The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games torch relay will begin October 7, last 123 days, and pass through 2,900 cities and villages in 83 regions of the country.
The flame will be carried by the usual transport – car, train and plane, but the fourteen thousand torchbearers will also carry the flame by various other modes of transportation including a Russian troika, reindeer and dog sleds, bicycle and snowcat, sleighs, karts, snowmobiles, combine harvester, carriage, a camel, on a ferry and boat, snowboard, ice skates and skis, and it will be lifted on a funicular railway and a cable car, and take off into the sky in a hot air balloon.
Sochi 2014 organizers say that 90 per cent of the Russian population will be within an hour’s reach of the Torch Relay route at some time or other, meaning that about 130 million Russian citizens will be able to watch or participate directly in the relay which will cover more than 65,000 km.
The relay will reportedly be the longest in the history of the Olympic Winter Games. It will end with the Opening Ceremony in Sochi on February 7, 2014.
