Russian President Vladimir Putin presented state awards to the gold medalists of the Tokyo Olympic Games. The ceremony took place in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin. The President named the speech
worthy athletes, the Izvestia TV channel reports.
“Russian athletes performed well at the Tokyo Olympics. I understand how difficult it was. Everyone understands how difficult it was, the whole country. Perhaps, in some moments it is prohibitively difficult. This is a huge physical, emotional stress both during preparation and during the Olympic starts themselves. And the strict requirements, forced, but necessary requirements associated with the epidemic, they also contributed to these difficulties. I cannot but recall the well-known politicized decisions, which are, unfortunately, far from sports, in relation to our country, our team. But, dear friends, you withstood everything, went through all these tests, fought for the sporting honor of Russia and, as I said, fought with dignity, ”the president said.
Dina Averina, who took silver, received state awards. Three winners of the Games were awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
Alexandra Vyacheslavovna Patskevich, Olympic champion in synchronized swimming, was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad 2020 in Tokyo for a great contribution to the development of domestic sports, high sporting achievements, will to win, resilience and dedication.
The athletes thanked the president for his support. After that, communication took place in an informal setting. The champions admitted that they were worried during the meeting.
“I began to feel that tears were rolling in when the first person came out, when the first speech began, I realized that now I have to hold on. Because we have been waiting for this all very much. The whole country was waiting for this, I am sure that the whole country was waiting for this. And at such a moment … You seemed to be in quarantine and preparing for this. And suddenly you find yourself here. And suddenly you realize that you are next to the president, that your dream has come true, ”said Maria Shurochkina, two-time Olympic swimming champion.
The Russians at the completed Olympic Games in Tokyo took fifth place in the medal standings, having won 20 gold, 28 silver and 23 bronze medals. In terms of the total number of awards (71), they finished third, behind only teams from the USA (113) and China (88).
Among the gold medalists are synchronized swimmers, fencers, track and field athletes, marksmen, wrestlers, boxers and gymnasts.
A high award from the President will be given to the two-time champion of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in bullet shooting Vitalina Batsarashkina, two-time swimming champion Evgeny Rylov, two-time champion in saber fencing Sofia Pozdnyakova, two-time synchronized swimming champion Svetlana Romashina, Nikita team gymnastics champion , Denis Ablyazin, Angelina Melnikova and Lilia Akhaimova, David Belyavsky and Artur Dalaloyan, boxing champion in the weight category up to 57 kilograms Albert Batyrgaziev, champion of the XXXII Olympiad in Greco-Roman wrestling in the weight category up to 97 kilograms Musa Evloev, synchronized swimming champion in the group Polina Komar, Maria Golyadkina and others.
The Izvestia TV channel is available in the packages of cable operators, in Moscow it is located on the 26th button. The channel is also broadcast live on the iz.ru website.