Начало здесь, продолжение 1, продолжение 2, продолжение 3.

We are officially one year out from the 22nd Winter Olympic Games, which will take place from Feb. 7 to Feb. 23, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

Here's some background on the host city, new events, Canada's outlook, and more.

Host country
Russia, and especially the former Soviet Union, have racked up medals at a rate second only to the United States in Olympic history, but this will be just the second time the country is serving as host. It is the first time a Winter Games are being staged in Russia; 1980's Summer Olympics in Moscow were boycotted by 65 countries.

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Начало здесь, продолжение 1, продолжение 2.

As Russia gears up for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games one year from today, many former Soviets hold bittersweet memories of the last time their country hosted the Olympics.

But Elena Eremeeva remembers the 1980 Moscow Games for something other than sports: she recalls the long waits she had to buy bananas.

In preparation for those Olympics — the first for a Communist country — Soviet officials cleaned up major cities and trucked in large quantities of scarce food products.

«My whole life revolved around trying to feed my family and standing in queues for food,» says Eremeeva, now choirmaster at a Russian church in Toronto.

«That summer I remember people waiting hours to buy bananas.»

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Начало здесь
At Sochi's new Olympic Park, three metres above sea level, it rains. It doesn't snow.

The coastal cluster of venues for ice sports during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games is on the Black Sea, with the climate not far off Vancouver's in February.

In the past week, on four out of seven days, it's poured buckets, drenching hundreds of workers exposed to the elements as they build the main stadium for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

But rain down here often means snow up in the Caucasus Mountains 50 kilometres away. At least that's the theory.

The Krasnaya Polyana area will host the alpine and sliding sports. But a year away from Russia's first-ever Winter Olympics, the weather has been unseasonably mild.

«This year is not typical with the temperature and snow,» says Valery Lukyanov, the chief meteorologist for the Olympics.

Where he stands, outside his office, water runs down the street.

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Канадская компания СИ-БИ-СИ начала свою серию публикаций о Сочи. Этот проект готовили многие журналисты, рассматривая эту тему с разных точек зрения.
Эта журналист ко мне не обращалась…

Sochi won't recognize itself in a year's time. The former Soviet spa city on the Black Sea is living through a building boom that is arguably the biggest in Europe.

The hum of construction goes on day and night. Roads are churned up. Five thousand heavy trucks tie up traffic. Seventy thousand Russian and migrant workers will be part of the build for Russia's first-ever Winter Olympics.

But this isn't a refurbishing of old sports facilities — the Sochi 2014 organizers are trying to prepare 11 new venues in two main sites: coastal and mountain.

The last time the Soviet Union hosted an Olympics, in 1980, more than 60 countries boycotted Moscow over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

This time, Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to welcome the world. He's gambling that a steep investment will pay goodwill dividends, but disruptions at home are causing friction and the budget is rising.

«Of course there are skeptics,» says Putin.

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