Russian medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing

Russian athletes were not able to compete under the national flag but still showed excellent results. We've highlighted some of the standout performers below.

Russian athletes participating in the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) finished the Beijing Winter Olympics in 9th place in the gold medal standings. They won six gold, 12 silver, and 14 bronze medals, finishing second to Norway in total medal count (32 to 37). Most medals were won in cross-country skiing and figure skating.

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1. The current world champion in figure skating, 17-year-old Anna Shcherbakova, won Olympic gold in women's singles.

2. Although Alexandra Trusova won only silver in women's singles, her performance was called one of the most difficult in figure skating. In Beijing 2022, the 17-year-old athlete was the first in the world to successfully complete five quadruple jumps in one program.

3. Perhaps the most difficult moment of these Winter Olympics was the drama around 15-year-old Kamila Valieva. At first, Russian athletes became gold medalists in the team event in figure skating, but the next day the awards ceremony was postponed due to Valieva's allegedly positive doping test. And, although the rules for anti-doping violations only apply to athletes over the age of 16, the IOC refused to award Russian skaters until the end of the investigation. In singles, Valieva managed only 4th place.

4. Alexander Bolshunov is the first skier in history to win five medals at one Winter Olympics. This was the second participation of 25-year-old Alexander in the Games: in 2018 he won a bronze and three silver medals, and in Beijing, he managed to win three gold and two silver medals, including in the cross-country skiing team relay and skiathlon.

5. In Beijing 2022, Natalya Nepryaeva won silver in the 15 km skiathlon, gold in the 4x5 km relay, and bronze in the classic team sprint along with Yulia Stupak, Tatiana Sorina, and Veronika Stepanova. The women's team won the ski relay at the Olympics for the first time in 16 years.

6. Ski jumpers Evgeny Klimov, Irina Avvakumova, Danil Sagdeev, and Irma Makhina brought Russia a silver medal in the mixed team competition in ski jumping. Although the mixed discipline itself is new at the Olympics (before, athletes competed only in men's or women's teams), Russians have always taken part in ski jumping, but without success.

7. Russian speed skaters Ruslan Zakharov, Daniil Aldoshin, and Sergey Trofimov won the first-ever medal in the country's history in the men's team pursuit race, becoming Olympic silver medalists. By the way, Zakharov was also the gold medalist of the 2014 Winter Olympics in short track.

8. Also Sochi 2014 gold medal winner, US-Russian Vic Wild hasn't had an outstanding snowboarding record in eight years. But in Beijing 2022, the 35-year-old unexpectedly found himself back on the Olympic podium with a bronze medal in the men's parallel giant slalom competition, beating even three-time world champion Dmitry Loginov. And it was the only Russian medal in snowboarding. Excellent result.