In a recent conversation with Tass News Agency (Russia), the President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, vocalized how he envisions the Russian athletes performing as a whole at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Zhukov explained that, through analysis of the Ministry of Sports’ preparation facilitation, as well as results of the past season across multiple sporting disciplines, he believes that Russia will be extremely competitive in the fast-approaching worldwide competition. Specifically, he believes Russia will be “in the top three” in terms of total number of national medals, following suit with how the country has performed at every Summer Olympics since Atlanta 1996.
In the past two Summer Olympics, Russia finished in third place in 2008 with a total of 73 medals behind the United States (110) and China (100). The same order continued through 2012 as well, where the United States topped the standings with 103, followed by China in 88 and Russia with 81 total medals.
In terms of gold medals for 2008, China brought home a total of 51 to the U.S.’s 36 and Russia’s 23. In 2012, however, even with Russia finishing third overall in the medal standings, the country fell to fourth in the gold medal count. Host Great Britain earned 29 gold medals to finish third in that category, ahead of Russia’s 24 total gold medals.
With powerhouse swimmers such as Vlad Morozov, Yulia Efimova, Danila Izotov, Alexander Sukhorukov, and Daria Ustinova, among others, the Russian aquatic contingent appears poised to do their part in adding medals to meet or even exceed Zhukov’s hopes for Russia’s Rio medal haul.
Add to them Rylov and Sedov.