Bulgaria s bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2014 was rejected on 22 June by the IOC executive board. According to the head of the Bulgarian youth and sports agency, Vessela Lecheva, the rejection was due to the lack of parliamentary and presidential support in Bulgaria. She added that Bulgaria failed to prepare its application thoroughly. The Bulgarian’s now intend to re-bid to host the games in 2018. The other three cities to have their bids rejected were Jaca ( Spain), Almaty ( Kazakhstan), and Borjomi (Georgia).

Sochi ( Russian Federation), Salzburg ( Austria),andPyeongChang ( Republic of Korea) were selected as the final candidate cities for the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014. Commenting on the decision, IOC President Jacques Rogge said: “We are pleased with the decision that was reached through a unanimous consensus. We congratulate the three candidate cities and thank the other four applicant cities for their hard work and enthusiasm.”

Of the three remaining cities, Salzburg, which was tipped to win in 2010, has the infrastructure, the expertise, the experience and the respect of the IOC, and is again a top contender. As far as infrastructure and facilities go, Sochi trails Salzburg but Russia has never hosted an Olympic Winter Games despite being such a dominant participant. The Sochi bid also has solid government support and financial backing. PyeongChang lacks winter sports history and some key facilities but nobody doubts that the Korean team would be able to fund and build everything necessary to pull of the Games.