Russia aims to enter medal standings’ top trio at 2022 Beijing Olympics — sports official

MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. The team of Russian athletes is capable of finishing the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in China within the top-three in the overall medals’ standings at the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, the top Russian Olympics official said on Monday. "If speaking about our previous forecast figures I should say that they remain unchanged staying at 30 medals, which we are ready to fight for," President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov told journalists on Monday. "We will be capable of fighting for a place in the top three [of medal standings]," he said. "However, we are not in control of the situation because of certain force majeure complications" "We are closely following various predictions, but keep sticking to our personal opinion based on our own analytical data because we have our own methodic," Pozdnyakov said. "Unfortunately, this methodic is far from being precise if compared to the pre-COVID-19 times." At the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang, the Russian national Olympic team competed under the status of the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) because the Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) membership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was suspended at that time. Russian athletes finished in 13th place of the overall medals standings at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang having won two gold, six silver and nine bronze medals. Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are scheduled to be held from February 4-20, while the Paralympic Winter Games will be held on March 4-13. During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022). Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Olympics and Paralympics in a tight race, beating Kazakhstan’s Almaty in 2015, by chalking up 44 votes against its rival’s 40. Read more