With four current Australian winter World Champions and an avalanche of blistering results on the snow, the three year countdown to Sochi 2014 cannot come soon enough for the Australian Olympic Winter Team.

The XXII Olympic Winter Games will be held in the city of Sochi, Russia from 7 – 23 February 2014. The Vancouver 2010 campaign was Australia’s best ever (2 gold, 1 silver) and one year on Australian winter athletes are continuing to perform well as Russia marks the three year milestone.

Olympic Winter Institute scholarship holders Alex Pullin, Nate Johnstone and Holly Crawford claiming gold at the World Snowboard Championships in January has had a snowball effect on winter athletes.

Just last week Anna Segal took gold in slopestyle at the Freestyle Ski World Championships and 20-year-old Russ Henshaw won bronze in the men’s event.

Also showing great promise 16-year-old Britt Cox had a personal best 12th place finish in the Dual Moguls World Championship while veteran Jenny Owens had her best result in two years after finishing fifth in ski cross at the Freestyle Ski World Championships.

Although slopestyle has never been an Olympic event, the IOC is considering introducing it at the Sochi Winter Games. Slopestyle is an event where athletes complete two runs down a course filled with rails, big jumps and bumps and earn points for their acrobatic spins. Seeing slopestyle in Russia in 2014 would be a fantastic result for Australia’s medal hopes. Snowboard slopestyle is also being considered for inclusion.

These new events are part of the IOC’s vision for the Olympic program to evolve and maintain youth interest. Other event proposals introduce ski halfpipe and team events in parallel alpine skiing, biathlon, figure skating and luge. The other major addition could be women’s ski jumping, which has twice failed to be added to the Olympic program.

The Krasyana Polyana Mountain Cluster where most events will take place is one of the most compact in Winter Olympic history, making Sochi an attractive destination for spectators and athletes alike. Planning and construction is on track and test events will begin later in 2011.

The organising committee of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games marked the three year milestone on Monday with the unveiling of its mascot final shortlist. Over 24,000 mascot designs were received and nationals can now vote on the 13 finalists which include Grandfather Frost, a polar bear and the snowboarding snow leopard.

The winning mascot will be unveiled in a grand showcase event featuring sport and show-business stars from across Russia on February 26th. To check out the mascots vying for the top prize click here.

AOC