Coordinated by the Ceremonies Staging Agency, training sessions for volunteers have been opened in Moscow, Kazan and Krasnodar, as well as Sochi.

Lasting for 13 days the goal of the sessions is to motivate and engage volunteers and in particular to prepare them for assisting on the stage, behind the scenes and in the Olympic Park, during both the Opening and the Closing Ceremonies..

One of the distinguishing features of the courses is that the team of Ceremonies organisers will meet the volunteers in their home towns while some, including over 40 non-Russians involved in the Ceremonies, will have the opportunity to participate online.

Sochi 2014 are trying to match the success of volunteer movements at other recent Games, including London 2012


This follows the announcement that 3,000 young artists from middle and higher art and drama schools, including circus performers, were chosen to perform in the ceremonies.

As the success of recent Games at Beijing in 2008 and London 2012 illustrated, however, recruiting volunteers is just as important as performers and the training sessions is thus a reflection of this.

Meanwhile, after three days in the Russian capital the Sochi Torch Relay is also continuing to match the success of that before the London Games last year.

Torch carriers included the figure skater Irina Slutskaya, who has won two individual world titles in addition to Winter Olympic medals both at Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006.

In further evidence of the high profile that Russia's sporting women are playing in the Ceremony another participant was the six-time Olympic speed-skating champion Lidiya Skoblikova.

Lidiya Skoblikova who won six gold medals at the 1960 and 1964 Winter Olympic Games was one of those carrying the Torch in Moscow


On its third and final day in Moscow the Flame visited factories belonging to several Sochi ambassadors including Coca-Cola and the Torch Relay presenting partner OSAO "Ingosstrakh" as well as a local secondary school and the Leningradsky Train Station.