Representatives of Russian national team arrive in Kazan

Participants continue to roll into Kazan for the 27th Summer Universiade. On the first day of July, volunteers again greeted newly arriving athletes and coaches. And today, the Russian athletes showed up in the capital of Tatarstan.

"Our delegation is the biggest one,” the head of the Russian delegation, Sergey Seiranov, told reporters. “This is record participation for all the years the Universiade and the Olympic Games have been around. The official delegation has 1,000 people, of whom 663 are athletes. The others are official figures, coaches, doctors and massage therapists."

The Russian team's roster at the Summer Universiade includes genuine stars who have been medallists and champions at the Olympics. Among them is gymnast Aliya Mustafina, gold medallist at the 2012 Olympic Games as well as world champion. Head coach Andrey Rodionenko highlighted the fact that all the gymnasts who will compete at the Games are true professionals. His parting advice: just stay on course for victory. And to be totally prepared, you need to be well rested. That was one reason for the preference of train travel over air travel.

According to Seiranov, by the evening of July 1, 100 Russian athletes had made it to Kazan. All of them will take part in a ceremony to raise the Russian flag today at the Universiade Village.