ninth medal day Olympic Games 2022 turned out to be the most successful for the Russian team in Beijing. For the first time in 42 years, our skiers won gold in the relay! Alexey Chervotkin, Alexander Bolshunov, Denis Spitsov created a gap and led the whole race, and Sergey Ustyugov finished with the ROC flag. Konstantin Ivliev won silver in the short track at a distance of 500 m at his debut Games. Biathlete Eduard Latypov brought the first podium in the history of Russian sports in the pursuit race, and Angelina Golikova became the third in speed skating at a distance of 500 m.
Long awaited gold
After the victory of the Russians, won in a beautiful style on Saturday, the fans’ expectations from a similar men’s relay race were even higher. If Yulia Stupak, Natalya Nepryaeva, Tatyana Sorina and Veronika Stepanova celebrated our first Olympic triumph since 2006, then among the male representatives of the national school there has not been gold in ski relay races for more than 40 years – since 1980.
Russia and Norway were considered unconditional favorites. However, on the night before the relay, one very serious player intervened in the pre-start layouts – the weather. For the first time in a whole winter, heavy snow fell in the Chinese capital. And this added a headache not only to the organizers, who had to clear the track, but also to the servicemen who urgently prepared the skis for the new conditions.
However, the snow did not bother the Russians in particular. Aleksey Chervotkin, who ran the first stage, again created an excellent reserve for his partners. At the 2021 World Cup, the ward of Markus Kramer “brought” the Norwegian Paul Golberg for almost a minute. This time – 34 seconds to Emile Iversen. Between the Russian and the Norwegian wedged Italian Federico Pellegrino and German Janos Brugger (31 seconds). The second stage from our team ran Alexander Bolshunov. The team leader kept the set pace until Golberg got the Italian and the German from behind, and then left them behind. While the Norwegian was solving his problems, the gap between him and Bolshunov grew to 45 seconds.
At the third stage, the rivals beat Denis Spitsov for about eight seconds, but in any case, Sergei Ustyugov had a very solid advantage. The two-time world champion rushed from the start – perhaps even too briskly – and dropped momentum in the second half of the first lap. The five-time Olympic champion Johannes Klebo rushed after him, but on the second lap the Norwegian ran out of strength, and the Russian finished in splendid isolation, finally adding the missing title to his collection.
“Now I am emotionally devastated,” Sergei Ustyugov admitted after the finish. Not ready for an interview. I’m afraid to say too much. I would talk after the Olympics. Glad! Congratulations to everyone on this victory! Thanks guys, thanks to the team, thanks to everyone!
Success on the oval
21-year-old Konstantin Ivliev became the youngest participant in the 500m short track final. Until the last meter of the distance, the Russian fought for victory with the Chinese Liu Shaoan, who plays for Hungary, but in the end he lost 93 thousandths of a second to him. The Hungarian, obviously, had to return the gold to sports karma – earlier he was disqualified in a controversial way at a distance of 1000 m in favor of the Chinese Ren Ziwei. But for Ivliev, the current result is a clear success.
“For me, silver is also an unexpected medal,” Konstantin told Izvestia. – It’s great that I didn’t let anyone down – neither coaches nor parents (the athlete is trained by Alexei and Elizaveta Ivlievs – Izvestia). Could Liu Shaoan have been bypassed? The speed was very high, it was difficult to climb or think of something. I rather covered the inside edge so that they would not get ahead of me, I worked to maintain the second position. The thought was: when will these circles end? Let’s finish quickly and go home. Great fatigue in the legs. After the semi-finals, I was really exhausted.
Speed skating competitions also continue in Beijing. The Russians were still without medals on the Olympic oval, but high hopes were associated with the women’s 500m race. Angelina Golikova is the main star of modern Russian speed skating. The 30-year-old athlete came to her third Olympics. In Sochi, she was only 18th, and in Pyeongchang she showed the seventh time. However, the heyday of her career began a couple of years after the Games in Korea. Last year, Angelina won gold at the World Championships in Heerenveen, Holland, and this World Cup season she is in second place in the overall World Cup standings.
In Beijing, Golikova showed an excellent result, but very disappointingly lost to the Japanese Miho Takagi (0.09 seconds) and Erin Jackson (0.17). If the victory of the American was predictable (after all, she is the leader of the World Cup), then the Japanese presented the audience with a big surprise. Our last hope was for Olga Fatkulina in the final race. But she showed only 10th result. Thus, the Russian team was left with only bronze, and Golikova met her first Olympic award with obvious frustration.
Outperformed Vancouver
Sunday in biathlon started badly for the Russian team. In the women’s pursuit, Martha Roiseland won her second consecutive gold after the sprint championship, and the best of ours was Uliana Nigmatullina, who finished in 11th place. The rest failed to make the top 20. And this is very disturbing before the relay.
But Eduard Latypov entered his name in history. Ward of Viktor Nikitin became the first Russian who was able to win an Olympic medal in the pursuit. Although the starting hands were not in favor of the representative of Bashkortostan. He went to the distance only 11th, almost 1.5 minutes behind Johannes Be. But excellent shooting allowed him to fight for medals, and if it weren’t for a miss on the fourth shot on the last rack, then Eduard could have fought up to the last meters with Quentin Fillon-Maillet, impeccable on the firing lines. The Frenchman also became a two-time Olympic champion, and Tarja Be, Eduard Latypov and Lukas Hofer played silver and bronze before the finish line. Edward lost to the Norwegian, but did not let the Italian to the bronze.
The Latypov medal was the 17th for the Russian team at the 2022 Winter Olympics. This is more than was in the piggy bank of our team at the end of the 2010 Games in Vancouver (15) and the same as four years ago in Pyeongchang. Recall that the goal of the Russian team, which was previously called by the head of the ROC Stanislav Pozdnyakov, is 30 awards.
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