Translated material
Abnormal Games
This Olympics turned out to be anomalous for us in terms of the results shown by the Russian team. 11th place in the team competition - three gold, five silver and seven bronze medals. This has never happened in our sports history. Neither in the Soviet, nor in the Russian. Until now, five gold medals (Grenoble 1968 and Salt Lake City 2002) and fifth overall team place (Salt Lake City 2002) were considered the worst result. We lost even to our modest achievements of four years ago in all respects, missing five gold, one silver and one bronze medals.
Of course, such an outcome of the 2010 Olympics for the Russians could have been predicted. Among the forecasts published in the Russian press on the eve of the Games, there were some that were almost 100% on target. Moreover, eight years ago we moved away from the tradition of always being in the top three in the overall standings (we finished outside of it at the two previous Games). But still, the current results hit me like a blow to the head. The Olympic slogan “The main thing is not victory, but participation” has long since sunk into oblivion (yes, in fact, it has always been where it is now). Today the main thing is victory. For her sake, according to the words of the President of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev, 1 billion rubles were spent. for preparation. That is, more than five million for each of the 179 athletes who were on the team. Since one gold medal went to 60 Russian Olympians, it is not difficult to calculate that one top award, received in rainy Vancouver, cost us, relatively speaking, more than 300 million rubles.
Of the 179 of our athletes who won Olympic berths, 22 stood on the Olympic podium. The rest drove past the pedestal. Good, you see, savings on bonuses. Let us remind you that for victory in Vancouver 100 thousand dollars were promised, plus a premium car, plus bonuses from sponsors. It is estimated that the two-time Olympic champion could have received $1 million. No such money was found. In Vancouver, three people stood on the podium twice - biathletes Evgeny Ustyugov (gold, bronze), Olga Zaitseva (gold, silver) and speed skater Ivan Skobrev (silver, bronze). By the way, the fact that Skobrev, an athlete who did not become an Olympic champion, was named the most worthy for the role of standard bearer at the closing ceremony of the Games, is also, you see, a certain indicator.
Naturally, there are many reasons for such a crushing defeat. Well, for example, this is arithmetic. In alpine skiing, which has been part of the Winter Olympics since 1936, ten sets of medals are currently competed for. The Russians have nothing to do with this. Nordic combined and ski jumping - six sets. Same picture. Short track - eight sets. The Russians are not even close to the contenders.
Speed skating, freestyle, curling, snowboarding, skeleton, bobsled. Here in certain disciplines we can count on medals, but only if we are not talking about “gold”. In a word, objectively assessing the situation, including the one we got in Vancouver, we must admit that in 42 final competitions out of 86 included in the program, our current chances for medals are zero. This is almost half of the disciplines. In the rest, as they say, fifty-fifty: we do not have such “guaranteed” medal contenders, such as ski jumper Simon Ammann in Switzerland or speed skater Shani Davis in the USA. How do we want to win in this case? With this state of affairs, they could only count on the traditional Russian maybe. But it didn’t work. And there is every reason to fear that it will not reach Sochi. There is too little time left to radically change anything.
The four “pillars” that primarily supported the faith of Russian fans that the Russian Olympic team in Vancouver would perform successfully did not hold up either. I mean hockey, biathlon, figure skating and cross-country skiing.
The biggest disappointment is definitely hockey. It was breathtaking to see the names of the players gathered by the head coach of the national team Vyacheslav Bykov under the Olympic banners! But he did collect them, but he couldn’t create a team out of them. Nevertheless, after the humiliating defeat from the Canadians, he said that “there are no complaints about the guys - they played to the maximum.” So what is the minimum for these players if at the limit they played 3:7? But before this game, the Canadians experienced much more psychological stress than our guys. First of all, they played at home. Secondly, they had already been defeated by the Americans. Thirdly, the fans would not forgive them for the fourth defeat in a row from Russia (after the Olympic Games in Turin and two World Championships). In general, it was impossible to lose to them. However, like us, their maximum turned out to be higher.
By the way, did you notice what a medal boom happened in the home team after this victory of the hockey players? It took them only two days after it to fly to the very top of the team standings. The victory in the hockey final over the Americans was the logical conclusion of this impressive breakthrough, which, I would say, began 22 years ago after the first Winter Olympics, held in Canada. Then in Calgary the hosts failed to win a single gold medal.
And for the first time in the history of Olympic hockey tournaments, we in Vancouver were left without medals. For the first time since 1964, we were left without gold in figure skating. But what worries us here is not Plushenko’s defeat, about which more has already been written than about his victory in Turin. The worrying thing is that no worthy change is visible - neither in men's skating, nor in pairs, nor in dancing. And in women's single skating there is no one to replace.
After the 2006 Games, a unique situation with a minus sign occurred in this sport. Never before has it happened that after the Olympics all our leading figure skaters announced their retirement. And after Turin it happened. A whole generation has passed. Plushenko returned three years later. But, as it seemed, only to once again convince everyone that our figure skating is going through difficult times. It is not clear where it is going if, after a three-year break, an untrained 27-year-old skater, albeit of a class like Evgeniy, suddenly, without any competition, I would say, effortlessly again becomes the leader in the country. What have the others been doing all this time?
A complete failure in the classic ski races, where we were also left without awards for the first time in the history of Olympic competitions. Only once were we close to them in the eight races included in the Games program. This is sad, as is the fact that, for example, in the 30 km race, the best of our team was 38-year-old Olga Zavyalova, who took a place in the third ten. Honor and praise to athletes like Olga, but who will run in Sochi?