Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called...
to help [the athletes] were truly devoted to what they were doing," Putin said.He said Russia was quickly losing ground in its "traditional" sports, apparently referring to the team"s poor performance in figure skating, cross-country skiing and ice hockey.
The post-Soviet drought in ice hockey continued in spectacular fashion with a 7-3 loss to Canada in the quarterfinals, while decades of dominance in figure skating came to a dramatic end as Russian athletes failed to grab any gold medals for the first time since 1964.
"It seems that the more we invest, the less we get. We failed to become competitive in sports which have recently been included into the Olympic program. Moreover, we failed to hold positions in sports in which we traditionally dominated," he said.
He said Russia should build modern facilities to train athletes in all Olympic disciplines.
Though about 200 training facilities were built in Russia only in 2009, some sports
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