Sochi Winter Olympics: from a summer resort to a snow and ice arena

【Winter Olympic Footprints】

From February 7 to February 23, 2014, the XXII Winter Olympic Games were held in sochi, Russian Federation. Chinese President Xi Jinping was invited to the opening ceremony, which was the first time that a Chinese head of state attended a major international sporting event held abroad. When the Chinese delegation appeared at the opening ceremony, the athletes also held two small flags of China and Russia.

The Chinese delegation sent 66 athletes to the Sochi Winter Olympics, winning a total of 3 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze, ranking 12th in the gold medal list and ranking first among all participating Asian countries and regions. Before the Sochi Winter Olympics, China's two-time short track speed skating winter olympic champion Wang Meng was unable to come to Sochi due to injury. In the semi-final of the project, two other Chinese players also folded, only Li Jianrou, who is good at long distances, was appointed as a substitute to reach the final, and finally won the first gold medal of the Chinese delegation at the Sochi Winter Olympics in the short track speed skating women's 500 meters final, achieving the "four consecutive championships" of the Chinese short track team in the Winter Olympics in this event. In addition, Zhang Hong won the gold medal in the women's 1000 meters of speed skating, achieving China's "breakthrough of zero" in the winter Olympic gold medal in the basic event of speed skating, and Zhou Yang successfully defended the short track speed skating women's 1500 meters championship.

The Winter Olympics accelerated Sochi's infrastructure improvement program, including the construction of new airports, railway upgrades, and the development of roads, telecommunications, and energy.

The stadiums built for the Sochi Winter Olympics are still in use today and serve a variety of purposes including sports, culture, education, tourism and entertainment. For example, the Fisht Stadium, which hosts the opening and closing ceremonies, became the training center of the Russian national football team and was also the venue for the 2018 Fifa World Cup. In 2015, the Shayba Arena, which hosted ice hockey matches during the Winter Olympics, was transformed into a Russian "Sirius" education center to help "talented teenagers" who have shown their talents in science, art, sports and other fields to further develop their talents.

In addition, the Russian International Olympic University, the first Olympic university in the world, was established in Sochi, mainly to provide students with a master's degree program in sports management and to carry out academic research on Olympic sports and the sports industry. After the Winter Olympics, the "Pearl of the Black Sea" Sochi has gradually transformed from a traditional summer tourist destination into a world-class tourist attraction suitable for all seasons, with more than 6 million tourists coming to the health resort every year, and the annual passenger flow has nearly doubled compared with before the Winter Olympics, bringing huge economic benefits to the local area.

(Guangming Daily reporter Yang Yifu sorted out)

Guangming Daily (2022-02-11 edition 10)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily