Sergey FuchsCorrespondent SportAll materialsThe Russian national cross-country skiing team at the Beijing Olympics has rewritten a personal record for the number of medals. The team has 11 awards: four gold, four silver and three bronze. Before that, the most successful in terms of medals were the 1998 Games in Japanese Nagano (five gold, two silver and one bronze award) and the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea (0- 3-5). If we take into account Soviet history, then Russian skiers returned with a richer catch only once — at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, they won 13 medals (5-5-3).
Anfisa Reztsova, Tamara Tikhonova, Svetlana Nageikina and Nina Gavrilyuk (left to right) High ambitions Russian skiers set the tone from the first days of the Olympics. First, Natalya Nepryaeva won labor silver in the 15 km skiathlon, losing only to the Norwegian Teresa Johaug, who was out of reach. After the finish, the Russian woman recognized the significant superiority of the Scandinavian. «My first medal of this level. The level of the Olympic Games. So far, emotions are simply overwhelming — there is still no full awareness,» said Nepryaeva, who won the overall standings of the prestigious Tour de Ski in January. Natalia's initiative was supported the next day by the guys in the men's skiathlon . In a tactically excellent race, Alexander Bolshunov won, followed by Denis Spitsov. For Bolshunov, this Olympic gold was the first in his career, but his physical form convinced that this triumph was far from the last in Beijing. Although the leader of the Russian team spent most of the season trying to get rid of various kinds of sores.
Alexander Bolshunov»I won by accident? When won everyone a minute, is it by chance? I want to dedicate the victory to all my relatives who worry about me the most. And I want to congratulate my father, who had his birthday yesterday. There was no gift yesterday, but I understood that gold is the main gift, which I could give him,” said the newly-made champion of the Games. The father of the skier, Alexander Bolshunov, Sr., said in an interview that he had no doubts about the success of his son: “Of course, the preparatory period turned out to be crumpled, not what we wanted, but the vision at the top is different, «means. I had no doubt that he would have gold, I really wanted him to win the very first start. Yesterday was my birthday, and today my son became an Olympic champion. Everything worked out, thank God.»
