The one of the most famous alpine skiers returns to sports after a long period of illness and recovery. 

The rapid growth of FIS SnowKidz has clearly shown that there is a real drive in the National Ski Associations to bring children to the snow. 

July may be one of the warmest months of the year in the northern hemisphere but more ski areas are open in the Alps than in June and as winter kicks off in the southern hemisphere nearly 100 areas should be open south of the equator by the end of July.  

The coming Olympic Games stimulates the demand in tourism, more than 3 million people are expected to visit Sochi.

The city Krasnoyarsk will be ready for the Winter Universiade-2019, some facilities are already operated.

Specialists from all over the world are attracted to work on security matters at the Winter Olympic Games Sochi.

After Central Europe, now also the Canadian province of Alberta was struck by major floods. Especially affected was the region around Calgary, the Olympic city of 1988.

Sochi 2014's accreditation system will begin operations in the next week and Sarah Lewis, FIS Secretary General arranged meetings with the different logistical departments of the Organising Committee in Moscow (RUS) last week to review procedures. 

The Russian national ski jumping women team has a training camp at Sochi.

One in ten spectator plans to watch the freestyle skiing competitions.