The Russian national team, due to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, includes 600 prospective members, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko reported.
“The final stage of preparations for the Olympics is now underway. The line-up of the national team, due to represent Russia at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, will be finalised in January 2022. The team’s enlarged line-up has 600 prospective members. I am confident that these are the best athletes who will set new world records and earn dozens of gold medals for the country,” Mr Chernyshenko said.
He added that, following sport qualifiers, Russian athletes have already received 218 out of the 261 available quotas at the Winter Olympics. The ongoing selection will be completed by the end of the 2021/2022 season. Russia has a good chance of winning additional bobsleigh, skeleton, speed skating, short track speed skating and sled quotas, and it can obtain extra biathlon, freestyle, ski jump and alpine skiing licences.
“The men’s and women’s national hockey and curling teams, as well as our figure skaters, are set to leave for the Olympics. Among all the participating countries only Russian figure skaters have obtained maximum quotas in all the events of the Olympic programme. Our skiers will also obtain maximum quotas in Beijing,” the deputy prime minister said.
Sport facilities, where participants in the 2022 Winter Olympics will train, are located in the Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, Krasnodar and Perm territories, the Irkutsk, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Moscow and Yaroslavl regions, he added.
“Nine sport facilities, where our Olympians will train, are 100 percent ready. Their infrastructure has been repeatedly tested during training sessions and national and international competitions. Athletes will feel comfortable and will be able to focus on improving their professionalism,” Mr Chernyshenko said.
One of the goals of the state programme Development of Physical Fitness and Sport is to make the Russian national team one of the three leaders of the team qualification. For this purpose, athletes are conducting all-round training sessions in winter events. Fourteen comprehensive targeted programmes have been formulated, and they include various types of training and key indicators for every sport.
“The achievements of Russian athletes on the international scene during the current Olympic cycle make us hope that the national team will perform successfully at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. We will cheer for them, so that they will show their top-level professionalism in Beijing as well,” the Deputy Prime Minister concluded.
The Russian national team that competed under a neutral flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang won 13th place in the team qualifier, with two gold, six silver and nine bronze medals.
