Though earlier forecasts tipped South Korea's PyeongChang as a favorite to win the 2014 Olympic Winter Games bid, Wednesday's vote of IOC members in Guatemala City handed the victory to Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Trailing by two votes behind the Koreans in the first round of ballot (34 vs. 36), the Russian city came from behind in the second and decisive round, picking up 17 more votes to claim the win by a margin of four, 51-47.

An apparent underdog, Austria's Salzburg dropped after the first round collecting only 25 votes.

For Salzburg and PyeongChang this was a second successive bidding campaign that they lost - in 2003 they were defeated by Vancouver.

Observers say that the Sochi bid swayed the vote owing to high-profile lobbying, enormous government support, and a massive investment pledge to build the necessary infrastructure.

A great part of the credit also goes to a rather unique concept for the Games that, for instance, features all ice venues located within a walking distance from each other, thus reducing to zero transportation and schedule-related problems that regularly irk athletes, fans and media.

The effort of Sochi in Guatemala City was crowned by President Vladimir Putin's presentation of the Russian bid, which apparently hit home with the many of the IOC members.

"Putin being here was very important," said French IOC member and former ski champion Jean Claude Killy. "He worked very hard at it. He was nice. He spoke French - he never speaks French. He spoke English - he never speaks English."

A recent survey found that 81 percent of Russians backed the Sochi bid - the highest tally among the three contenders.