Only 34 days remain until the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The torch relay, which began in Greece last September, is billed as the longest in Winter Olympics history - covering 65,000 km (40,390 mi) as it passes through 2,900 towns and villages across all 83 regions of Russia. So far, the torch has been carried on foot and aboard sleds, ships, wheelchairs, camels, a Soyuz spacecraft, a nuclear-powered icebreaker, and a water jet-pack. The relay will come to an end on February 7, 2014, at the opening ceremony in Sochi.
Olympic-Torch Relay Heads to Sochi
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Torch bearers hold Olympic torches during the torch relay in the Far Eastern University on the Russky Island near the port city of Vladivostok, Russia, on November 15, 2013. #
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Greek actress Ino Menegaki, playing the role of High Priestess, passes the Olympic flame to Greek skier Yannis Antoniou, the first torchbearer of the torch relay, at the site of ancient Olympia in Greece, on September 28, 2013. #
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Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a torch in Moscow to start the relay across Russia, on October 6, 2013, as the Olympic Flame for the XXII Winter Olympic Games Sochi 2014 arrived in Russia. #
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Torch bearer Mikahil Chuyev, using a water jet pack, carries an Olympic torch from a boat to the shore during the Olympic torch relay on Lake Baikal in Siberia, on November 23, 2013. #
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101-year old Alexander Kaptarenko carries the Olympic torch through Novosibirsk, on December 7, 2013. Kaptarenko, who still plays table tennis, is the oldest torch bearer in the relay and he plans to participate in the European table tennis veterans championships. #
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Russia's Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft carrying an international crew including Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and US astronaut Rick Mastracchio and an unlit Olympic torch for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi aboard blasts off from the Russian leased Kazakh Baikonur Cosmodrome, on November 7, 2013. #
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In the International Space Station's Rassvet Mini-Research Module 1, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin holds the Olympic torch, after arriving aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. #
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Russian astronaut Oleg Kotov holds the Olympic torch during a spacewalk, as Russian astronaut Sergei Ryazansky prepares the camera outside the International Space Station in this still image taken from video courtesy of NASA TV, on November 9, 2013. #
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International Space Station crew member Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin holds the torch of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games after landing near the town of Zhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan, on November 11, 2013. #
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A torch bearer runs in a national open-air museum with more than 80 historical wooden structures in Kizhi island, near the center of Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia, on October 22, 2013. #
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Alexander Chudnovskiy, holding the Olympic torch, is pushed in a sled during a welcome ceremony in the Taltsy open air museum on the Angara River, 47 km (29 miles) south of Irkutsk in Siberia, on November 23, 2013. About thousand performers dressed in folk costumes participated in the Olympic flame welcome ceremony. #
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A combination of still images taken from video shows (top L-R) torchbearer and former swimming champion Shavarsh Karapetyan receiving the Olympic torch before the flame is blown out; and (bottom L-R) an unidentified man along the route relighting the torch with a lighter, as Karapetyan ran through the Kremlin in Moscow, on October 6, 2013. #
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Olga Nasonova (center) carries the torch as she snowboards in the Sheregesh winter sports resort in Tashtagol, Kemerovo region, western Siberia, on November 29, 2013. #
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Lifeguard Nikolai Rybachenko plunges with an Olympic torch with a water-resistant flare atop it into Lake Baikal, during the Olympic torch relay in Siberia, on November 23, 2013. #
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Galina Zhigunova (right), an employee of Baltika Breweries company, and jazz saxophonist Igor Butman take part in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay in front of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in central St. Petersburg, on October 27, 2013. #
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A group of torch bearers hold the Olympic torch at the North Pole, Arctic Ocean, on October 19, 2013. The nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of the Victory) is in the background. #
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Russian alpinist Vladimir Gunko stands at the top of the rock named "The First Stolb" (the First Pillar) at the Stolby national nature reserve during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay in the Siberian Taiga area outside Krasnoyarsk, on November 26, 2013. #
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Lorisa Oorzhak (center) holds an Olympic torch as people dressed in folk costumes perform during a welcome ceremony in Aldyn Bulak, in Tuva, southern Siberia, on November 28, 2013. #
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