No. 2, 2010
Igor Veshny
THE FLAME OF WINTER VANCOUVER
LUKOIL makes its own hefty contribution to the development of the Olympic movement
The XXI Winter Olympics in Canada were a unique spectacular for millions of sports fans. Joy and disappointment, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat - these were sometimes separated by mere centimeters and hundredths of seconds. The recent games were dramatic for many Russian athletes; however, the lessons from Canada could be a powerful impetus for positive changes in Russian sports.
Olympic sensations
For 17 days, from February 12 through 28, the greatest stars of winter sports contended in Vancouver for the right to call themselves the best athletes in the world. The Olympics are a special event for all athletes. Even victory in the World or European championships, or the World Cup events, cannot compare with the Olympics in their importance. Even the best of the best get only one or two chances in their career to participate in the planet's premiere sporting event.
At the XXI Winter Olympics, 2,632 athletes from 82 countries competed in 86 events for a total of 615 medals. More than 3.5 billion television viewers around the world breathlessly followed the athletes' performances in 15 sports: the biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined skiing, bobsleigh, speed skating, figure skating, short track skating, alpine skiing, curling, luge, skeleton, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and hockey.
"With glowing hearts to brilliant deeds" was the Vancouver 2010 motto. The hosts of the Winter Olympic Games best exemplified this motto, winning 14 gold medals - an absolute record for the Games. Earlier, 13 gold medals were won by the Soviet team (in Innsbruck in 1976) and by the Norwegians (in 2002 in Salt Lake City). In terms of all medals won, first place goes to the United States with 37, nine of which were gold.
Russia, traditionally one of the top three teams in terms of total number of medals won, came in only at sixth place with 15 medals. Some Russian athletes unfortunately failed to do well enough to reach the winners' podium, as nine fourth places show. There were also numerous Russian athletes who had acquired new citizenship and successfully competed in the teams of other countries. On the whole, however, the modest results in Vancouver only exposed a number of unresolved problems in Russian sports. For Russia, which will host Olympians in Sochi in four years' time, it will now be a matter of honor to prepare properly for the XXII Winter Games. The brilliant performance of the 21 athletes who won medals in individual and team competitions is something of a consolation for Russian sports fans.
Heroes of Vancouver
The first member of the team to win a medal was speed skater Ivan Skobrev, taking the bronze in the 5,000 meter race. In the 1.5 kilometer race, he unfortunately lacked the fractions of seconds needed to repeat his achievement. The 27-year-old athlete, however, did manage to maintain self-control and his final 10,000 meter race on Vancouver's ice brought silver to Russia's overall champion.
Biathlonists and skiers made the greatest contribution to the team's collection of medals. Most of the Russian team's biathlonists, both men and women, were truly in the running for medals over all distances. Biathlonist Yevgeny Ustyugov, who in the individual race fired just one inaccurate shot, won the team's first gold medal in the 15-kilometer mass start. Despite some massive pre-start jitters, Ustyugov ran the entire course perfectly, without missing once. In the 4 x 7.5 kilometer relay, Ustyugov and his teammates Ivan Cherezov, Anton Shipulin, and Maksim Chudov took the bronze, just two-tenths of a second behind Austrian Christoph Sumann. The greatest biathlonist of our times, Norwegian Ole Einar Bjorndalen, incidentally won his only gold medal in this riveting race.
Russia's women's biathlon team won the 4 x 6 kilometer relay by a huge margin. Svetlana Sleptsova, Anna Bogaly-Titovets, Olga Medvedtseva, and Olga Zaitseva deservedly took the gold in this event. Zaitseva also won the silver in the 12.5 kilometer mass start.
The strong showing by the ski team also gave Russian fans hope for the future. In the individual men's sprint, the gold went to Nikita Kryukov, and the silver to Aleksandr Panzhinsky. Dominating the race from the very beginning, they managed to keep the "great and formidable" Norwegians, who had to settle for third and fourth place, from getting ahead of them.
In the skiing team sprint, Nikolay Morilov and Aleksey Petukhov won third place in a dramatic competition, and missed getting gold by just over 1.5 seconds. The women's team succeeded in repeating their achievement in the team sprint, with Irina Khazova and Nataliya Korosteleva winning the bronze.
In bobsledding, team veterans Aleksandr Zubkov and Aleksey Voyevoda managed to come in third in the two-man competition.
In general, the outcome of many competitions at the Olympic Games depended purely on chance. It is also true, however, that the strongest prevail. Aleksandr Tretyakov, who not long ago was regularly winning at the World Cup managed to confirm his status as a leader in the skeleton, winning the bronze. Canadian John Montgomery won the gold, having trained painstakingly on his home track prior to the Olympics.
In the parallel giant slalom, Yekaterina Ilyukhina proved to be one of the best in snowboarding. Her better-known teammate Svetlana Boldykova, who won the gold at the World Cup, was considered the favorite to win, along with World Champion Yekaterina Tudegesheva. In the final, however, it was Ilyukhina who came out on top. Her teammates called her the World Champion in Training, and she shall go down in history as the silver medallist of Vancouver.
Russia's figure skaters made rather modest contribution to the team's collection of medals. In the singles, Yevgeny Plyushchenko won only the silver, to the surprise and disappointment of many figure skating fans. American Evan Lysacek performed his routine almost flawlessly, but clearly could not compare to Plyush-chenko in the difficulty of its individual elements. It is no accident that the judging in figure skating is often called subjective. Sometimes it is more important to jump higher than your head in order to put your victory beyond doubt.
Overall, Russia's figure skaters failed to win Olympic gold for the first time since 1960. Only Olga Dominina and Maksim Shabalin managed to win the bronze in pair ice dancing. This was one case, however, where silver and bronze were as good as gold. Gennady Karponosov, Maksim and Olga's coach, rightly called their medal platinum. After suffering major unhealed knee trauma, and through pain that even injections could no longer ease, Shabalin took to the ice with a smile and skated brilliantly.
Future champions and their training for the Olympics in Sochi demand all-around support, including assistance from sponsors. One sponsor of the Olympic movement in Russia is LUKOIL. The oil major has been the general sponsor of the women's cross-country skiing team since 1998.
In 2006, the company also became a sponsor of the men's national team as the general sponsor of the Russian Federation of Cross-Country Skiing.
In 2010, LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov headed the RFCCS guardian council. In the words of LUKOIL's president, "the company intends to provide future assistance to the RFCCS during preparations for the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014."
LUKOIL has been an official partner of the Russian Olympic Committee ever since 2001. In 2005, LUKOIL became one of the founders of the Fund for the Support of Russia's Olympians. The Fund provides direct aid to the athletes of Russia's Olympic teams, allowing future champions to train effectively for the Olympic Games.
"Together We Shall Win" was the Sochi 2014 motto in the competition to hold the Olympiad. Ahead lie four years of sporting rehearsals to ensure Russia will emerge victorious in the fight for Olympic medals as well.
