Sochi wins 2014 Winter Olympic bid

Winter Olympics:  The Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi will stage the 2014 Winter Games.

Winter Olympics: The Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi will stage the 2014 Winter Games.

Sochi beat Pyeongchang of South Korea in a second and final round of voting by International Olympic Committee members after Austria's Salzburg were eliminated in the first round.

Sochi beat Pyeongchang by just four votes with 51 going to the Russians and 47 to the Koreans.

Pyeongchang had led the first round with 36, Sochi followed on 34 and Salzburg went out with 25.

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Sochi bid leader Dmitry Chernyshenko said: "We are happy and satisfied and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the IOC."

Sochi's deputy prime minister Alexander Zhukov was overcome with emotion and said: "Happy, happy, only that, happy."

Russian president Vladimir Putin, who had addressed the IOC in support of Sochi, the area where he has a holiday home and where he frequently skis, had already left before the verdict.

The Pyeongchang delegation sat slumped in dejection after falling at the final hurdle for the second time running. They lost narrowly to Vancouver for the right to stage the 2010 Games.

"It's almost like being stabbed in the back," Pyeongchang development director Jeon Yong-kwan said.

"I don't get it. We have worked for years to improve our previous bid. We did everything the IOC asked of us. It wasn't just a show."

Jeon also suggested Sochi, who are yet to build venues to stage the Games, might not be ready.

"I don't think they can build all the venues in the time they have though they say they can," he said.  Reuters