The 2014 Olympics took place on February 7^th and lasted until February 23rd. It took place in Sochi Russia. It was the first time the Russian federation hosted the Winter games.

The games were organized in two clusters: a Coastal cluster for ice events, and a mountain cluster. This was one of the most organized games ever. The Olympic buildings were built brand new this year. Russians submitted applications since 2007 to host the 2014 Olympics.

This year marked the 20^th-year anniversary of the Olympics. The Olympic symbol is 5 colored rings intertwined. Every color is suppose to represent the 5 different areas of the world that are involved in the Olympics.

There was a total of 26 countries that competed in the Olympics and got a medal. Russia came in first place with a total of 33 medals. The United States came home in second place with 28 Medals, Norway came in 3rd with 26 medals and Canada 4^th with 25 medals.

There were fifteen different sports, such as ice hockey, speed skating, short track, figure skating, curling, biathlon, cross country, ski jumping, Nordic combine, alpine skating, freestyle skating, snowboard, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge.

The most medals were earned in freestyle skating for the United States. We received 3 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze leaving us with 7. Our second highest place was in alpine skating and snowboarding both with 5. We received 4 medals in bobsleigh we also received 2 medals in figure skating and skeleton. We received 1 medal in short track, luge and ice hockey. Our most earned medals ever was 37 in 2010.

The next Olympics will be held in the summer of 2016. It will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There is a total of 41 events that will take place.  Many athletes will start training now to be the best. They will take advantage of the time they have.  Brazil spectators say, “It’s an honor that the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held here in Brazil, we are looking forward to it.”