Krasnodar Territory to send record number of athletes to Sochi Olympics

By January 10, the Krasnodar Territory has selected six athletes to participate in the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, and it is a record number. This was reported by the press service of the resort city. Earlier, only three athletes from Kuban took part in the Winter Olympic Games during the entire history of previous Winter Games.

At present, Kuban athletes have won guaranteed places in two sports in the Russian Olympic team.

In figure skating competitions, world champions Maxim Trankov and Tatiana Volosozhar will participate in competitions of pair skating. At once four athletes from the Krasnodar Territory will participate in freestyle competitions: Timofei Slivets, Pyotr Medulich, Assol Slivets, and Veronica Korsunova will compete in the discipline of aerial skiing. Alina Gridneva, one more aerialists, will not be able to take part in the competitions because of her injury. This was reported by the website of the Sochi administration with reference to the press service of the Regional Ministry for Physical Culture and Sport.

It should be noted that earlier, all three Kuban Olympians took part in bobsleigh competitions at the Winter Games. At the 2002 Olympic Games held in Salt Lake City in the USA, Kristina Bader and Viktoria Tokovaya took eighth place in the two-woman competitions, the website "Sochi-Express" reports.

In 2006, at the Turin Winter Olympic Games, Alexei Voevoda, a Sochi resident, won the silver medal in the four-man bobsleigh competition, and in the two-man competitions, his crew finished in the fourth place.

At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Alexei Voevoda won the bronze medal in the two-man competitions.