Sochi 2014: Sochi Prepares for Next Winter Olympics

As the Vancouver 2010 Games end, Sochi has taken the Olympic flag from Vancouver, and now Winter Olympics fans are looking forward to Sochi 2014. Sochi has already begun preparing for the next Winter Olympics, and there is quite a bit of work to do.

• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Cancels Vancouver Olympic Trip

Where is Sochi? Sochi is a resort town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia; just north of the Georgan border. Sochi is on the shore of the Black Sea, and framed by the Caucasus mountains. I checked out Sochi's official site, but it's pretty much broken. Climate-wise, Sochi will carry on the trend of hosting the Winter Games in a warm city: Like Vancouver, city temperatures in Sochi rarely fall below freezing in January and February.

Also, Sochi has no facilities fit for international winter sports, and so everything must be built from scratch, as well as a light rail service: the Russian Federation is dedicating roughly $12 billion to this huge task. Environmentalists see the Sochi bid as a gimme for development firms at the expense of the city's surrounding ecosystem, which includes national parkland.

During the Vancovuer 2010 Games, Science World became Sochi House, as Russia showed off its big plans for the 2014 games. Sochi's US sister city is Long Beach, California, home of Snoop Dogg.