Sochi was elected on 4 July 2007 by the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the 119th Session in Guatemala City.

Seven cities, namely Sochi (Russian Federation), Salzburg (Austria), Jaca (Spain), Almaty (Kazakhstan), PyeongChang (Republic of Korea), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Borjomi (Georgia) - in the order of drawing of lots - initially submitted applications to host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
Based on the report by a working group, three of the seven cities were unanimously selected by the IOC’s Executive Board as Candidate Cities at its meeting on 22 June 2006:

   - Sochi (Russian Federation) 
   - Salzburg (Austria)
   - PyeongChang (Republic of Korea)

The final decision on the host city for the XXII Olympic Winter Games was made by the full IOC membership during the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City on 4 July 2007. Sochi was elected in the second round with 51 votes, compared to PyeongChang’s 47.

119th IOC Session, 4 July 2007, Guatemala City:
Election of the Host City of the XXII Olympic Winter Games

The 2014 Olympic Winter Games will be the first time that the Russian Federation will have hosted the Winter Games; the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. The host city Sochi has a population of 400,000 people and is situated in Krasnodar, which is the third largest region in Russia.

The Games will be organised in two clusters: a coastal cluster for ice events in Sochi, and a mountain cluster located in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains. This will make it one of the most compact Games ever, with around 30 minutes travel time from the coastal to mountain cluster.
The Sochi Olympic Park will be built along the Black Sea coast in the Imeretinskaya Valley, where all the ice venues such as the Bolshoi Ice Palace, the Maly Ice Palace, the Olympic Oval, the Sochi Olympic Skating Centre, the Olympic Curling Centre, the Central Stadium, the Main Olympic Village and the International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre, will be built anew for the 2014 Games. The Park will ensure a very compact concept with an average distance of 6km between the Olympic Village and the other coastal venues.

The mountain cluster in Krasnaya Polyana will be home to all the skiing and sliding sports. The mountain concept is again a very compact one with only an average distance of 4km between the mountain sub-village and the venues. There will also be a sub-media centre in the mountain cluster.

Salzburg

The Republic of Austria has a population of approximately 8.1 million, Salzburg State 526,000 and the City of Salzburg 150,000.

Salzburg proposed a concept based around two zones (68km/50 minutes apart). All the ice venues, the Main Media Centre (MMC), the main Olympic Village, the Olympic Stadium, the Medals Plaza and the Olympic family hotels would have been located in Salzburg. The mountain zone, located in a well-established ski region south of Salzburg, would have included all snow venues and an Olympic Village with distances ranging from 53-77km from Salzburg. A single stand-alone venue would have been the existing Schönau am Königssee sliding venue, 27km from Salzburg, in neighbouring Germany. 

PyeongChang

Gangwon Province has a population of 1.5 million, PyeongChang 45,000 and Gangneung (ice venues) 250,000.

PyeongChang proposed a concept based around two zones (37km/25 minutes apart). Core Games activities have been based in the mountain zone and would have included most snow venues, the sliding venue, the Main Media Centre (MMC), the main Olympic Village, the ski jumping venue (site of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies), the Medals Plaza and the Olympic family hotels. The Gangneung coastal zone would have included all the ice venues and an Olympic Village. The two stand-alone venues would have been Jungbong (Alpine speed events) and Bokwang Phoenix Park (snowboard and freestyle) both approximately 30 minutes from the PyeongChang Olympic Village.