Russia puts its gold into resort's Olympic dream.

Times Online:

A Black Sea holiday city wants the Winter Games to come to its land of palm trees

ON A tropical mountain near the Black Sea, a newly built ski lift stretches up into the clouds, while a lone worker blinks sleepily in the heat. “That’s where they’re going to build the winter Olympics village,” says my guide.

This is Sochi, Russia’s biggest resort on the Black Sea coast. Every year, three million Russians descend on the town for summer, drawn by its beaches, casinos and brash discos. It is not a place one immediately associates with alpine sports.