Russian Sports Minister Downplays Olympic Medal Hopes
Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko seemed to prepare the host nation Thursday for failure at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, saying that "any result" would be acceptable.
Russia’s team is under pressure to improve following the unprecedented disappointment of coming 11th in the medals table, with 22 medals in seven sports, at the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It had never previously been out of the topfive. Senior officials have backed away from earlier predictions of finishing among the leaders in Sochi, however.
"It’s important to support any result that the team displays," Mutko told a news conference to announce Russia’s squad of 223 athletes, the largest number ever for a Winter Games host nation.
Mutko’s ministry set a target of finishing in the top three in the medal table in a document published in June, which Mutko has previously said would be an "outstanding" achievement.
Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov said in 2012 that "we have a task to come first," but has softened his line since then, declining to set a formal medal target for the host team.
"At the Sochi Olympics, Russian athletes will stake a claim for medals in 11 of 15 sports, but there is no medal plan," Zhukov said.
Zhukov didn’t name the four events where the country was not expecting to win a medal, but Russia is weak in Alpine skiing, Nordic combined and luge. It has also never won a medal in curling or short track speedskating.
Heads Must Roll if Plushenko Fails in Sochi
If figure skating star Evgeny Plushenko fails to win gold at next month’s Sochi Olympics, Russian sports officialsshould lose their jobs, leading nationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky said Thursday.
The Russian Figure Skating Federation this week picked three-time Olympic medalist Plushenko for Russia’s sole entry in the men’s competition despite his years of injury problems, preferring him to 18-year-old national champion Maxim Kovtun.
"If Plushenko loses, we’ll do everything to chase out the figure skating federation," Zhirinovsky said in a typically brash outburst in parliament.
"I think it would have been better to send Kovtun. He’s the champion of Russia, and what’s Plushenko the champion of? He gets ill, operations. Why are we sending an injured athlete?"
It is a big ask of Plushenko to win his first global competition since collecting the silver medal behind Evan Lysacek four years ago at the Vancouver Games.
Zhirinovsky suggested federation politics could have been at play in the selection process, asking whether the decision had been made due to Plushenko’s "personal characteristics or the characteristics of his team, which has forced him into his final Olympics."
Zhirinovsky, leader of the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, is known for making provocative statements, including a call earlier this month for his party comrades to have sex just "three or four times a year" as part of a healthy lifestyle push. He also supports weight limits for parliamentarians and has called for Russia to deploy nuclear weapons against various perceived enemies.
Kovtun is the first alternate for the Olympics, should Plushenko be injured. After finishing fifth at last week’s European championships in Budapest, the 18-year-old said he had been distracted by federation infighting and that he no longer cared whether he competed in Sochi.
The Olympics formally run from February 7 through 23, although the first competitive date for a Russian men's skater would be the February 6-9 team event, before the men's individual competition February 13-14.
Published by exclusive arrangement with Around the Rings’ Sochi 2014 media partner RIA-Novosti.
For general comments or questions,click here.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics isAroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
