Athletes from the Barents Russia in Vancouver
Four Russian athletes – residents of the Russian part of the Barents Region take part in the Winter Olympics 2010 in Canada.
Alexander Rumyantsev from Arkhangelsk is preparing to take part in the 10 000 m speed skating race on February 23. In the opening race the Arkhangelsk speed-skater took part in the 5 000 m race but was disqualified for impeding his opponent.
Olga Rocheva-Moskalenko from Komi will take part in the ladies’ cross-country skiing. She most probably will run the 15 km race and the 30 km mass-start.
Another member of Russian Olympic team, Olga Schuchkina now lives in Tyumen region, but originally she is also from Komi Republic. Schuchkina is going to take part in the individual sprint race and sprint relay race.
Ivan Babikov, another athlete from Komi, will take part in the 15 km cross-country skiing race tonight but not for the Russian team. Two years ago Babikov has got the Canadian citizenship and now is a member of the National team of the Olympic 2010 host country.
Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that totally there are eight athletes taking part in the 2010 Winter Olympics that have relationship to Murmansk oblast. Alexei Petukhov from Murmansk is a leader of Russian cross-country skiing team.
Read also: Murmansk skier won two gold medals
The inmates of Murmansk children and youth sport school of Olympic reserve Anna Bogalyi-Titovets and Olga Kudryashova will probably meet on the biathlon races as rivals. Anna now lives in Novosibirsk while Olga defends the colors of Belarus national team.
Another Murmansk citizen Ilia Roslyakov (ski-jumping) now lives in Moscow. Two members of the Russian Olympic team are originally from Kirovsk. Darja Serova takes part in free-style skiing competition and Stepan Zuev - in alpine skiing. Both of them now live in Moscow region.
The Stanley Cup winner 1997, 1998 and 2002 and one of the leaders of the Russian ice-hockey team Sergey Fedorov started his sport career in Apatity. The player of women’s ice-hockey team Maria Onolbaeva has learned to play hockey in Murmansk children and youth sport school “Arctica” and now plays for “Fakel”, from Chelyabinsk in the South Urals.
