Olympic curling 2014

Olympic curling in 2014 will be held in a new rink to be built in Sochi, Russia, as that country is to host the Winter Olympics for the first time. Sochi plans to build a new facility (one of many new builds for the games), which will seat 3,000 and will become a new national curling centre when the Olympics and Paralympics are over.

Initially seven cities had bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. In June last year this was narrowed down to three: Pyeongchang in South Korea, Salzburg in Austria, and Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi. The final vote took place at the International Olympic Committee meeting in Guatemala City yesterday. Salzburg was eliminated in the first round. In the second ballot, Sochi emerged as the winner just four votes ahead of Pyeongchang. Read the report here.

It was a second disappointment for the Koreans who had been close to winning the 2010 bid. Then Vancouver defeated Pyeongchang by three votes in the decisive ballot.

President Putin visited Guatemala City and spoke in public in English for the very first time in support of Sochi's bid. There's lots about Sochi in this blog.

World Curling Federation President Les Harrison has congratulated the Sochi bid committee, see here.