A resort for sun tanning or alpine slopes? Many people were startled with the location of 2014’s Winter Olympics. For skiers used to frigid temperatures, Sochi was a bit unsettling.
Sochi was granted town status in 1917. It is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgia-Abkhazia and Russia. The Greater Sochi area, which includes territories and localities subordinated within Sochi proper, has a total area of 3,526 square kilometers (1,361 sq mi) and stretches for 145 kilometers (90 mi) along the shores of the Black Sea near the [Caucasus Mountains. The area of the city proper is 176.77 square kilometers (68.25 sq mi). According to the 2010 Census, the city had a permanent population of 343,334, up from 328,809 recorded in the 2002 Census, making it Russia's largest resort city. Being part of the Caucasian Riviera, it is one of the very few places in Russia with a subtropical climate, with warm to hot summers and mild winters.
With the alpine and Nordic events held at the nearby ski resort of Roza Khutor in Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi hosted the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games in 2014, as well as the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix from 2014 until at least 2020, subject to the circuit being ready in time. It will also be one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
This was Russia's first time hosting the Winter Olympic Games, and its first time hosting the Paralympic Games. The site of a training centre for aspiring Olympic athletes, in 2008, the city had no world-class level athletic facilities fit for international competition. To get the city ready for the Olympics, the Russian government committed a $12 billion investment package, shared 60%–40% between the government and private sector. According to some estimates, the investments necessary to bring the location up to Olympic standards may have exceeded that of any previous Olympic games. By January 2014 the construction costs had been reported to exceed the $50 billion mark, making it the most expensive Olympic Games in history. According to a report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this cost will not boost Russia's national economy, but may attract business to Sochi and the southern Krasnodar region of Russia in the future as a result of improved services. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi saw concern and controversy following a new federal law approved in Russia in June 2013 that bans "homosexual propaganda to minors". There were also concerns over Islamist militants.
For anyone wishing to travel to Russia, Sochi is a great place to stop by for the resorts and for its live culture and history.
-BETTY B.D.
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SOCHI, RUSSIA