."

The Austrian team enters the arena.

Russian team. She was the last one out.

Then the show continued. A Russian troika floats over the stadium.

Then the great reformer of Russia, Peter the Great, appeared before the public with amusing regiments and, even more surprisingly, with the navy - with the help of computer effects, they managed to achieve the complete illusion that frigates and galleys plied the stadium.

Pay attention to the special floor, on which the view of our planet from space was projected. It looked very powerful and unusual

Whale. Actors and scenery form a giant whale.

Russian carnival called Maslenitsa!

Cosmonauts with the spacecraft "Vostok".

Lyubov, already familiar to us (actually Liza Temnikova), releases the red ball of communism.

Not without ballet, in terms of which we are ahead of the rest. It was the first ball of Natasha Rostova from War and Peace. The main roles in the reconstruction were played by the great Vladimir Vasilyev and the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Svetlana Zakharova.

The first ball of Natasha Rostova. Svetlana Zakharova and Ivan Vasiliev.

End of the first ball of Natasha Rostova from War and Peace. A very beautiful performance.

The sounds of the waltz and mazurka were replaced by the energetic music of Georgy Sviridov for the film "Time Forward!". Spotlights flooded the stage with red - the color of the revolution. catchy Soviet newspapers were projected onto the floor.

Machine Revolution:

One of the mascots of the 2014 Games is Bunny.

In total, as you know, Sochi-2014 has three mascots - Leopard, Polar Bear and Bunny. Here they are in all their glory at the Fisht stadium. They are animatronic robots.

The presentation continues.

Athletes soar above the Olympic Stadium.

The magical show is over. Athletes appear in the arena and carry a torch to the bowl to light the fire of the Games. The first was tennis player Maria Sharapova.

The fire of the Games was lit by Vladislav Tretyak and Irina Rodnina.

The fire of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The show came to an end, fireworks began over the Olympic Stadium.

The world praised the opening ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The Bulgarian media gave the most enthusiastic reviews.

"The hype surrounding these $51 billion Olympic Games was perhaps more than any other event in recent history and had nothing to do with sports."

British media awarded the opening ceremony of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi with the epithets "amazing", "exciting" and "unforgettable".

“Russia opened the Games in Sochi with chic and pride. The story was told - from the tsarist military power to Soviet monumentalism and space flight.

"Impressive, the best show I've ever seen." (American skier Eric Fisher)

"Great spectacle, based on sports, not politics." (Swiss media)

And indeed, enough politics, let's watch the Olympic Games and cheer for our athletes. 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, February 7th.