Russia at the Olympics

Russia, officially known as the Russian Federation, has competed at the modern Olympic Games on many occasions, but as different nations in its history. As the Russian Empire, the nation first competed at the 1900 Games, and returned again in 1908 and 1912. After the Russian revolution in 1917, and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, it would be thirty years until Russian athletes once again competed at the Olympics, as the Soviet Union at the 1952 Summer Olympics. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia competed as part of the Unified Team in 1992, and finally returned once again as Russia at the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Russia at the Olympics
IOC code	RUS
NOC	Russian Olympic Committee
Website	www.olympic.ru/en
Medals Ranked 10th	Gold 194 Silver 165 Bronze 186 Total 545
Summer appearances
1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Winter appearances
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018–2022
Other related appearances
Russian Empire (1900–1912)  Soviet Union (1952–1988)  Unified Team (1992)  Olympic Athletes from Russia (2018)  ROC (2020–2022)

The Russian Olympic Committee was created in 1991 and recognized in 1993. The Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and the Russian Federation hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

In six appearances Russian athletes have won a total of 425 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 121 at the Winter Olympic Games. Over the most recent twelve Games (since 1994), Russia's 546 total medals, including 195 gold medals, are third behind only the United States and China.

In 2017, Russia was suspended from competing at the Olympic Games due to the state-sponsored doping scandal. Russian athletes were allowed to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics as the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR). They are also allowed to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics, representing the Russian Olympic Committee.^[1]

Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee plans to allow Russian athletes participate at the 2024 Summer Olympics as neutrals.^[2]

Hosted Games

Russia has hosted the Games on two occasions. Moscow was the host of the 1980 Summer Games, when Russia (Russian SFSR) was part of the Soviet Union. Sochi was the host of the 2014 Winter Games, as part of the Russian Federation.

Games	Host city	Dates	Nations	Participants	Events
1980 Summer Olympics	Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union	19 July–3 August	80	5,179	203
2014 Winter Olympics	Sochi, Russian Federation	7–23 February	88	2,873	98

Participation

Timeline of participation

Date	Team
1900–1912	Russian Empire (RU1)
1920	Estonia (EST)
1924–1936		Latvia (LAT)	Lithuania (LTU)
1952–1988	Soviet Union (URS)
1992	Estonia (EST)	Latvia (LAT)	Lithuania (LTU)	Unified Team (EUN)
1994				Russia (RUS)	Belarus (BLR)	Armenia (ARM),   Georgia (GEO),   Kazakhstan (KAZ),   Kyrgyzstan (KGZ),   Moldova (MDA),   Ukraine (UKR),   Uzbekistan (UZB)
1996–2016							Azerbaijan (AZE),   Tajikistan (TJK),   Turkmenistan (TKM)
2018				Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR)
2020–2022				Russian Olympic Committee (ROC)
2024–				Neutral identity planned

Combined medals

The Russian Federation, the Russian Empire, the Olympic Athletes from Russia and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) are sometimes combined outside of IOC sources. The Soviet Union is often combined with the post-union team that competed in 1992.^[3][4][5] Some sources combine the Soviet Union and Russia, despite the fact that many republics which subsequently gained or re-gained independence (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) contributed to the medal tally of the USSR, and there are sources that combine all medals of RU1, URS, EUN, OAR, ROC and RUS.^[6][7] On 31 January 1992, the United Nations recognized, without objection, Russia as legal successor of the rights and obligations of the former Soviet Union,^[8] but this has no significance in medal tallies.

Medal counts:
Russia combined with precursors
status after the 2022 Olympics

	Summer Games					Winter Games					Combined total
Team (IOC code)	No.				Total	No.				Total	No.				Total
Russia (RUS)	6	147	126	151	424	6	47	39	35	121	12	194	165	186	545
Russian Empire (RU1)	3	1	4	3	8	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	4	3	8
Soviet Union (URS)	9	395	319	296	1010	9	78	57	59	194	18	473	376	355	1204
Unified Team (EUN)	1	45	38	29	112	1	9	6	8	23	2	54	44	37	135
Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR)	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	6	9	17	1	2	6	9	17
Russian Olympic Committee (ROC)	1	20	28	23	71	1	6	12	14	32	2	26	40	37	103
Total	20	608	515	502	1625	18	142	120	125	387	38	750	635	627	2012

Medal tables

See also: All-time Olympic Games medal table

*Purple border colour indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Medals by Summer Games Games Athletes   Gold   Silver   Bronze Total Rank 1900 – 1912 as part of the   Russian Empire (RU1) 1920 – 1948 did not participate 1952 – 1988 as part of the   Soviet Union (URS) 1992 Barcelona as part of the   Unified Team (EUN) 1996 Atlanta 390 26 21 16 63 2 2000 Sydney 435 32 28 29 89 2 2004 Athens 446 28 26 36 90 3 2008 Beijing 455 24 13 23 60 3 2012 London 436 18 21 27 66 4 2016 Rio de Janeiro 282 19 17 20 56 4 2020 Tokyo^1 as the   ROC 2024 Paris future event 2028 Los Angeles 2032 Brisbane Total 147 126 151 424 12

Medals by Winter Games Games Athletes   Gold   Silver   Bronze Total Rank 1924 – 1952 did not participate 1956 – 1988 as part of the   Soviet Union (URS) 1992 Albertville as part of the   Unified Team (EUN) 1994 Lillehammer 113 11 8 4 23 1 1998 Nagano 122 9 6 3 18 3 2002 Salt Lake City 151 5 4 4 13 5 2006 Turin 190 8 6 8 22 4 2010 Vancouver 177 3 5 7 15 11 2014 Sochi 232 11 10 9 30 1 2018 Pyeongchang^1 as the   Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) 2022 Beijing^1 as the   ROC 2026 Milan–Cortina future event Total 47 39 35 121 10

Notes

• ¹: nominally banned due to the state-sponsored doping program.

Medals by Summer Sports   Leading in that sport Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total   Wrestling 31 11 14 56   Gymnastics 22 21 21 64   Athletics 18 21 19 58   Fencing 13 5 8 26   Boxing 10 5 15 30   Synchronized swimming 10 0 0 10   Shooting 7 13 11 31   Swimming 5 9 9 23   Cycling 5 5 9 19   Judo 5 4 7 16   Diving 4 8 6 18   Weightlifting 4 7 7 18   Modern pentathlon 4 1 0 5   Tennis 3 3 2 8   Canoeing 2 4 7 13   Handball 2 1 1 4   Volleyball 1 3 2 6   Rowing 1 0 2 3   Taekwondo 0 2 2 4   Water polo 0 1 3 4   Archery 0 1 1 2   Sailing 0 1 1 2   Basketball 0 0 3 3   Badminton 0 0 1 1 Totals (24 entries) 147 126 151 424

Medals by Winter Sports   Leading in that sport Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total   Cross country skiing 14 10 9 33   Figure skating 14 9 3 26   Biathlon 10 5 8 23   Speed skating 3 5 5 13   Short track speed skating 3 1 1 5   Snowboarding 2 2 1 5   Skeleton 1 0 2 3   Luge 0 3 0 3   Freestyle skiing 0 1 3 4   Bobsleigh 0 1 1 2   Ice hockey 0 1 1 2   Alpine skiing 0 1 0 1   Nordic combined 0 0 1 1 Totals (13 entries) 47 39 35 121

Notes

• On 9 February 2014, Russia captured the inaugural gold medal in the team figure skating event at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.^[9] Yulia Lipnitskaya, at 15, becomes the youngest Russian Winter Olympic medalist.^{[citation needed]}
• On 10 February 2014, Viktor Ahn won the first short track speedskating medal for Russia competing as Russia. He won the bronze medal in the 1500m short track speedskating event at the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics.^[10]
• On 15 February 2014, Ahn won the second Russian gold medal in the 1000m short track speedskating event, leading the first Russian 1–2 finish in short track, with Vladimir Grigorev winning silver. At 31 years and 191 days, Grigorev also became the oldest man to win a short track Olympic medal.^[11]
• On 20 February 2014, Adelina Sotnikova won the first ever Russian ladies figure skating gold medal.

Stripped Olympic medals

See also: List of stripped Olympic medals and Doping in Russia

Due to doping violations, Russia has been stripped of 45 Olympic medals – the most of any country, four times the number of the runner-up, and 30% of the global total. It was the leading country in terms of the number of medals removed due to doping at the 2002 Winter Olympics (5 medals), the 2006 Winter Olympics (1 medal), the 2008 Summer Olympics (14 medals), the 2012 Summer Olympics (17 medals), 2014 Winter Olympics (4 medals — 10 others were stripped and returned) and the joint most at the 2004 Summer Olympics (3 medals) and the 2016 Summer Olympics (1 medal).

Olympics	Athlete	Medal	Event	Ref
2002 Winter Olympics	Olga Danilova	Gold	Cross-country skiing, women's 5 km + 5 km combined pursuit	^[12]
		Silver	Cross-country skiing, women's 10 km classical	^[12]
	Larisa Lazutina	Gold	Cross-country skiing, women's 30 km classical	^[12]^[13]
		Silver	Cross-country skiing, women's 15 km freestyle	^[14]
		Silver	Cross-country skiing, women's 5 km + 5 km combined pursuit	^[14]
2004 Summer Olympics	Irina Korzhanenko	Gold	Athletics, women's shot put	^[15]
	Svetlana Krivelyova	Bronze	Athletics, women's shot put	^[16]
	Oleg Perepetchenov	Bronze	Weightlifting, men's 77 kg	^[17]
2006 Winter Olympics	Olga Pyleva	Silver	Biathlon, women's individual	^[18]
2008 Summer Olympics	Relay team (Yuliya Chermoshanskaya)	Gold	Athletics, women's 4 × 100 m relay	^[19]
	Relay team (Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, Tatyana Firova)	Silver	Athletics, women's 4 × 400 m relay	^[21]
	Maria Abakumova	Silver	Athletics, women's javelin throw	^[22]
	Relay team (Denis Alexeev)	Bronze	Athletics, men's 4 × 400 m relay	^[22]
	Yekaterina Volkova	Bronze	Athletics, women's 3000 m steeplechase	^[24]
	Anna Chicherova	Bronze	Athletics, women's high jump	^[26]
	Khadzhimurat Akkayev	Bronze	Weightlifting, men's 94 kg	^[27]
	Dmitry Lapikov	Bronze	Weightlifting, men's 105 kg	^[27]
	Marina Shainova	Silver	Weightlifting, women's 58 kg	^[21]
	Nadezhda Evstyukhina	Bronze	Weightlifting, women's 75 kg	^[21]
	Khasan Baroyev	Silver	Wrestling, men's Greco-Roman 120 kg	^[27]
	Tatyana Lebedeva	Silver	Athletics, women's triple jump	^[28]
	Tatyana Lebedeva	Silver	Athletics, women's long jump	^[28]
	Tatyana Chernova	Bronze	Athletics, Women's heptathlon	^[29]
2012 Summer Olympics	Tatyana Lysenko	Gold	Athletics, women's hammer throw	^[30]
	Yuliya Zaripova	Gold	Athletics, women's 3000 m steeplechase	^[31]^[32]
	Sergey Kirdyapkin	Gold	Athletics, men's 50 km walk	^[33]
	Tatyana Chernova	Bronze	Athletics, women's heptathlon	^[34]
	Darya Pishchalnikova	Silver	Athletics, women's discus throw	^[35]
	Yevgeniya Kolodko	Silver	Athletics, women's shot put	^[36]
	Olga Kaniskina	Silver	Athletics, women's 20 km walk	^[37]
	Apti Aukhadov	Silver	Weightlifting, men's 85 kg	^[38]
	Aleksandr Ivanov	Silver	Weightlifting, men's 94 kg	^[32]
	Natalia Zabolotnaya	Silver	Weightlifting, women's 75 kg	^[32]
	Svetlana Tsarukayeva	Silver	Weightlifting, women's 63 kg
	Relay (Antonina Krivoshapka, Yulia Gushchina, Tatyana Firova, Natalya Antyukh)	Silver	Athletics, women's 4 × 400 m relay	^[39]^[40]
	Mariya Savinova	Gold	Athletics, women's 800 m
	Natalya Antyukh	Gold	Athletics, women's 400 m hurdles	^[41]
2014 Winter Olympics	Alexandr Zubkov, Alexey Voyevoda	Gold	Bobsleigh, Two-man	^[42]^[43]
	Alexandr Zubkov, Alexey Negodaylo, Dmitry Trunenkov and Alexey Voyevoda	Gold	Bobsleigh, Four-man	^[42]^[44]^[45] ^[43]
	Relay team (Olga Vilukhina, Yana Romanova, Olga Zaitseva)	Silver	Biathlon, Women's relay
2016 Summer Olympics	Mikhail Aloyan	Silver	Boxing, men's flyweight	^[46]

2016-present partial ban

Main articles: Doping in Russia and 2024 Summer Olympics § Participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes

Russia was partially banned from participation at the 2016 Summer Olympics due to the state-sponsored doping scandal. Russian athletes were then allowed to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics as the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR), and in both the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics as the Russian Olympic Committee athletes (ROC).^[47][48]

Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced in January 2023 plans to have Russian athletes introduced as neutrals at the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[2][49] The IOC also published a statement stating that it supported the return of Russian athletes, as long as they did not "actively" support the war and as long as their flag, anthem, colors, and organizations were excluded (thus preventing them from competing under the Russian Olympic Committee as in 2020 and 2022).^[50]

Flag bearers

Main article: List of flag bearers for Russia at the Olympics

• 1994 Lillehammer – Sergei Tchepikov
• 1996 Atlanta – Aleksandr Karelin
• 1998 Nagano – Alexey Prokurorov
• 2000 Sydney – Andrey Lavrov
• 2002 Salt Lake City – Alexey Prokurorov
• 2004 Athens – Alexander Popov
• 2006 Turin – Dmitry Dorofeyev
• 2008 Beijing – Andrei Kirilenko
• 2010 Vancouver – Aleksey Morozov
• 2012 London – Maria Sharapova
• 2014 Sochi – Alexander Zubkov
• 2016 Rio de Janeiro – Sergey Tetyukhin

See also

• Category:Olympic competitors for Russia
• Russia at the Paralympics
• Russian Empire at the Olympics
• Soviet Union at the Olympics & Unified Team at the Olympics
• Doping in Russia
• Icarus (2017 film)

References

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48. "IOC suspends Russian NOC and creates a path for clean individual athletes to compete in Pyeongchang 2018 under the Olympic Flag" (Press release). International Olympic Committee. 5 December 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
49. Llewellyn, Liam (2 February 2023). "'Up to 40 countries' could boycott Olympic Games making Paris 2024 "pointless"". Mirror. from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
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• "Iran's Ghasemi new gold medalist of 2012 Olympics". Tehran Times. 11 November 2020.
• "BILYAL MAKHOV". Olympics.
• "International Wrestling Database". uni-leipzig.

External links

• "Russian Federation". International Olympic Committee. 27 July 2021.
• "Russia". Olympedia.com.
• "Olympic Analytics/RUS". olympanalyt.com.