Peter Kogoy
The Australian
An impassioned speech by Vladimir Putin in Guatemala last week has been credited with Sochi becoming the first Russian city to host the Games after it won a three-way ballot to host the 2014 event.
Russian president Putin led the presentation and stunned delegates at the IOC congress as he spoke to an audience in English for the first time.
Putin , who owns a dacha (country house) in Sochi, responded to a question "would there be enough snow in 2014 because of global warming" with, of course there would be snow as he had just skied there six weeks ago and there had been plenty.
There was no doubting Putin's pulling power. IOC member and AOC president John Coates believed Putin swept up votes in much the same way former British prime minister Tony Blair did in London's successful 2012 Summer Games bid two years ago.
"As with Tony Blair for London, Putin's presence and address I believe clearly had a big influence on the decision," Coates said. The AOC secretary-general Craig Phillips said all three candidate cities would have made a successful host.
"Russian athletes have a very long and successful history in winter sport, and Sochi is a well-resourced resort city," Phillips said.
"Australian athletes can be confident they will be going into an environment where organisers will know what they need."
Sochi defeated runner-up, the South Korean city of Pyeongchang — also second in the 2010 race to Vancouver — in final voting after Austrian city Salzburg was knocked out on the first ballot.
Sochi won by 51 votes to 47 — with one abstention — while Pyeongchang led after the first round with 36 votes to Sochi 's 34 and Salzburg's 25.
Putin was supported on stage by Olympic swimming champion and IOC member Alexandre Popov.
The Sydney-based former world super-lightweight boxing champion Kostya Tszyu also played a role in the bidding process.
Putin will embark on a seven-year building spree financed by the country's oil wealth.
The decision will trigger a $12billion financial windfall from the government to turn the country's most popular summer resort into a world-class winter destination.
The funds will be used to rebuild the city's crumbling infrastructure, while 19,000 new hotel rooms will be constructed.
A stretch of the Black Sea coastline will be turned into an Olympic park with a rail link to a mountain resort for the skiing events 40kilometres away.
IOC president Jacques Rogge agreed that having political leaders such as Blair and Putin involved in Olympic bids was a big advantage.
"It reflects on the value and importance of the Olympic Games to any country and the benefits the Games bring," Rogge said.
" Sochi won deservedly."
But some saw the decision as a blow to Rogge. Sources told wire agency AFP that Rogge had lobbied for Pyeongchang.
Other members of the winning bid team were understandably ecstatic.
"This is a great day for Russia and we are really happy," deputy prime minister Alexander Zhukov said.
Sochi had battled hard to overcome the impression of being a virtual reality bid with no venues, but the final ace was the arrival of Putin.
For the Koreans, it was a desperate blow as they had come out on top in the vital IOC evaluation commission report, published just a month ago.
However, like Paris two years ago — which also topped the report — its hopes were dashed.
Salzburg , the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, suffered from a doping scandal involving athletes and coaches at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.
Austria 's chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer made a barbed comment about the amounts of money spent by the other two candidates.
"I am sure the concept we presented was the best," Gusenbauer said.
"It was a strategic decision. It was an economic and political powerplay. The IOC has made a clear choice."
Additional reporting: Agencies
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