Four Years After Winning Games, No Slowing Down for Sochi

(ATR) Sochi 2014’s "big build" is the major focus for organizers of Russia's first Winter Games, but the host city has plenty else to keep it busy as well, including these key milestones over the next 18 months:

• July 4 – Organizers mark four years since Sochi was awarded hosting rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics at the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

• Sept. 1 – Students across Russia and other former Soviet republics start back to school on the annual Day of Knowledge, also considered the end of summer and beginning of fall.

• Sept. 22 – Sochi stages a community marathon and youth cycling event in honor of World Car-Free Day, an event organized annually to promote environmental awareness as well as alternate methods of transportation.

• October – Volunteer training camp opens at 26 colleges and universities across Russia selected in December to spearhead Sochi’s recruitment program, the most ambitious in Olympic history.

• October/November – The IOC Coordination Commission makes its sixth visit. Chief among the priorities recently identified for Sochi by the IOC are training the Olympic workforce, ensuring smooth Games-time transport and mobilizing the hospitality industry to transform the host city into a year-round tourist destination.

• Nov. 23 to 24 – Hosting the European Olympic Committees general assembly gives Sochi a chance to showcase the progress made since winning the Winter Games in 2007.

• December – Representatives from both worldwide Olympic partners and Sochi 2014 general partners will stop by the Black Sea resort for an annual update on key areas such as Games delivery, sponsorship activation and marketing opportunities in the Russian market.

• December 2011 to September 2013 – Sochi’s busy schedule of test events resumes. A total of 74 competitions – five of them world championships – are expected to draw 5,000 athletes and 250,000 spectators over the next two-and-a-half years.

• January 2012 – Volunteer selection begins. Roughly 25,000 Russians eventually will be recruited to aid with all aspects of the Games.

• Spring 2012 – The IOC Coordination Commission comes to town again, this time for its seventh visit.

• July 27 to Aug. 12 – Games-goers get a taste of winter at the London Summer Olympics. So-called Sochi World will include an interactive visitor experience and hospitality pavilion as well as a bespoke ice rink installed in front of the iconic Marble Arch.

• December 2012 – Chief organizer Dmitry Chernyshenko pledges construction on all competition venues will be complete by the end of 2012 to ensure two full seasons of test events.

Compiled by Mark Bisson.