Sochi 2014 the most successful Olympics in Belarus’ independent history

Team Belarus finished the 22nd Olympic Games in Sochi in 8th place, reads an unofficial team ranking. With five gold medals, Belarus have made these Olympics the most successful since the country’s independence in 1991. The previous record was set at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games when Belarus won four gold medals, BelTA has learnt.

Belarus’ 26-strong delegation was one of the smallest in the history of its participation in the Olympics.

Darya Domracheva, 27, was of course one of the heroes of the Olympics. After 9th place in the sprint she won the pursuit, the mass start and the individual race. After this Darya Domracheva was deservedly awarded the Hero of Belarus title. Apart from her, it was Nadezhda Skardino who won 15km individual bronze.

Belarus could have won even more medals if teammates had helped Darya Domracheva in the women’s relay. She began her part of the race only from 10th position but showed a great pace, which gave Belarus 5th place in the event.

On the men’s side, biathletes could not boast such successful performances.

Belarus cemented its status as the dominant nation in the aerial skiing after victories of Alla Tsuper and Anton Kushnir. It all would not have happened without coach Nikolai Kozeko whose charges have won medals at every Winter Olympics since 1998. At the 1998 Games in Nagano aerialist Dmitry Dashchinsky claimed bronze. In Salt Lake City bronze was bagged by Alexei Grishin and in 2006 Dmitry Dashchinsky improved his result by wining silver. Nikolai Kozeko’s efforts were rewarded once again at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics when Alexei Grishin won Belarus’ first ever gold at Winter Olympics. Everyone pinned hopes on Alexei Grishin in Sochi but he failed to succeed in the qualifying. However, it was other Belarusian freestyle skiers’ turn to prove their worth. Alla Tsuper, 34, who resumed career after giving birth to a daughter, produced a stunning performance to win aerial skiing gold. But that was not the end. In several days another Belarusian aerialist Anton Kushnir bagged gold in the final after a well-executed back double full-full-double full, one of the most difficult jumps in this sport.

Veteran of the Belarusian team Sergei Dolidovich, 40, finished in fifth in the men’s 50km cross-country and was only 14.3 seconds behind winner Alexander Legkov of Russia. Mikhail Semenov also performed well. He was leading after 30km but then fell behind and came in 17th, 40.8 seconds back.

Russia took first place in the unofficial medal ranking with 33 medals (13 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze). Norway were second with 26 medals (11, 5, 10) and Canada third with 25 awards (10, 10, 5).

All in all, 2,800 athletes from 88 countries took part in the Winter Olympics which featured 98 medal events.

These were the 11th Olympics for Belarus in the country’s independent history (five Summer and six Winter Olympics). At five previous Winter Olympics Belarus won nine medals (one gold, four silver and four bronze medals).

Belarusian Olympians got $150,000 for each gold medal, $100,000 for silver and $50,000 for bronze.

The next Winter Olympics will be held in South Korea’s Pyeongchang in 2018.

Photo by Belta