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On Wednesday, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told R-Sport that figure skating prodigy Yuliya Lipnitskaya won Russia’s highest sporting honour at the age of 15. On Sunday, Lipnitskaya became the youngest ever Winter Olympics gold medallist, making the biggest points contribution to Russia’s triumph in the team figure skating event with wins in the women’s short and free programmes. She became an Honoured Master of Sport in recognition of the feat, an award reserved for Olympic, Paralympic, and Deaflympic medallists, as well as world and European champions and World Cup winners. Mutko said, “We already had such cases in gymnastics, where young athletes became Masters of Sport. Yuliya has big competitions ahead, one of them here at the Olympics. We’re all looking forward to her performance; she will bring joy to all the fans”. Lipnitskaya will bid for a second Sochi gold in the singles competition on 19-20 February. Other athletes awarded the title at such a young age include London Olympic gymnastics champion Aliya Mustafina and three-time Olympic synchronised swimming gold medallist Svetlana Romashina.
12 February 2014
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/sochi2014/20140212/187465469/Lipnitskaia-Awarded-Russias-Highest-Sports-Honor.html
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