Winter Olympic clothes on display at fashion show

photo - PAP/Leszek Szymanski

The clothes for the Sochi Olympics have been designed by Ranita Sobańska of the 4F sports performance company, which, she says, have been inspired by the winter landscape, "when the snow sparkles in the sun on a frosty day."

The project for designing the Polish team's clothes began two years ago and has involved up to sixty people.

from left: Hockey player Mariusz Czerkawski, biathlete Monika Hojnisz, snowboarder Jagna Marczułajtis and speed skater Paweł Zygmunt model clothes for Winter Olympics: photo - PAP/Leszek Szymański

"The most important thing is that 4F is a Polish company," said President of the Polish Olympic Committee Andrzej Kraśnicki.

4F had already designed the clothes for athletes at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and summer Olympics in London.

"Sochi is a seaside resort, where temperatures can be quite high, while the alpine events will take place in the mountains. So we had to prepare the clothes for warmer and cooler conditions," said president of 4F, Igor Klaja.

Torch in space

Meanwhile, the torch that will open the games in the Black Sea report on 7 February blasted off on Wednesday into space from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a soyuz rocket, to the orbiting International Space Station.

Two Russian cosmonauts will later take the torch on a historic spacewalk, although it will not be lit.

The Olympic torch has been carried into space twice before - in 1996 and 2000 - but it has never left a spaceship. (pg)

source: PAP