Paralympic Flame Ceremony lights up Sochi

On Thursday (6 March), the Paralympic Flame will continue to move through the streets of the central districts of the city of Sochi, and then return to the mountain cluster of the Games to the Rosa Khutor village.

The Sochi 2014 Paralympic Torch Relay travelled to cities in the Southern Federal District - Krasnodar, Volgograd, Taganrog, before arriving in Sochi on Wednesday evening (5 March) for the Paralympic Flame Lighting Ceremony.

The Flame of the Sochi 2014 Paralympics visited 45 Russian cities, Dezhneva Cape (the easternmost point of Russia), and Stoke Mandeville in Great Britain, before arriving in Krasnaya Polyana in the mountains.

To celebrate the arrival of the Paralympic Torch in Sochi, residents and guests were congratulated by the President of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee Dmitry Chernyshenko, President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Sir Philip Craven, Mayor of Sochi Anatoly Pakhomov, General Secretary of the Russian Paralympic Committee Mikhail Terentyev. He was the first torchbearer of the Paralympic Torch Relay in Sochi. Keepers of the Flame lit the torch of Mikhail Terentyev from the cauldron and the athlete went on a journey through the city streets.

During the torch’s journey through the beautiful mountain Mzymta river embankments in the village of Rosa Khutor, a Dima Bilan concert took place on the Sochi 2014 live site stage, who at the time of lighting of the cauldron performed the anthem of the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Torch Relay.

Torchbearers in Sochi included 13-time Paralympic champion Rima Batalova, head of the administration of Krasnaya Polyana district Valery Kokorev and South Korea’s Paralympian Vo Rami Seo.

After completion of the run by the last torchbearer in Krasnaya Polyana, the flame of the torch of the Sochi 2014 Paralympics was kept in a special lantern. On Thursday (6 March), the Paralympic Flame will continue to move through the streets of the central districts of the city of Sochi, and then return to the mountain cluster of the Games to the Rosa Khutor village.