Russian President Dmitry Medvedev awarded...

The Vancouver Games were Russia"s worst since czarist times, with the team winning just three gold medals, five silver and seven bronze, and finishing 11th in the overall medals table. The Kremlin has been appalled by Russia"s "dismal" performance, calling on officials responsible for the preparation of Russia"s Olympic team to quit.

Russian Olympic Committee head Leonid Tyagachev resigned on March 3, two days after Medvedev said senior sports officials should quit over the country"s poor showing at the Winter Olympics.

"Many of our young athletes have shown that our Olympic team has a high potential," Medvedev said at the state awards ceremony for the Russian Olympic team in Moscow.

He also noted Russia"s surprising success in snowboard and skeleton.

"This is very important to us. It was proven by snowboarder Yekaterina Ilyukhina who won Russia"s first ever silver Olympic medal in this kind of sport, and Alexander Tretyakov, who grabbed the bronze medal

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