Alexander GovorovCorrespondent SportAll materialsThe ski jumping competitions at the Olympic Games in Beijing ended in real madness. The Russian team took silver for the first time in history in this form. And if we take the Soviet Union, then the last time the country had a medal was 54 years ago. So where did this sensational success come from? Hopes were born even earlier Cautious hopes for success in mixed team competitions among jumpers arose after the first days of the Olympics. Irma Makhina and Irina Avvakumova were in the top ten in individual starts together. In men, young Danil Sadreev became the eighth, and Evgeny Klimov even claimed the medal until the very end, but in the end he became the fifth. When someone began to say that we had missed the medal, it became a little uncomfortable. Fifth place is already a grandiose success for Russian ski jumpers, where there is the highest competition among many countries. There is Japan, Norway, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and a number of other national teams, where there are very strong athletes. To be among the top five among them is fantastic. What helped Russia One way or another, such a start of the Olympics gave reason to hope that our guys will impose a fight on their rivals in mixed team competitions. And they did. The second place was an unrealistic achievement. The last time Vladimir Belousov won gold in ski jumping at the 1968 Games.
