Bids for the 2014 Winter Olympics Bids for the 2014 Winter Olympics Seven applicant cities presented bids to host the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics (formally known as "XXII Olympic Winter Games" and "XI Paralympic Winter Games") to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC Executive Board shortlisted three cities—Sochi, Russia; Salzburg, Austria; and Pyeongchang, South Korea—with Sochi winning the IOC's July 2007 final vote. The three selected candidates, chosen on 22 June 2006, delivered to the IOC their Candidature Files (known as "bid books") on 10 January 2007. From February to April 2007, an ad hoc committee performed visits to the candidate cities and prepared
Olympic Games Evangelos Zappas, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic Games. Zappas sponsored the first Olympic Games in 1859, which was held in an Athens city square. Athletes participated from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium so that it could host all future Olympic Games. The stadium hosted Olympics in 1870 and 1875. Thirty thousand spectators attended that Games in 1870, though no official attendance records are available for the 1875 Games. In 1890, after attending the Olympian