Committee considers bids for 2014 Winter Olympics

Seven cities are competing to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Bids from Austria, Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Spain, South Korea and Kazakhstan were submitted to the International Olympic Committee by midnight Thursday's deadline.

The candidates are: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Borjomi, Georgia; Jaca, Spain; Pyeongchang, South Korea; Salzburg, Austria; Sochi, Russia, and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Pyeongchang and Salzburg were finalists in the race for the 2010 Winter Games. The South Korean resort was a narrow loser to Vancouver, British Columbia, with Salzburg third.

Alma Ata, Jaca, Sochi and Sofia have also mounted previous unsuccessful bids.

The candidates must reply to a a detailed IOC questionnaire by Feb. 1, 2006. The IOC executive board will meet in June 2006 to decide whether to accept all the applicants or trim the field to a short list of finalists.

The host city will be selected by the full IOC at a meeting in Guatemala in July 2007, the AP reports.