At the end of the 19th century, a commission was assembled in Paris to revive the Olympic Games. A little later, the International Olympic Committee - IOC was organized, it included the most authoritative and initiative citizens of different countries. The first Olympics took place in the summer of 1896 in Athens.
Representatives of the Russian Empire also took part in the international Olympic movement, but the first national team of our country first performed only at the 5th Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912.
It is worth noting that Russian athletes did compete at the 4 Olympic Games in London in 1908. At that time, the country did not have its own Olympic Committee, so 8 people went to the Olympics individually, they performed in figure skating, cycling, athletics and wrestling. Nikolai Alexandrovich Panin-Kolomenkin became the first Olympic champion in Russia, having won gold in figure skating, performing special figures. Two silver medals in wrestling were then received by Nikolay Orlov in the weight category up to 66.6 kg and Alexander Petrov in the weight category over 93 kg.
The talent and skill of Russian athletes immediately attracted a lot of public attention. In March 1911, the National Olympic Committee in Russia was created, and State Councilor Vyacheslav Izmailovich Sreznevsky became its chairman.
Despite the fact that the Stockholm Olympics were somewhat unsuccessful (Russia shared 15th place with Austria in the team event), it had a huge impact on the development of Russian sports.
The modern Russian Olympic team is one of the most numerous. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Russia was represented by 175 athletes, of whom 51 were honored masters of sports, 72 were masters of sports of international class, 41 were masters of sports, 10 were candidates for masters, and 1 was a first-class athlete.
Among the most titled athletes of the national team, biathlete Olga Zaitseva, an international master of sports, can be noted. She is the Olympic champion of Turin (2006), world champion (Hochfilzen, 2005), at the World Cup stages she has 6 victories, and in 2009 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, she won 2 gold and 2 bronze medals.
Another honored master of sports in biathlon is Ivan Tcherezov. He is a silver medalist at the World Junior Championships in 2000 and the World Universiade in 2001, at the Turin Olympics he also took silver and later (in 2005, 2007 and 2008) became a three-time world champion.
Alexander Zubkov is a member of the Russian national team and an honored master of sports in bobsleigh, has a huge number of awards. He is the champion of Russia in the double (2004) and in the four (2001, 2003-2005), in 2001 and 2003 - the silver medalist of the Russian championships in the double. Zubkov is the champion of Russia in bob starts in the double (2002-2004), and in the four (2001-2004), the silver medalist of the Russian championship in bob starts in the four in 2000. Silver at the Russian Cup in the two (2000), gold at the European Championship in the four (2005), silver (2005) and bronze (2003) at the World Championship in the four. Alexander Zubkov won silver at the Olympic Games in Turin and many other awards.
Among the most titled athletes of Russia are also: Lalenkov Evgeniy (leader of the Russian national speed skating team), Rochev Vasily (skier), Medvedeva (Arbuzova) Evgenia (skier), Demchenko Albert (athlete-luge), Lebedev Vladimir (freestyle, acrobatics), Evgeni Plushenko (figure skater), Evteeva Nina (leader of the Russian national short track team). The hockey players with the most awards at the present time are: Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeny Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Sergey Fedorov, Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeny Nabokov.
The most titled sportswoman in the world is Larisa Latynina. During her stunning career as an artistic gymnast, she won 18 Olympic awards, of which nine gold, five silver and four bronze! No other athlete or any other sport has such a number of Olympic medals. And it is worth considering that she won many more medals at the championships of the USSR, Europe and the world.
