The National Olympic Committee approved the lineup of the Russian team that will soon be leaving for the 8 August opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Russian squad will be one of the largest Olympic delegations to be presented at this year’s Games. The nearly 900-strong delegation includes 467 athletes from all across Russia and will compete in all 28 Olympic events and 38 disciplines except football, tae kwon do, baseball, softball, field hockey, and one cycling event.
Team Russia, which hopes to win big in many events, is fielding a star-studded synchronised swimming team which features three time Olympic champs Anastasia Yermakova and Anastasia Davydova. Our track and fielders, swimmers, basketballers, volleyballers, and gymnasts are equally ambitious, to say nothing of our women’s tennis squad which boasts such top-drawer players as Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Yelena Dementyeva.
Sport and Tourism Minister Vitaly Mutko believes this country’s team has everything it takes to make the list of the Games’ top three winners. “We have some of the world’s very best athletes and we do hope that, cheered on by millions of fans back home, they will put up a real good show in Beijing”, Mr Mutko said. The 29th Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing from 8 through 24 August and our national basketball team captain, Andrei Kirilenko, will carry the Russian flag at the Games’ opening ceremony.
28 July 2008
Lada Korotun
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=30208&cid=63&p=28.07.2008 (in English)
