Winter Olympics 2014 In The Big Picture

Earlier last month in Greece, the Olympic flame began its ceremonial journey to the site of the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. The flame is being carried across all 83 regions of Russia via relay by torchbearers. The flame has already visited the North Pole and International Space Station as it travels to the opening ceremonies on Feb. 7.

 Actress Ino Menegaki as high priestess, left, gives an olive branch to the first torch runner Greek champion skier Giannis Antoniou during the ceremony for lighting of the Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia, west southern Greece on Sept. 29. Using the sun's rays at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics, organizers carried out a successful ceremony to light the flame for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Feb. 7-23, 2014 in Russia.

 Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak (L) holds Olympic flame as he arrives for a ceremony signaling the start of the torch relay in Moscow's Red Square, Russia, on Oct. 6. Russia welcomed the Olympic flame for the start of an epic torch relay across the country leading to the opening ceremony of the winter Games in Sochi on Feb. 7, 2014.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin lights a torch in Moscow on Oct. 5, to start the relay across Russia, as the Olympic Flame for the XXII Winter Olympic Games Sochi 2014 arrived in Russia.

 Galina Zhigunova, an employee of Baltika Breweries company, takes part in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay in front of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood in central St. Petersburg, on Oct. 27.

A motor boat disguised as a lodya, traditional old style Russian wooden rowing boat, with an Olympic torch aboard making its way on the Volkhov River while arriving in the ancient Russian city of Veliky Novgorod, some 500 km (311 miles) northwest of Moscow on Oct. 24. Russian torchbearers have started this month the history's longest Olympic torch relay ahead of February's Winter Games in Sochi, which will take the flame across the country through all 83 of its regions, including extreme locales such as Chukotka, the remote region in Russia's Far East, the turbulent North Caucasus, and even Russia's European exclave Kaliningrad.

 A torch bearer, Russian swimming coach Pavel Dudchenko, carries an Olympic torch during a relay in Tula, 300 km (188 miles) south of Moscow, Russia on Oct. 14.

 A girl smiles during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay in the Russian city of Severodvinsk, some 1046 km (650 miles) north of Moscow on Nov. 1.

 Children look at the Olympic flame torch held by torchbearer Segrey Menshikov during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay near the ancient Russian city of Vladimir, 200 km (120 miles) south of Moscow on Oct. 16.

 Torchbearers rise their torches at a foundry of a copper processing plant in the Siberian city of Norilsk, 3000 km (1850 miles) northeast of Moscow on Nov. 7.

 A torchbearer rides atop a deer sleigh, near Yakutsk, the capital of Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, about 4,830 km (3,000 miles) east of Moscow on Nov. 9.