I didn’t know this, but Elena Vesnina, Russian tennis player, member of Russian FedCup team, lives in Sochi!

Russia is currently ranked number one in FedCup rankings. Number one, baby! :-)

International tennis star Maria Sharapova has thrown her support behind Sochi’s bid for the 2014 Olympic Winter games.

The 20 year-old has won both Wimbledon and the US Open, and was the first Russian player to top the WTA rankings.

“I lived [in Sochi] for five years” Sharapova told GamesBids.com in an exclusive interview from Los Angeles, “Sochi is an amazing city and I don’t think a lot of people realize it will be such an incredible experience.

Sharapova said her love of tennis began when she was four years old in Sochi.

“I actually left there to go to America because I couldn’t develop my tennis skills because in winter time there wasn’t a lot of facilities.

She hopes that the Winter Olympics will leave a legacy of sports facilities for young athletes so they won’t have to leave their country and city to train for their chosen sport as she was forced to do.

“It’s a beautiful city and I’m so proud of it. I always tell my friends in America I want to take you there, I want to show you where I grew up.”

The rest of this article is at GamesBids.com »

Forty seven students took part in Sochi local Armenian literary language competition.

Sochi is very multi-cultural city. People of over 100 different nationalities live in Sochi, with largest minority group being Armenians. According to census of year 2000, 17% of 420 000 Sochi residents are of Armenian nationality, and according to Russian migration agencies this number is a much higher considering large number of illegal immigrants. So, it is no surprise that almost 1500 school students in Sochi are studying Armenian language.

I should mention that real (literary) Armenian language is quite different from the language local Armenians speak. Armenians in Sochi lived for generations, and even many adults in local Armenian families don’t know literary Armenian language.

Other large national groups in Sochi include Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, and Georgians.

One of the coolest things about writing about something (my city in this case) is that while digging for more details you can learn so many things that you didn’t know before!

For example, today I found out that Sochi resident, and member of Russian National Bobsleigh Team Alexei Voevoda was once a professional arm-wrestler and he is the uncontested arm wrestling world champion among professionals for the 2000-2004 period!

Voevoda commented on his personal commitment to Sochi’s bid:

“I live in Sochi and I believe that my native city would host a once-in-a-lifetime Games. The unique climate, well-developed infrastructure and state-of-the-art sports facilities will provide comfort and convenience for athletes and guests. The 2014 Olympics is to leave a priceless legacy not just for Sochi and the Krasnodar Region, but for the whole country, acting as a powerful catalyst of winter sports development. We won silver at the 2006 Torino Olympics and I’m sure that at the 2014 Games in Sochi we’ll be inspired to go for the gold.”

In December 2006 some Sochi residents rallied against holding the Olympic Games in Sochi. The major concerns that they brought up were dense building constructions, ecological impact of the rapid development, and already overloaded transportation infrastructure, writes “Novaya Gazeta Kubani” newspaper.

December is not today, but this is recent, and still is of current importance. Read the rest of this entry »

Today Maria Sharapova was named best-looking female athlete by the Sports Illustrated magazine.
You all know who she is - gorgeous girl and successful tennis player. But do you know that she started playing tennis in Sochi? That’s right! When she was two years old her family moved to Sochi, where, at the age of four, she met the father of tennis champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Sochi native), who gave her a tennis racket.

Anyway, today she’s a superstar who has seen the World, and Sochi is still on her “Top Ten Favorite Cities” list! Here’s the complete list: Read the rest of this entry »