The result of the First European Games, which were held in Baku from 12 to 28 June, for the Russian team are 164 medals - 79 gold, 40 silver, 45 bronze. Russia took first place in the unofficial team standings, Azerbaijan took second place, third was the United Kingdom.
The President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, said that the highest number of medals to the Russian treasure chest was brought by the swimmers in Baku - 42 awards, 23 of them the highest honor, though juniors were performing in the swimming. "This is certainly a very serious success of our junior team, which gives hope that in the future in swimming we will have serious success on the world stage. Moreover, the stars were lit on the First European Games: 16-year-old Opyonysheva, who became 7-time champion of the Games, and Kameneva, who surpassed all the competitors in the number of medals she won. Maria Kameneva won 9 medals: six gold, one silver, two bronze,’’ Zhukov reported.
According to him, the Russian freestyle Greco-Roman style wrestlers competed very successfully. They won 18 medals, and competed with the strongest European athletes.
The Russian gymnasts were also great in their performance: 11 medals in sports gymnastics, and the 'artists' won almost all the gold.
Judokas won 10 medals.
Divers won 9 medals.
Acrobatics is a non-Olympic sport, but it is very interesting. The Russian acrobats won six medals.
In synchronized swimming the Russian team won all four gold medals that were played for.
Zhukov stressed the performances of several teams, particularly the water polo players, streetball teams and beach football. "The beach soccer players confirmed that they are the strongest in the world, although the first European Games collected the strongest teams from all the European countries," Zhukov admitted.
As part of the competition in Baku, direct licenses to the Olympic Games in Rio were played for. ‘’We should note our shooters, who won two straight Olympic tours – Vitaly Fokeev and Alexei Alipov won in their tournaments, which is very, very nice. It is worthless to praise ourselves, but still I will cite the words of the President of the European Olympic Committee, Patrick Hickey: "The performance of the Russian team at the first European Games is phenomenal." Indeed, our athletes were even better than expected, so it was clear that our team is very strong," Zhukov said.
