Eight Tatarstan athletes to represent Team Russia at Olympic Games
Eight Tatarstan athletes were chosen to represent the Republic of Tatarstan at the Olympic Games in Sochi. Among them are four hockey players of Ak Bars HC: Ilya Nikulin, Aleksey Tereschenko, Evgeny Medvedev and Aleksandr Svitov; skier Natalia Zhurova and Nordic Combined athlete Niyaz Nabeev of Kazan; Zelenodolsk skier Anastasia Dotsenko and Nordic Combined athlete Ivan Panin of Leninogorsk. This was announced today, February 4, by Tatarstan's Minister of Youth, Sports and Tourism Rafis Burganov at the traditional briefing of the Cabinet.
The number of Russian athletes at the Sochi Olympics is the largest in the history of the Olympic Winter Games. 225 athletes will defend Team Russia's honour in Sochi. It is remarkable that 60% of Russian athletes will go to the Winter Olympics for the first time. Only three athletes of the total number of Team Russia members are Olympic medal winners.
In addition to the Olympic Games, Tatarstan athletes will also perform at the Paralympics, which will be held in March. Two athletes from Tatarstan - skiers Marta Zainullina and Rushan Minnegulov - will compete there as part of the Russian national team. In 2010, 4 Tatarstan athletes (3 hockey players and 1 Nordic Combined athlete) were chosen to represent the Russian Federation at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Earlier, the Russian Government has approved the amount of prize money for the Olympic and Paralympic medals in Sochi: 4 million rubles for gold, 2.5 million rubles for silver and 1.7 million rubles for bronze. As Rafis Burganov noted in his report, Tatarstan medallists will receive the same amount of cash incentives from the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan. Medal winning coaches will be awarded 50% of the prize money to be received by their trainees.
"The Universiade gave a once-in-a-lifetime experience to each participant and the whole Tatarstan. Those who helped make the World University Games happen are in demand today, and are currently involved in delivering major sporting events in the country, including the preparation and staging of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Most of them have invaluable experience working with athletes, speak foreign languages and have been trained to work at the Olympics," said Rafis Burganov.
To date, more than 2,300 sport event managers from the Republic of Tatarstan support the organisation of the Olympic Games. "We count on them, because in the next few years, as you know, Kazan is due to host three more major and prestigious international tournaments - the FINA World Championships 2015, FIFA Confederations Cup 2017 and FIFA World Cup 2018," the Minister said.