On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee executive board selected Sochi along with Austria's Salzburg and South Korea's PyeongChang from a list of seven bidders to host the 2014 Games. The winner is to be announced in July 2007.
Welcoming the IOC decision, Vyacheslav Fetisov, the head of the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport, said: "We have a chance to win, in a year's time, the right to host the [2014] Olympics."
The governor of the surrounding Krasnodar Territory, Alexander Tkachev, said: "Sochi has won not only thanks to the federal government's support, but also because it is special. We may or may not come out first, but we all share a determination to win."
Sochi has a unique combination of Alpine peaks, some reaching 6,500 feet, and an 80-mile stretch of coastline. However, the city's rundown Soviet-era infrastructure prevented it from winning previous bids, for the 1998 and the 2002 winter games.
The Russian government has thrown its weight behind Sochi's latest bid, including a $12 billion package for upgrading infrastructure, with 40% of the funding to come from the private sector.
The chief executive of a company sponsoring the bid linked Sochi's success to the efficiency of teamwork by the state and the business community.
"The final result will depend on how well the state-business partnership is organized," said Vladimir Potanin, the CEO of the huge Interros holding.
He said the company had already invested $300 million in a project to build a major Alpine skiing track in Sochi.
"Along with the track's construction, we are also planning to contribute to the federal target program," Potanin said. "We will be investing in the hospitality sector and in housing. Overall investments will top half a billion dollars."
