Olympics Performance Fiasco--Calls for Resignations of Sports Officials in Russia, Austria and Finland

After the worst ever Olympics performance of Russian athletes since they began competing at Winter Olympic Games, President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, called for resignations of Russian top sports officials. President Medvedev wants the officials responsible for the debacle to resign. If they don't, they will be forced out. The President so far did not name names, however several other politicians openly asked for sports minister Mutko to step down.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also expressed his disappointment suggesting the sports officials examine the performance of the Russian team in Vancouver to insure better performance at the next Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

Before the Vancouver Olympic Games, Russian sports officials have predicted that Russia would win at least 30 medals and would be in the top three in the medal count. However, Russia has finished sixth winning only 15 medals with three gold.

The biggest disappointment, without doubt, was performance of figure skaters. For the first time since 1964, Russian or Soviet team didn't win a gold medal in figure skating. The controversy surrounding the ice dancing pair Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin with their Aboriginal dance routine that was considered offensive and insensitive to indigenous people also added to the injury.

In hockey, the Russians were hoping for gold. Instead they lost 7-3 to Canada in the quarterfinals. The team's coach is being openly blamed for the humiliation and his moves at the Games are still widely criticized.

Can the old sports machine of Russia recover? We have to take into consideration that in nine Winter Olympics, between 1956 and 1988, Soviet Union was on the very top of the medal count 7 times and twice the second. However, the performance of Russians at Winter Olympic Games was in down fall since 1988 when then Soviet Union was for the last time at the very top. Namely, in 1992 after the disintegration of Soviet Union, Russia was the second, in 1994 and 1998 the third, in 2002 the fifth and in 2006 the fourth.

Internet is flooded with outrage of Russians about the poor performance of their athletes at the Vancouver Olympic Games. Russians are obviously nervous. They are the host of the next Winter Olympics in 2014. Russian politicians don't want the second Olympic fiasco on their own soil.

Austrian male skiers too are "Wunderteam" no more. Their alpine skiing performance in Vancouver was dismal. Austrian men failed to win any medals whatsoever in alpine skiing. Austrian women, on the other hand, won one gold medal, one silver and two bronze.

Only once before, in 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympic Games, Austrians did not win any medals in alpine skiing. At their second worst performance in 1976 in Innsbruck Games their only medal was gold in men's downhill. However, in Turin four years ago they won 14 alpine medals.

Quickly, Austrian skiers became the favorite target for the jokes. Ski Federation of Austria also hinted there might be some heads rolling in the future.

Finland, once among the biggest Olympics powers, is a big loser as well. The performance of the country's team was disappointing. Finland expected at least 12 medals; however Finnish athletes won only 1 silver medal and four bronze. Especially their poor performance in ski jumping where they failed to win a medal was a deep blow to Finnish people who consider it a national sport. The embarrassment ignited calls for complete overhaul of the sports system.

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