The XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi is an international sporting event, which will be held on 7-23 February 2014. The capital of the Olympic Games, Sochi (Russia), was chosen during the 119th session of IOC in the city of Guatemala (the capital of the Republic of Guatemala) on July 4, 2007.
98 sets of medals in 15 disciplines of 7 Olympic sports, to which this issue of postage stamps is devoted, will be contested.
The sheet with a coupon comprises all the stamps issued in the previous years as part of the “Olympic Winter Sports” series:
Biathlon is a sport combining a ski race and rifle shooting at several shootings. At present the program of Olympic Winter Games includes five types of the
biathlon programme for men and five for women: individual race, sprint, pursuit, mass-start and relay race.
Bobsleigh is a downhill race along special race tracks with artificial ice freezing in guided sleighs (bobs). Olympic competitions in bobsleigh in each event are held in two days – 2 races a day. The winner is the team whose total time (in all 4 races) is minimal. The Olympic Games programme involves three kinds of competitions: men on two- and four-person bobs, women on two-person bobs.
Alpine skiing. The Olympic Games programme in alpine skiing involves downhill race, slalom, giant slalom, super-G and super-combined – all these events are held both among men and women. The peculiarities of the events are defined by the characteristics of race tracks, such as a length, trajectory, distance between the “gates”.
Curling is a team game on the ice ground, in which two teams of four players take part. Participants of the opposed teams in turn throw on the ice special granite stones (“rocks”) towards a target marked on the ice (“house”).
Jumping race involves ski jumping from the springboard (1 attempt) and 10 kilometers cross country race. The Olympic programme in jumping race involves three events: individual race with a jump from a medium springboard, individual race with a jump from a big springboard and team race (two jumps per each participant from a big springboard and a relay race 4x5 km). All events are held only among men.
Ski race is a discipline of ski sports, involving different formats of competitions in ski race. The Olympic Games programme will include skiathlon, staggered start race, mass start race, relay race, individual and team sprint – all events are held among men and women.
Ski jumping is one of the disciplines of ski sports. Ski jumping involves the following events: individual event at the medium springboard (men and women), individual event at the big springboard (men) and team events (men). The Olympic Games programme in Sochi includes competitions among women at the medium springboard for the first time ever.
Luge is one of the most extreme Olympic sports. It is a competition in downhill race on one-person or two-person sleds along special race tracks with artificial ice freezing. A sportsman starts from a sitting position, after repulsion the participant takes up a position lying flat on back. Guiding the sled is done by the sportsman’s body center-of-gravity travel.
Skeleton represents downhill along a special race track with artificial ice freezing in a skeleton (a sled with two tubular runners on a fixed frame, on which the sportsman lies head foremost). Olympic events in skeleton last for two days. Each sportsman makes 4 races. Time is measured accurate to 1/100 seconds. The winner is the one whose total time (in all 4 races) is minimal.
Speed skating is a sport, in which a sportsman needs to cover a certain distance as fast as possible. A standard length of oval skating track is 400 m. The Olympic Games programьу includes 5 individual distances for women and men each as well as a team pursuit race. Consequently 12 sets of medals are competed for in this sport.
Snowboard is a discipline of winter sports. The Olympic Games programme in snowboard includes 10 competitions in 5 disciplines: halfpipe, parallel giant slalom, snowboard-cross, as well as new kinds of competitions in the Olympic Games program, which are slopestyle and parallel slalom.
Figure skating in a sports programme of the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi is represented by 5 kinds of competitions: individual competitions among men and among women, competitions in pair skating, ice dance as well as team competitions. Team competitions will be held in Olympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi for the first time ever.
Freestyle is one of the disciplines of ski sports. The Olympic Games programme in freestyle includes mogul skiing, acrobatics, ski-cross, halfpipe and slopestyle. Halfpipe and slopestyle were added into the program of Olympic Games in 2011. Men and women take part in each event. Totally 10 sets of medals are to be competed for.
Ice hockey is a sports team game on ice, in which 2 teams participate. The participants of the game are trying to deliver the puck into the competitor’s net passing it off by sticks, and at the same time to protect their own net from the puck. The team who have scored more goals wins.
Short track is a discipline of speed skating in which sportsmen need to cover a race distance along an oval ice track 111.12 m in length as fast as possible. Competitions include various distance running and relay race.
A FDC with cancellation is to be issued as well (Moscow, Sochi).
Design: А. Drobyshev.
Face value: 25 rub.
Size of stamps: 37×37 mm, size of sheet: 168×168 mm.
Form of issue: a sheet with illustrated margins of 15 (4х4) stamps and a coupon.
Circulation: 115 thousand sheets.
Olympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi will be a real celebration of sport. More than 6,000 athletes and team members from over 80 countries will arrive to Sochi in 2014. In our country the Olympic Games will be held for the second time (prior to that XXII Olympic Games were held in Moscow in 1980). The stamp booklet consists of 11 sheets and a cover: 5 sheets (3 stamps on each one) and 6 sheets with an accompanying text.
Stamp booklet:
Design: А. Ilyina.
Format of the booklet: 180×100 mm.
Circulation: 17 thousand copies.
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