Russia’s billions bought stunning 80 medals
Winning ‘ the diff erence between starving and living the life of luxury’
SOCHI, Russia — There was little suspense in the medals table at the 2014 Paralympics. The Russians, as the hip kids in the West like to say, killed it.
Russia, which poured billions of rubles into its sport programs, simply skied away from every other nation, sweeping the podium in cross- country race after biathlon race en route to a stunning 80 medals, a whopping 55 better than second- place Ukraine.
Russia’s 30 gold medals — Germany was second with nine — were one more than the next six countries combined.
And if Russia had managed to win gold in wheelchair curling and sledge hockey, instead of losing in the final of each, it would have been total domination from the host country and surely sparked a Putin party of prodigious proportions.
But from behind the giant shadow cast by the host country’s skinny skis brigade, which won 62 medals, out popped Canada to do itself proud.
Despite the retirement of three para- alpine skiers who accounted for 12 of the country’s 19 medals at Vancouver in 2010 — including quintuple alpine gold medallist Lauren Wolstencroft, Canada probably exceeded expectations.
The Canadian Paralympic Committee and Own the Podium had publicly targeted a top- three gold- medal finish. But privately, without Wolstencroft, they knew they would some luck and some surprises.
With four gold medals on the final weekend — from surebets such as wheelchair curling and cross- country skier Brian McKeever to a breakthrough by 16- year- old alpine skier Mac Marcoux — Canada finished in third place with seven. And with two silver and seven bronze, Canada was fourth overall with 16 medals, just two behind the United States.
“( Russia’s dominance) was interesting because it changed the distribution of opportunity to be a top- three nation,” said Canadian chef de mission Ozzie Sawicki.
In other words, everyone else was fighting for scraps. The 80 medals Russia won were eight more than the actual number of medal events.
Canada had some terrific moments. The visually impaired McKeever, 34, won three gold for the second consecutive Paralympics and veteran sit- skier Josh Dueck, 31, who carried the flag in the closing ceremony, won gold in super- combined and silver in downhill.
And the visually impaired Marcoux is clearly a budding star. He earned three medals in Sochi — a gold and two bronze.
“A key thing was that it wasn’t just the experienced athletes that did well,” Sawicki said. “Mac Marcoux, especially, and Mark Arendz, who was in his second Games but is still a young guy ( at 24), they made a huge difference.”
Arendz won silver in the men’s standing 7.5K biathlon, finishing just 7/ 10ths of a second back of the Russian gold medallist. Young sit- skier Caleb Brousseau, 25, who captured a bronze in the men’s Super G, looks like he could be a serious contender in 2018.
There were also some near misses for Canadians. Braydon Luscombe, 21, was second in the men’s standing after the first run of giant slalom, but fell on his second run. Dueck also had the fastest run going in the men’s Super G before sliding out 100 metres from the finish line.
“We knew that we’d have some ( young athletes) that would step up coming into the Games, we just didn’t necessarily know which colour medal or how many of them would perform,” said Sawicki.
Neither Sawicki, nor Robin McKeever, Canada’s para- Nordic coach, were surprised at the Russian dominance. On Sunday, Russians took the top five spots in a field of 38 in the men’s standing 10K cross- country.
“They know so much more what’s going here with the snow conditions than anyone else,” McKeever said. “Their depth is ridiculous.
“They have no social services ( like) we have in Canada. They’re racing for survival. They’ve got € 145,000 on the line for a gold medal here. It’s the difference between starving and living the life of luxury in Russia.”
Sawicki said that besides pumping a lot of money into para- sport programs the Russians built those programs around specific disability groups.
After not winning any alpine medals in Vancouver in 2010, Russia picked up 16 at these Games, five each from visually impaired Aleksandra Frantceva and 16- year- old Alexey Bugaev, who is missing a thumb and the top of three fingers on one hand. “That’s going to be a big part of our debrief,” Sawicki said. “Looking at the specific areas that these athletes were coming from ... and how can we now look at what was implemented here that may help us in Canada.”
Anne Merklinger, head of Own the Podium, says Canada needs to focus on developing the next pool of podium- potential athletes. “We need to reach a little deeper into the pathway and identify those athletes that are five to eight years away from the podium. We’ve been able to initiate that over the last 18 months with our summer Paralympic sports and we’ll be doing the same thing now that Sochi is winding to a close with our winter Paralympic sports.”