FINISH LINE: Russian president wants answers
Published 11:14 pm Monday, March 1, 2010
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dropped the hammer … and the sickle.
Medvedev demanded Monday that Russian sports officials step down over the country’s dismal performance at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and suggested that the old “Soviet school” may have been better.
Russia, a traditional winter sports powerhouse, won just 15 medals — just three of them gold — in one of its worst performances. Officials said before the games that 30 medals and a top-three finish in the medal standings was the target.
In televised comments, Medvedev said if those responsible for preparing the athletes don’t resign then the decision will be made for them. He did not mention anyone by name.
“Those who bear the responsibility for Olympic preparations should carry that responsibility. It’s totally clear,” he said. “I think that the individuals responsible, or several of them, who answer for these preparations, should take the courageous decision to hand in their notice. If we don’t see such decisiveness, we will help them.”
In nine Winter Olympics between 1956 and 1988, the Soviet Union failed to top the medal standings only twice, finishing runner-up on those occasions.
Medvedev lamented that Russia “has lost the old Soviet school … and we haven’t created our own school — despite the fact that the amount of money that is invested in sport is unprecedentedly high.”
The results leave Russia particularly red-faced as it takes the torch for the next Winter games in its Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2014.
“Without messing around, we need to start preparations for Sochi. But taking into account what happened in Vancouver, we need to completely change how we prepare our athletes,” Medvedev said.
