Sochi Airport

During Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, there will be more than 1,000 translators and interpreters will be offering expertise to visitors to the Black Sea resort.

This was announced at the Sochi 2014 Translation Forum, the first of its kind in Olympic history, held in the host city of the Winter Games.

With more than 650 participants registered at the forum, delegates were able to discover the language services available at the Games and opportunities to work with the organizing committee of the Games.

In February 2014, it is expected that up to 5,500 athletes and team members from 80 countries will be in Sochi along with a host of media and international visitors therefore translation services will be necessary.

The 1,000 translators consist of both professionals and volunteers, and this number is twice as much as those who were providing such services at the 2006 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Turin.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, Sochi 2014 President and chief executive, disclosed that: "The Sochi 2014 Translation Forum was a significant step in our preparations for the first ever Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Russia.

"We're aiming to provide the warmest welcome possible when we welcome the world to Sochi and speak the same language as our Olympic and Paralympic Games guests, so the Forum helped us to reach this goal.

"As the first Forum of its kind in the history of the Olympic movement, the Sochi 2014 Translation Forum was a further example that we are going to deliver the most memorable and innovative Games in history."