MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin complained yesterday the country’s performance at the Olympic Games had not lived up to expectations, saying it needed more sports victories to boost patriotism.
“Russian athletes can win gold medals in 20 out of the 37 Olympic sports,” Putin said at a meeting of his sports council of top ministers and sports officials.
“But these high expectations were not confirmed in London.”
Russia ranked fourth in the medals table at the London Olympic Games this summer, bringing home 24 gold medals, mostly in athletics and wrestling, a performance Putin earlier called “an unconditional success”.
However the country’s sports officials have also come under fire in recent years for dismal results at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, and pressure is high to place first at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, an event Putin has spearheaded as a personal prestige project.
“We all want... Russia to have big, bright sports victories,” said judo black belt Putin, whose sports regime includes daily swimming and regular ice hockey matches with other government officials.
“We need them to support our people’s spirit and patriotic emotions, to boost the country’s prestige abroad and to advance the values of a active, healthy lifestyle,” he said, according to Interfax news agency.
“The London results should become a sort of manual for us on what to do. We need to look and analyse how athletes competed, how their training was, and how this affected the results,” he said.
Russia is hosting the 2014 Winter Games in the southern Black Sea resort town of Sochi, with development so far praised by the International Olympic Committee but derided by environmental groups and human rights organisations.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s strong economy should be a positive factor in convincing enough International Olympic Committee members to elect Istanbul as the host of the 2020 Summer Olympics and become the first edition to be hosted on two continents its bid chief told said.
Hasan Arat, chief executive of the bid and a successful businessman in his own right, added that for him Turkey would not be the latest in a line of countries from emerging markets to win the right to host major international competitions because for him it had already ‘emerged’.
“I think it (the strong economy) is important,” said Arat.
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