The opening ceremony will begin at Sochi’s Fisht Stadium at 20:14 Moscow time (16:14 GMT). The Olympic flag with five rings symbolizing the unity of athletes around the world will be hoisted and the Olympic flame will be lit.

The Olympic Relay that started on October 6, 2013 in Moscow passed from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok through the capitals of all 83 Russian regions and 2,900 towns during a 123-day race. Fourteen thousand people carried the torch over a distance of more than 65,000 km. The Olympic torch was taken to the North Pole, to the bottom of Lake Baikal, to the International Space Station (ISS) and to Mount Elbrus.

A total of 88 teams will compete in the Sochi Olympics, a record number in the history of Winter Olympic Games, with such “non-winter” countries making their debut as East Timor, Dominica, Zimbabwe, Malta, Paraguay, Togo, and Tonga.

Three thousand athletes and 3,000 members of delegations from 88 countries will participate in the Olympic Games to be held from February 7 to February 23, and 700 athletes and 700 members of delegations from more than 40 countries will participate in the Paralympic Games to take place from March 7 to March 16.

Sources: en.itar-tass.com