A special ice show has been held in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum. The event is hoped to boost Sochi's bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

It is all about people's enthusiasm – dozens of skaters on the ice-rink in sunny St. Petersburg. They are performing to prove Russia is able to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2014 and really wants it.

“The main advantage of Sochi is the support from the population,” Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Zhukov said. “Polls conducted by the International Olympic Committee, and these are independent polls that we have no influence upon, show that more than 80% of the population of Russia and Sochi are backing this bid, and this is 115 MLN people”.

Earlier, he guaranteed a Winter Olympics in Sochi would be a success.
“The bid gives us grounds to think that in case Russia wins the right to conduct the Winter Olympic Games, it will be the best Winter Olympics in the history of the Olympic movement,” said Mr Zhukov.

Apart from millions of citizens the Sochi concept enjoys much governmental support, which is, perhaps, even more important.

There is less than a month left until the city to host the Olympic games of 2014 is chosen. Last week the Evaluation Commission of the International Olympic Committee released the report on its impressions of the three city candidates. It rated the Sochi concept as “very good”, while both its competitors, Austrian Zaltsburg and South Korean Pyongyang got excellent marks.

But the head of the Sochi's bid Dmitry Chernyshenko does not want to compare the competitors. His goal is clear.

“We are concentrated on our strategy, this is the winning strategy, and we are concentrated on the victory only,” he said. “There are no options, we have to win”.

Russia is trying to prove it is ready to win. Warming up for possible Olympic winter games Russia has hosted top winter sports competitions in recent years.
Events include top fly speed skating and biathlon events along with figure skating and ice hockey championships.

“We are ready to host events at the highest level: mountain skiing, ski jumping and competitions on the new bobsleigh track,” Leonid Tyagachov, head of the Russian Olympic Committee stated.

The events are to take place in Sochi, at venues that can become of Olympic importance.  

As the final vote to decide on the city to host the Olympics is becoming closer, there are more people supporting Sochi’s bid.