The fans of the Russian national team have high hopes for our athletes at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Moreover, the outcome of the previous Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver turned out to be, to put it mildly, unhappy. Then the Russian team was able to win only three medals of the highest standard and did not even enter the top ten! From our Olympians they expect a kind of rehabilitation in their native walls. But is it real and what are the chances of our team?
In which sports are our positions particularly strong?
With a high degree of probability, it can be assumed that the Russians will perform successfully in skiing and biathlon. Our athletes are traditionally strong in hockey and figure skating. Russians perform at a fairly high level in luge, skeleton, bobsleigh. Recently, there has been serious progress in speed skating.
All this, especially taking into account the already mentioned factor of home walls, which gives additional moral support to athletes, makes it possible to count on high results in these sports.
Alpine skiing, freestyle, curling … Chances are not enough
In many other sports, leading positions have long been firmly occupied by athletes from a number of countries. Of course, sport is unpredictable, and there have been cases when the recognized favorite was inferior to an outsider. But this still happens quite rarely. The likelihood of a successful performance of Russians in alpine skiing, ski jumping, or, for example, in such an exotic sport as curling, despite some success in the past, is very small. The same applies to freestyle, snowboarding, short track speed skating and some other Olympic disciplines.
Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation V. L. Mutko has repeatedly stated that the third place in the team will be considered a good result for our team. And the President of the Russian Olympic Committee A. D. Zhukov, being more optimistic, even argued that our team was quite capable of winning 10 to 14 gold medals and eventually taking the first team place. True, he did not forget to clarify: "Sport is sport, any planning is impossible here!" According to A. D. Zhukov, our team is provided with everything necessary, because the state has allocated huge funds for the preparation of athletes for the Olympics, so the citizens of Russia have the right to count on their good performance.
