The silver medals clinched by Russian figure skaters in a team competition event at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Koreas PyeongChang is a well-deserved result, President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Alexander Zhukov said.
"(This is) an excellent result, I want to congratulate everyone. They were great and deserved the award. I would like to extend special congratulations to the coaches," Zhukov told Tass news agency.
"Every medal now is worthy of special congratulations. This is just a beginning. Each participant in the team event has a good chance of winning medals (in individual competitions)," he stressed.
Olympic debutants -- Evgenia Medvedeva, 18, and Alina Zagitova, 15 -- contributed to the overall success.
Zagitova took home the gold in the free skating event, while Medvedeva was second to none in the short program breaking the world record. "Zhenya (Evgenia) and Alina are the two best figure skaters," Zhukov emphasized.
Competing at the Olympics under the neutral status, figure skaters from Russia chalked up an overall of 66 points to win the silver.
The gold went to the Canadian team with 73 points, and Team USA was awarded the bronze with 62 points.
Late last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) over doping abuse allegations but allowed clean Russian athletes to participate in the 2018 Winter Games under the Olympic flag and under the neutral status of Olympic Athletes from Russia.
This is the second medal for Russian 'neutral' athletes at the 2018 Winter Games. Short track speed skater Semen Elistratov won the bronze on February 10 in the men's 1,500 meters.
--IANS
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