The 22nd Olympic Winter Games officially got started Friday Febuary 7th  in Sochi, Russia. But while the events were on their way to Rosa Khutor Mountain, Russian government officials were down in what’s called the Coastal Cluster, trying to allay fears about security around the games. Russian officers have been notified about the so called threatened attacks. The officials announced that all the Islamic bombers were controlled and will not be a threat to this years Sochi Winter Olympics.

     Russia has drafted approximately 37,000 security and police officers to handle all there terrorist activities, which has caused nothing but fear within the athletes. There was a Turkish jetliner that had warned of a hijacking and safely landed in IstanbulTurkey on Friday after a passenger stating that there was a bomb on bored and told the crew members to take the plane straight to Sochi.

     With the bombing threats being contained, this years Olympics are introducing a new competition; slope side snowboarding in both men and women team’s. But there will be competition before the Olympic flame is actually lit. The competitions began Thursday night in Sochi.

     There were many other factors of the program to entertain the estimated 3 billion people worldwide who watched the ceremony at Sochi’s Fisht Stadium; the ceremony showed us Russia’s history and culture.  Legendary Russian hockey goalie Vladislav Tretiak lit the Olympic flame, along with Russian figure skater Irina Rodnina, winner of three Olympic gold medals.

     While the 2010 Vancouver Olympics managed on a budget of just 5.5 billion Euros ($7.4 billion), the Sochi organizers managed to spend 37.5 billion Euros during the eight years of preparations alone. By the time the 2014 Winter Games are over, the total cost is expected to top 50 billion Euros, which is a record high. When Russia bid to host its first Winter Olympics in 2007, a document quoted an expected cost of around $12 billion. That figure has risen to around $50 billion. That’s more than four times over the budget that they had estimated, making it the most expensive Winter or Summer Olympics ever. The United States are of with a great start with a total of 5 metals ranking 4th place, while Canada is in the lead with 7 metals. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics are off to a great start and heading towards an even better ending.