Silver Repetition: how to evaluate the performance of Russians at the 2026 Olympics
Russian athletes completed their performance at the 2026 Winter Games with exactly the same result as at the 2024 Summer Games - one silver medal. Obviously, in both cases, the fans expected more, but they are happy for at least one award, which could well not have been. After all, Nikita Filippov excelled in the new Olympic sport of ski mountaineering, and at the beginning of this season he risked suspension due to bureaucratic problems. It has become clear that the admission of Russian representatives to the Games in its current form does not ensure respect for the rights of athletes to fair competition and is essentially a fiction by which the IOC maintains a good face in a bad game.
Participation, not a massive victory
Before the start of the 2026 Olympics, we wrote that a complete lack of awards at the Games would be a sporting failure, and at best we can count on three or four pedestals. In general, the predictions came true — Nikita Filippov's silver saved us from great disappointment.
— Are you ready for a flurry of popularity? Yes, I've been waiting for this," Nikita Filippov told Izvestia. — Finally, ski mountaineering will become more popular. Andrey Fedorov, my sparring partner, stands there and is also happy. Let ski mountaineering only flourish — it is a wonderful sport. Love the mountains and play sports. I am so glad to be a part of this big celebration. The Olympic Games are the pinnacle of sports, and that's exactly how I imagined them. Now I want to become the Olympic champion in 2030 even more.
Four more times, Russians "got into the flowers" — that is, they took places from fourth to sixth. The IOC awards certificates for such results, as if acknowledging that with a little more luck, an athlete could end up with a medal. And a significant part of the blame for the fact that "it wasn't enough just a little bit" lies precisely with international sports officials.
The start in the first group of participants definitely affected the final place of figure skaters Adelia Petrosyan and Peter Gumennik. This approach was discriminatory and did not comply with the spirit of the regulations, according to which applicants for high places should not open competitions. It is also obvious that if skier Savely Korostelev had a full-fledged service team and strong teammates on the national team, he would have performed much more confidently.
And the catastrophic lack of international experience cannot be discounted either. These are not excuses for failures, but a fact: because of the qualification campaign, which was not our fault, the Russians were in worse starting conditions than their main competitors.
— Alexander Bolshunov, three-time Olympic champion of Beijing 2022, called skiing at the Games in Italy a circus. At the same time, Korostelev expressed the opinion that his compatriot in his current form would not have been ahead of Klebo... I'd rather agree with Savely," Olympic and World Cup medalist Alexander Panzhinsky told Izvestia. — Now Bolshunov's condition is far from ideal, because before leaving for the Olympics, it was Korostelev who was the best at the stages of the Cup of Russia. However, of course, Bolshunov's current form is also due to the fact that he was deprived of the Olympics. Motivation has dulled. If he had been sure that he would go to the Games, he would have shown different results in Russia, demonstrated a different level.
When the IOC lifted the total ban on Russian representatives in April 2023, it seemed to be saying to our athletes: thank you for being allowed at least in some form. They say that the rights to access the competitions have been partially respected, and then turn around as you want. The logic of Olympic officials is obvious: to lift the iron curtain, but with the help of strict criteria of neutrality, to make it as difficult as possible for competitive Russians to enter the world stage. So that Russia turns from a great sports power into a "dwarf", which practically does not participate in the distribution of medals and rarely gets into the sphere of wide media attention.
Unfortunately, this approach works very effectively, and in the current regime we can only count on participation, not on large-scale victories. In the applications for Milan, Russia had only four or five real contenders for medals, whereas in a normal situation there are dozens of athletes in this cohort. Most of the current Olympic team went to Italy not for awards, but for experience, and in terms of medals, they could only count on a miracle. The miracle did not happen, the experience was gained. Can we consider the mission accomplished and thank the IOC for the opportunity?
New lessons
Of course, it's silly to talk about a position in the overall team competition with one medal. As well as being glad that we were ahead of 63 countries that remained at the 2026 Games without awards or were content with bronze. In fact, to objectively qualify for the top 10 at the Winter Olympics, you need a delegation of at least a hundred athletes.
Of course, there is the example of Norway and the Netherlands, which show excellent results by using a smaller team. But, firstly, this is due to the fact that these countries are not represented at hockey tournaments, which, taking into account men and women, immediately give an increase of 48 people applying for a maximum of two awards.
And secondly, it is difficult to classify the Norwegians and the Dutch as versatile winter sports nations. They mostly hit the same spot, and the Netherlands is especially targeted. The regulations of their national Olympic Committee prescribe a ban on sending athletes to the Games who do not claim to be in the top 10. All 20 awards of this country at the current Games were won either in speed skating or in short track. The Norwegians have 6 out of 18 record gold medals won by one man, Johannes Klebo, and only four titles have been won in sports that are not under the wing of the International Ski Federation (FIS). Eight federations were represented at the Winter Games.
In general, if we ignore the anomalies, the ratio of places in the top 6 at the Olympics to the total number of athletes in the delegations of the leading powers is usually about 30%. It is clear that this is not a direct relationship, since the same athlete can participate in several medal draws. But on the whole, there is no doubt that in order to rise to the top, it is necessary to fail many times. This is the law of sports, it is impossible to deceive him.
In the current conditions, we did not have the opportunity to insure the leader with the second or third number, as was the case in full-fledged national teams. Hence the current result. For comparison, the Bulgarian team with comparable numbers has about the same result: two bronze medals and one fourth place.
Anyway, the 2026 Games should be thanked for the new lessons. The main one is that we must fight even harder for our rights. Now it is no less important than to raise strong athletes and bring them to the main starts at the peak of their form. Because with the current admission option with a dozen and a half participants and the absence of many leaders in the applications, one or two medals at the Olympics is the ceiling. We've been through this twice, and we can safely say that the IOC's sanctions approach, amid talk about protecting athletes' rights, has robbed an entire generation of its main chance at life. Only a few people got the opportunity to make themselves known, and they did it by giving their all. And then it's up to the lawyers and officials.
Unofficial medal standings of the 2026 Games
Norway — 18 gold, 12 silver, 11 bronze
USA — 12, 12, 9
Netherlands — 10, 7, 3
Italy — 10, 6, 14
Germany — 8, 10, 8
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
