The Olympic venues in Sochi are the Sochi Olympic Park (Adler) on the Black Sea coast and the Sochi Krasnaya Polyana facilities in the mountains.
The Sochi Olympic venues are located in two clusters – Coastal (near the Black Sea) and Mountain. The coastal cluster contains the Olympic Park and the Main Olympic Village in the Imereti Lowland near the Black Sea coast.
The mountain cluster includes several zones: Alpine skiing, as well as the “Rosa Plateau” and “Rosa Valley” zones located below; Olympic objects "Sledge" at "Alpico-Service"; "Russian Coaster" springboard at the "Mountain Carousel"; media village "Gorki-Gorod"; stadium "Laura" and an additional mountain Olympic village of the resort of OJSC "Gazprom".
The distance between the two clusters is 48 km. The Imereti Lowland is located on the southern outskirts of Adler. Krasnaya Polyana is a mountain village located 40 km east of Adler airport and 6 km from the Rosa Khutor ski resort. These points on the map of the Krasnodar Territory belong to Greater Sochi.
The Olympic sports venues of the Sochi Mountain Cluster are concentrated on the Aibga and Psekhako ridges. , the Russian Coaster jumps and the Rosa Khutor Olympic venues are equipped on the slopes of the Aibga ridge. The Olympic sports facilities of Sochi on the slopes of the Psekhako ridge are a system of ski slopes and two separate stadiums of the Laura ski and biathlon complex, a mountain Olympic village near the complex, an extensive network of cable cars and ski slopes with evening illumination of the Gazprom resort.
Coastal cluster
Olympic Park
The Olympic Park in Sochi is located near the Black Sea and occupies 256 hectares of the Imereti Lowland. It can accommodate 75 thousand visitors at the same time.
Sochi Olympic Park is the most compact park in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. The night views of the Olympic Park are very impressive!
In the Sochi Olympic Park there are:
- Olympic Stadium Fischt";
- "Big" Ice Palace;
- Iceberg Winter Sports Palace;
- Speed skating;
- Small Ice Arena "Shaiba";
- Curling.
The Fisht Olympic Stadium , named after the highest mountain peak in the Caucasus, is the only facility in the Olympic Park that did not take part in sports competitions. Fisht is the arena for the grand opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. At the start of construction, a capsule message to future generations was laid at the base of the Olympic Stadium, which reads: “Believe in your strength, and together we will win!” Today, the 69-meter Fisht Olympic Stadium is taller than London's Big Ben and seats 40 thousand spectators. After the end of the Games, it is used as a training and entertainment and concert center. In 2018, it hosted the FIFA World Cup games in Russia.
The Big Ice Palace is an arena for ice hockey competitions. It rises 50 meters from ground level, which corresponds in height to a 14-story residential building. The exterior of the building is designed in the form of a frozen drop of water. Its luminous dome creates a real cosmic landscape. The dome of the Big Ice Palace is a “media” screen that transmits a wide variety of images.
The Bolshoi Ice Palace (hockey arena) is equipped with the latest air conditioning system, capable of purifying the air from pathogenic microbes and viruses. The Big Ice Palace is a unique multifunctional structure for 12 thousand spectators, which during the post-Olympic period serves as a sports, entertainment and concert facility. There is a press conference room inside. The undulating Iceberg Winter Sports Palace is designed to host Olympic figure skating and short track competitions. The shape of the curves of the building's façade resembles an ice block in the ocean. The Iceberg Winter Sports Palace accommodates 12 thousand spectators and has a height of 34 meters.
“Iceberg” surprised figure skaters with its soft short-track sides. Here you can hold figure skating and short track competitions within one day. For this purpose, a special system for quickly changing the ice temperature has been created at the skating rink.
"Iceberg" is a collapsible design. After the Games, it is used as an arena for ice shows by Ilya Averbukh and Tatiana Navka (“Carmen” and “Ruslan and Lyudmila”).
The Speed Skating Oval (24 meters high), with a capacity of 8 thousand spectators during the Olympic Games, is the venue for exciting speed skating competitions.
The Adler Arena is equipped with a special reflective ceiling and the oval looks more illuminated. In the post-Olympic period, Adler Arena is positioned as an exhibition center. The Tennis Academy is located here.
The small ice arena “Shaiba” (height 22 meters) for 7 thousand spectators is the second arena for ice hockey at the Olympic and slash hockey at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. The shape of the building is associated with a snow whirlwind. The construction of this structure began in 2010, and after the Olympics, “Shaiba” turned into the All-Russian Children's Sports and Fitness Complex.
Curling Stadium is the smallest stadium in the Olympic Park. It seats 3 thousand spectators. Curling competitions took place here, and in the future it is used as an Olympic and Paralympic training center.
In addition to 6 sports facilities in the Coastal cluster there are:- Main Olympic Village;
- MediaCenter;
- Modern hotel complexes, private guest houses and hotels with developed tourist infrastructure.
Today the Olympic Park is the number 1 excursion site in Sochi
Many tourists strive to get to the Adler district of Sochi in order to admire the grandiose sports facilities of the Olympic Park and touch the history of the XXII Winter Olympics Sochi-2014.
From Sochi you can get to the Olympic Park by minibus 124 C or by the Lastochka express from Sochi Central Station to the modern indoor platform-station "Olympic Park". The Olympic Park amazes with the scale of the work done, futuristic Olympic sports facilities and beautiful hotel buildings. The huge territory of the Olympic Park is tiled with alternating canvases of green lawns and covered with asphalt, which makes fans of rollerblades, bicycles, rollerboards and children's cars extremely happy.
In the center of the Olympic Park there is a “ Monument to the Olympic Flame ”.
All Olympic sports venues are located in a circle within a 20-minute walking distance. Skilled guides in electric cars will take you around all the park's facilities for a small fee and tell you about the history of their creation.
The beautiful show of the Olympic “Singing Fountains” begins in the evening at 20 o’clock. The fountains are a single complex with a bowl where the Olympic flame soared.
Sports facilities of the Mountain Cluster
Olympic Village at different times of the year
While many resort towns in Russia are suitable only for summer holidays, the Sochi Olympic Village is good at any time of the year.
Each season here has its own charm:
- Summer is a great opportunity to combine relaxation on the beach and sightseeing. But hotel vacancies are difficult to find, so book your room in advance.
- In early autumn, the weather in Sochi is ideally mild, and the sea water is still warm. In addition, many tourists go home, and hotels offer good discounts.
- Winter is the time for ski lovers. Since apartments in Krasnaya Polyana and Rosa Khutor are not cheap in the winter season, rent a coastal hotel and go skiing on the slopes during the day.
- In spring , the Olympic Village, like the Adler district, is buried in flowers. In March, you will see how the magnolia tree opens, and to enjoy subtropical nature in all its splendor, visit the Southern Cultures arboretum.
So, no matter when you come, you won’t be bored. But it is better to draw up a walking program in advance so as not to miss the most interesting corners.
Olympic Village in summer.
"Rollercoaster"
The Russian Hills springboard complex is the center for ski jumping competitions for Olympic athletes. Here, at the junction of two ridges, athletes are protected from side winds, and the jumps blend harmoniously into the surrounding mountain landscape. The new Esto-Sadok railway station made it possible to quickly reach the venues of the Olympic competitions. The Russian Hills complex is designed for 10 thousand spectators. The main and training jumps are located here. Next to the ski jumps, the Gorki Gorod facility and the media village center dominates.
Springboard "Russian roller coaster"
"Shayba" ice arena
“Shaiba” is the second most important stadium, located next to the “Big” Ice Palace. It was originally built as a children's hockey center. It has an unusual, daring design that is great for a teenage, rebellious spirit.
There were big plans for ice rental. After the Olympic Games, they wanted to transport her to Vladikavkaz, Krasnodar or Nizhny Novgorod. But, as often happens, it turned out that the foundation would not survive the move, and the structure remained in place.
During the 2014 Games, hockey matches were held at Shaiba, and now it houses the All-Russian Children's Sports and Fitness Center. The capacity is 7,000 seats, and 2.5 billion rubles were spent on construction - not much by Olympic standards.
"Rosa Khutor"
"Rosa Khutor" is a ski resort in Sochi (Adler district), which includes: Ski, Freestyle and Snowboard Park on the Rosa Khutor plateau, as well as the Mountain Olympic Village.
Construction of the Rosa Khutor complex began in 2003 and opened in 2010. Test competitions and testing of new routes have already taken place here, including stages of the European Cup and World Cup in alpine skiing. If all the facilities of this ski resort are united by a single lift system and a single ski pass is introduced, then perhaps Rosa Khutor will become no less popular than the famous Three Valleys.
Rosa Khutor is an extreme ski and youth resort. Winter skiing at high altitudes is possible from October to May. There are 30 sets of awards up for grabs in 15 disciplines: downhill, slopestyle, slalom, freestyle, snowboarding.
Ski - the highest point where the Olympic competitions took place. There are 9 km of ski slopes on the northern slopes of Mount Aibga.Rodeo sledding is prohibited at the Ski Center and special prohibition signs have been placed. The ski resort accommodates 18 thousand spectators.
The Olympic slopes run from the northern slopes of Mount Aibga to Mount Kamenny Stolb and are 13 km long, to which 14 lifts deliver tourists and athletes.
On the Rosa Khutor plateau there is a Freestyle with three jumps for freestylers and a Snowboard Park.
At an altitude of more than 1000 meters there are tracks for cross-country skiing, moguls, halfpipe, parallel giant slalom, acrobatics, and snowboard cross. At both venues, stands with a capacity of 8 thousand seats have been created. Of the six disciplines of freestyle and snowboard, three finish in one place and three in another (balanced and compact). Particularly noteworthy are the mogul and halfpipe tracks. They create a cozy atmosphere for an amazing show.
At the Rosa Khutor ski resort, all buildings are permanent (not collapsible). At the Rosa Khutor Olympic venues, the largest snowmaking system in Europe has been created: 404 stationary snow guns, 27 portable ones and a snow storage facility for 150 thousand cubic meters of snow.
The lower territory of “Rosa Khutor” is “Rosa Valley” , or “Big Land”, from which three lines of gondola cable cars lead. This zone of the mountain cluster is located on the banks of the Mzymta River (translated as “Mad”), which is tightly bounded by a stone embankment. “Rose Valley” is a little Switzerland with small well-kept houses located along the embankment and all the luxurious infrastructure of a resort town.
Rosa Khutor is a mountain climatic resort of European service. The high-speed branch of the new Krasnaya Polyana - Adler railway on Lastochka will take you to the Black Sea coast in just 30 minutes without traffic jams."Sanki" - luge center
The modern “Sleigh and Bobsleigh Complex” (there are no more than 20 of them in the world) for 9 thousand spectators will host competitions in luge, skeleton and bobsleigh. The track is certified and listed for international competitions. It is the longest and safest in the world. Two kilometers of the track take athletes 130 meters down. The Luge and Bobsleigh Complex is a training center for Russian luge athletes with five starting zones at different heights. It has an unusual "timber ribs" architecture and is built on a permanent basis.
"Ice Cube" curling center
Curling is a relatively young and unusual sport. At first glance, it seems strange and even boring, but it was worth watching one game, and I became an ardent fan. Considering the still low popularity of curling, a separate “Ice Cube” with a capacity of 3,000 spectators was built for the games.
It looks like an ordinary 4-story sports complex, but in fact it is carefully thought out. There are 4 playgrounds on the ground floor. There are also locker rooms and service areas. Above there is an area for spectators, a presidential box and a box for the Olympic family.
Unusual post-Olympic use of the structure. They planned to transport the collapsible structure of the curling center to Rostov-on-Don after the Games, but decided to leave it in Sochi. And they were not mistaken. Despite the small size of the Ice Cube, it was used very actively. From 2013 to 2015, 8 curling competitions of various levels were held here. True, after that they began filming “Comedy Club” in the center.
Complex "Laura"
The Laura complex of OJSC Gazprom is a ski complex of international importance for competitions in biathlon, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined. It is located at an altitude of 1450-1600 meters above sea level on the ridges and slopes of Mount Psekhako next to Krasnaya Polyana.
The Laura complex includes two separate stadiums, a shooting range, training areas, two different trail systems for cross-country skiing and biathlon with separate start and finish areas. The stands of the biathlon complex are designed for 9,600 people.
Ski and biathlon complex "Laura" has its own additional Olympic village for 1100 people, almost Alpine, to provide athletes with accommodation at the same altitude with competition venues and the best conditions for adaptation.
An artificial lake, snow cannons and stationary snow guns are used, if necessary, to provide additional snow to the slopes so that the snow is “sporty”, fast and light. The Laura complex is a new ski resort in Russia in the Sochi mountain cluster. The “Laura” cable car of OJSC “Gazprom” with closed cabins will take you to the competition areas in 15 minutes.
Winter weather in the Russian resort city of Sochi is very changeable due to the mixture of alpine climate in the mountains and subtropical sea climate on the Black Sea coast, as well as the difficult terrain. 32 new weather stations have been installed in Sochi (20 of them on cell towers) and information on weather conditions is received every 10 minutes.
Skiers and biathletes compete in the mountains at an altitude of over 1,100 meters, and the ski slopes are located at around 2,000 meters above sea level.
How to get there.
We traveled to the center of Sochi by train Tuapse-Sochi. And, although the website of Krasnodar Electric Trains showed a direct train, it turned out that in Sochi we would have to transfer to Lastochka, and there were no direct flights.
Olympic Park station.
You can get to the Imereti resort by minibuses, they go from the bus station.
On trains and at train stations they offer many excursions, including to the Olympic Park. You can use the services of travel agencies, the routes are different, the prices are different. Often combined in one day with Krasnaya Polyana.
We love to travel on our own. A day in Krasnaya Polyana was not enough for us to see everything and go everywhere. Therefore, we chose a whole day for the trip.
In our opinion, the most convenient type of transport in this direction is the Lastochka - a high-comfort electric train. You just need to follow the schedule so as not to waste time waiting.
For those who went to the Olympic Park on their own, the advice is this: do not rush to take an excursion to Sochi. On site they offer equally interesting options to see the resort’s attractions. And upon arrival you will be able to choose for yourself what suits you best.
