The 2014 Olympic Winter Games are the first time that the Russian Federation hosts the Winter Games; the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. The host city Sochi has a population of 400,000 people and is situated in Krasnodar, which is the third largest region in Russia.

The Games are organised in two clusters: a coastal cluster for ice events in Sochi, and a mountain cluster located in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains. This makes it one of the most compact Games ever, with around 30 minutes travel time from the coastal to mountain cluster.

The Sochi Olympic Park is built along the Black Sea coast in the Imeretinskaya Valley, where all the ice venues such as the Bolshoi Ice Palace, the Maly Ice Palace, the Olympic Oval, the Sochi Olympic Skating Centre, the Olympic Curling Centre, the Central Stadium, the Main Olympic Village and the International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre, have been built anew for the 2014 Games. The Park ensures a very compact concept with an average distance of 6km between the Olympic Village and the other coastal venues.

The mountain cluster in Krasnaya Polyana is home to all the skiing and sliding sports. The mountain concept is again a very compact one with only an average distance of 4km between the mountain sub-village and the venues. There is also be a sub-media centre in the mountain cluster.

Sochi was elected on 4 July 2007 by the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the 119th Session in Guatemala City.

Seven cities, namely Sochi (Russian Federation), Salzburg (Austria), Jaca (Spain), Almaty (Kazakhstan), PyeongChang (Republic of Korea), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Borjomi (Georgia) - in the order of drawing of lots - initially submitted applications to host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
Based on the report by a working group, three of the seven cities were unanimously selected by the IOC’s Executive Board as Candidate Cities at its meeting on 22 June 2006: 

   - Sochi (Russian Federation)  
   - Salzburg (Austria) 
   - PyeongChang (Republic of Korea) 

The final decision on the host city for the XXII Olympic Winter Games was made by the full IOC membership during the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City on 4 July 2007. Sochi was elected in the second round with 51 votes, compared to PyeongChang’s 47.

119th IOC Session, 4 July 2007, Guatemala City:
Election of the Host City of the XXII Olympic Winter Games