OSLO, February 17. /ITAR-TASS/. King Harald V of Norway on Monday begins his visit to the capital of Winter Olympic Games 2014. Press service of the Royal Palace reports His Majesty will be in Sochi until February 22 and will celebrate his 77th birthday there.

The monarch, born on February 21,1937, has celebrated his birthdays during Winter Olympic Games before. An inveterate athlete and fan, he often supports compatriots at stadiums of Winter Olympic Games on birthdays. The program of His Majesty’s visit has not been published yet, thus so far we can only guess which competitions he will visit. Most likely, the list of competitions may include curling tournament matches, where Norway’s team still hopes to qualify for semi-finals, biathlon relays and a play-off game of men’s Olympic hockey tournament, where the Norwegians will play against the Russian national team.

Noteworthy, Harald V has participated in three Summer Olympics - Tokyo 1964, Mexico 1968 and Munich in 1972, where he was a member of the national team in sailing while still a crown prince. However, the King demonstrated high results at the European Championships in sailing in 2005, where at the age of 68 and after a serious heart surgery his team won the gold medal, and two years later he took the 6th place in the World Cup.

Though the monarch has several gold medals of the European and world championships, he never managed to his father;s success: Olav V became the Olympic champion in sailing on six-meter class yachts in Amsterdam in 1928.