Russian Sochi requests to host winter Olympic games 2014

The Russian city of Sochi has sent an official request to the International Olympic Committee to host the winter games in 2014. A ceremony, attended by City officials and Olympic champions, was held in the newly built skating rink.

10 ministries and more than a 100 Russian and foreign experts worked on the formal proposal.

Russia's Black Sea resort town is competing against bids from South Korea and Austria for the games.

The contenders have until January 10 to put their bids forward before the international committee begins the decision-making progress.