The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi, the Russian Federation with some events held in the resort town of Krasnaya Polyana. Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games are being organized by the Sochi Organizing Committee (SOOC). The 2014 Winter Olympics are the first Winter Olympics (and first Olympics altogether) for the Russian Federation, as the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow were in the then Soviet Union.

Following Olympic tradition, Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhomov received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

The city was elected on 4 July 2007, during the 119th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Guatemala City, Guatemala. This will be the first time that the Russian Federation will host the Winter Olympics; the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.

Sochi (Russian: Сочи; IPA: [ˈsotɕɪ]) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for 145 kilometers (90 mi) along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a permanent population of 343,285; up from 328,809 recorded in the 2002 Census, making it Russia's largest resort city.

Sochi will host 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. It is also one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Sochi has a humid subtropical climate with mild winters (average +11 °C (52 °F) during the day and +4 °C (39 °F) at night in the period from December to March) and comfortable summers (average +24 °C (75 °F) during the day and +16 °C (61 °F) at night period from May to October).

At 145 kilometers (90 mi), Greater Sochi claims to be the longest city in Europe. Other sources using the Caucasus Mountains as the Europe-Asia divide place Sochi in Southwest Asia as it falls on the southern (Asian) side of the Greater Caucasus.

Sidney Patrick Crosby, ONS (born August 7, 1987) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Crosby was drafted first overall by the Penguins out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). During his two-year major junior career with the Rimouski Océanic, he earned back-to-back CHL Player of the Year awards and led his club to the 2005 Memorial Cup final. Nicknamed "The Next One", he was one of the most highly regarded draft picks in hockey history, leading many to refer to the 2005 Draft Lottery as the "Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes".

Lindsey Caroline Vonn (née Kildow; born October 18, 1984) is an American alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. She has won four overall World Cup championships – one of only two female skiers to do so, along with Annemarie Moser-Pröll – with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010, plus another in 2012. Vonn won the gold medal in downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first ever in the event for an American woman. She has also won five consecutive World Cup season titles in the downhill discipline, four consecutive titles in Super G, and three consecutive titles in the combined as of 2012.

Vonn is one of five women to have won World Cup races in all five disciplines of alpine skiing – downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom, and super combined – and has won 53 World Cup races in her career as of March 14, 2012. Only two women have more World Cup victories in their careers, Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll with 62 and Swiss Vreni Schneider with 55, both retired from active racing. With her Olympic gold and bronze medals, two World Championship gold medals in 2009 (plus three silver medals in 2007 / 2011), and four overall World Cup titles, Vonn has become the most successful American skier in the history of alpine skiing.