Russia sending 67 athletes to Sochi 2014 Paralympics

The host nation will participate in all five sports, as well as the new snowboard discipline, with their strongest hopes for medals coming in Nordic skiing and ice sledge hockey.

The Russian Paralympic Committee announced that they are sending 67 athletes to the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games from 7-16 March, meaning it will be the country’s largest delegation ever at a Winter Games.

The host nation will participate in all five sports, as well as the new snowboard discipline, with their strongest hopes for medals coming in Nordic skiing and ice sledge hockey.

At the 2013 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships, Russia reigned suprereme, winning a total of 56 medals, including 22 golds. Men’s sit skier Roman Petushov and women’s visually impaired skier Mikhalina Lysova are arguably the best in the world in their disciplines, with both being the two biggest individual medal winners at the 2013 World Championships and showcasing their dominance on the 2013-14 World Cup circuit.

Lysova, guided by Alexey Ivanov, won a gold and two silvers at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics, while Petushkov is still seeking his first Paralympic gold.

Russia’s ice sledge hockey team, led by powerful forward Dmitry Lisov, won bronze at the 2013 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool just four years after starting up their national programme.

The Russians also have the potential to medal in wheelchair curling with a team anchored by lead Svetlana Pakhomova. The squad has climbed up through the world rankings the last four years and won the World Championships in 2012.

In alpine skiing, three-time world champion Aleksandra Frantceva will look to star in the women’s visually impaired events and 16-year-old Alexey Bugaev will try to challenge the field in the men’s standing events.

At the Vancouver 2010 Games, a Russian team of 46 athletes finished second in the medal standings, picking up 12 gold, 16 silver and 38 bronze medals for a total of 38 medals.

The full Russian team for Sochi 2014 includes:

Alpine skiing

Aleksander Akhmadulin

Alexander Alybayev

Alexey Bugaev

Alexander Fedoruk

Aleksandra Frantceva

Ivan Frantsev

Anatasia Khorosheva

Inga Medvedeva

Mariia Papulova

Valerii Redkozubov

Nikolai Shuvalov

Alexander Vetrov

German Arganovskiy (guide)

Alexander Nazarov (guide)

Pavel Zabotin (guide)

Artyom Zagorodskikh (guide)

Ice sledge hockey

Alexey Amosov

Maxim Andriyanov

Andrey Dvinyaninov

Mikhail Ivanov

Vladimir Kamantcev

Ivan Kuznetsov

Vladimir Litvinenko

Aleksei Lysov

Evgeny Petrov

Ilia Popov

Vadim Selyukin

Konstantin Shikhov

Nikolay Terentyev

Ruslan Tuchin

Vasilii Varlakov

Nordic skiing

Akzhana Abdikarimova

Nadezda Andreeva

Natalia Bratiuk

Iuliia Budaleeva

Alexey Bychenkok

Stanislav Choklaev

Aleksandr Davidovich

Aleksandr Iaremchuk

Maria Iovleva

Azat Karachurin

Alena Kaufman

Natalia Kocherova

Ivan Kodlozerov

Vladimir Kononov

Svetlanada Konovalova

Sergey Lapkin

Vladislav Lekomtcev

Mikhalina Lysova

Kirill Mikhaylov

Anna Milenina

Rushan Minnegulov

Gregory Murygin

Roman Petushkov

Nikolay Polukhin

Oleg Ponomarev

Aleksandr Pronkov

Elena Remizova

Vladimir Udaltcov

Irek Zaripov

Marta Zaynullna

Ruslan Bogachev

Ilia Volkov

Alex Ivanov

Tatiana Maltsev (guide)

Maxim Andreyevich Pirogov (guide)

Andrei Romanov (guide)

Andrey Tokarev (guide)

Natalia Yakimova (guide)

Irina Gromov (guide)

Amir Abubakirovich (guide)

Alexey Kopytin (guide)

Snowboard

Kirill Finkelman

Aleksandr Ilinov

Igor Ivanov

Wheelchair curling

Svetlana Pakhomova

Marat Romanov

Alexander Shevchenko

Oksana Slesarenko

Andrei Smirnov

Related Images

Imagen

Caption

Dmitry Lisov fights for the puck against South Korea at the 2013 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool.

Imagen

Caption

Svetlana Pakohmova