By David Gold at at Russia.Park in Kensington Gardens in London

Olympic Torch_in_space_August_3August 3 - Sochi's plans to take the Olympic torch into space have been reiterated by the President and chief executive of the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, Dmitry Chernyshenko.


The Sochi 2014 Torch Relay is set to make Olympic history, covering 40,000 kilometres of Russian soil, an unprecedented area for one individual country.

There are also plans in place to take the Torch to the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, and Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, standing at 5,642 metres.

However, it is the plan for taking the Torch into space which has captured the imagination.

"The torch relay, this is the biggest project outside of the Olympic Games," Chernyshenko told the audience here at the Global Sports Industry Congress.

"This will be truly innovative and the longest in terms of the distance and territories in the history of Olympic Games.

"It will cover all the territory of Russia and all time zones.

"We will go to the highest mountain and to the deepest lake.

"Even to outer space and many other interesting things!

Mount Elbrus_August_3Mount Elbrus, Europe's tallest mountain

"This is a great opportunity for the nation to learn from the beginning of the regions."

The Torch Relay will travel through all 83 constituent entities of Russia, with 90 per cent of the population having the opportunity to see it on its route.

A total of 14,000 Torchbearers will carry the Torch on its journey.

Chernyshenko also said that his favourite "intangible legacy" of Sochi 2014 was their work inspiring the voluntary movement in Russia.

Sochi 2014 is recruiting 25,000 volunteers to help with the Winter Games.

"Before this culture did not exist at all, and now we have hundreds of thousands of proud volunteers making a positive impact," Chernyshenko said.

"For several weeks when we opened we needed just 25,000 volunteers and we already have more than 100,000 applications.

"Those who want to be the proud volunteers for games so this is a really great success story."

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