The London 2012 Olympic Games are over and attention now turns to the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Officially known as the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olympics, the Winter Olympics 2014 are scheduled to take place from February 7th to 23rd, 2014, in Sochi, Russia.
Some events will also be held in the resort town of Krasnaya Polyana.
No fewer than 98 events will be held from fifteen winter sports.
Sochi was selected as the host city in 2007 during the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City, defeating bids from Salzburg, Austria; and Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The Sochi Olympics are the first Winter Olympics - and first Olympics altogether - for the Russian Federation, as the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow were in the Soviet Union.
Construction is well underway in preparation for the Games, with new venues being built and telecommunications, power, and transport infrastructures being upgraded.
A new Olympic Park by the Black Sea coast in the Imeretin Valley is also being constructed. The project involves building a resort city almost from scratch.
"We are building an Olympic structure in the middle of nowhere," said Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee.
"It's like a painter with a blank canvas painting a masterpiece.
"We are building a new city with more than 100,000 hotel beds. It's the biggest construction project in the world."