THE HOST COUNTRY TRIUMPHS

Emotions, excitement and counting fractions of seconds that separated the winner from the loser - the whole world watched the Winter Olympics in Sochi for a little more than two weeks. For Azerbaijan it was another contest where we just cheered for someone else's success. Given that winter sports are not so developed for Azerbaijani athletes to be able to compete with recognized leaders, hockey, biathlon, skiing and skating fans were able to choose athletes or teams to support.

As with any Olympic Games, the Sochi Games also had their own surprises. For some, they were pleasant, for others - not so much.

Host team factor

The main outcome of the Games in Sochi is that the host country won the Olympics for a second time in a row as was the case in Vancouver four years ago when Canadian athletes won 26 medals, of which 14 were gold, and confidently took first place by the number of gold medals.

The situation repeated itself in Sochi. The Russian national team, which was originally expected to take 3rd or 4th place in the medal standings, won the unofficial team standings at the expense of a tremendous spurt at the finish of the Olympic Games. The Russian team won 33 medals, including 13 gold, in Sochi. Never before did the Soviet or Russian teams win so many medals at Olympics. However, the USSR took 13 gold medals in Innsbruck in 1976.

In principle, in Turin in 2006, the home field advantage affected the performance of the then hosts of the tournament - the Italians won six gold medals. In Sochi, for example, the Italian team was left without gold medals.

If we go back to the performance of Russians in Vancouver, the Games in Canada became a resounding failure for the Russian team. Four years ago, the Russian athletes won just 15 medals, of which only three were gold, and contented themselves with 11th place in the overall standings.

The success of the Russian national team in Sochi was achieved not only through their own field, but also correct naturalization. In sports today, you can surprise few people with athletes changing nationality, but it does not always have a positive effect. In Sochi, the naturalized Viktor Ahn and Vic (Victor) Wild secured five gold medals for Russia in short track and snowboarding.

In general, athletes from 26 countries won medals in Sochi, including athletes from 21 countries who managed to win gold medals. In 2010, in Canada medals were won by representatives of 25 countries, including 19 gold, and in 2006 in Italy - by 26 countries with 18 of them winning gold.

Olympic heroes

Any Olympics have their own heroes. So this time in Sochi there were a lot of sportsmen and sportswomen who can be considered heroes. These are the athletes who won at least two gold medals in individual competitions.

Among the ladies the unconditional prima of the Games in Sochi was the Belarusian biathlonist Darya Domracheva, who won three of the four individual races. Domracheva added marksmanship to the perfect speed on the track, thus becoming the first biathlonist in the world to win three gold medals in individual events.

Another athlete who took three gold medals away from Sochi was the Norwegian skier Marit Bjoergen. She added a "gold" medal in the team sprint to two gold medals in individual events.

Heroines of the Sochi Games are also the Slovenian skier Tina Maze and Dutch skater Irene Wust. In Vancouver, Maze stopped one step away from the "gold" twice. In Sochi, she won two gold medals and became the most successful athlete in the history of Slovenia. In Sochi, Wust harvested two gold and two silver medals.

Among men, the number of victors in the Sochi Games was higher. Russian Victor Ahn can be called the main hero. In 2006, Ahn became a three-time Olympic champion in Turin, but as a member of the national team of South Korea. This time he won three gold medals in short track, but as a member of the national team of Russia. He added a gold medal in the 5,000-metre relay to the two gold and one bronze medal in individual competitions.

Two more Russians became Olympic heroes - snowboarder Vic Wild and bobsledder Aleksandr Zubkov. The former American Wild changed his nationality in order to continue snowboarding and won two gold medals in Sochi. Zubkov also won two gold medals, becoming the best in bobsleigh both in twos and in fours.

Two gold medals were also won in Sochi by French biathlonist Martin Fourcade, Swiss skier Dario Cologna, Polish ski jumper Kamil Stoch. Fourcade was close to some kind of a hat-trick, but in the mass start, he lost to Svendsen from Norway in the gold finish line.

The Dutch skating team can also be regarded as heroes of the Olympics. The performance of the Dutch skaters in Sochi was totally enchanting - the "orange team" simply tired all their rivals out on the skating rink. Imagine that of the 32 medals offered in speed skating in Sochi, 23 went to the Dutch, including 8 of the 12 gold medals.

The Netherlands won 24 medals in Sochi, including 23 in speed skating. Only due to their performance in speed skating, did the team finish in fifth place in Sochi, overtaking the recognized leaders of winter sports - the German national team. In Vancouver, the Dutch had only 8 medals, including 4 gold ones. For the Germans, the Games in Sochi became a failure rather than a success: only 19 medals, although eight of them are gold, and it is much smaller than the German functionaries expected.

"It is not the winning, it is the taking part that counts"

For the time being, the participation of Azerbaijani sportsmen in the Winter Olympics is limited to the famous Olympic motto "It is not the winning, it is the taking part that counts".

Although compared with Vancouver, in Sochi Azerbaijani athletes did better. First of all, it concerns the dancing couple in figure skating - Yulia Zlobina and Aleksey Sitnikov, who took 12th place. In Canada four years ago, Azerbaijan was not represented in skating at all.

As for the alpine skiers Patrick Brahner and Gaia Bassani Antivari, for them the Sochi track was too complicated. Brahner took 53rd place in one of the ski disciplines, and on the penultimate day of the competition he failed to finish in slalom from the first attempt and, naturally, failed to get a second attempt. Bassani Antivari did not appear at the start in Sochi at all and can be safely moved from the category of Olympic participants to the category of tourists.

The next 23rd Olympic Winter Games will be held from 9 to 25 February 2018 in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang.