Russian Minister for Sports Vitaly Mutko said that Russian athletes have better chances to perform in Sochi than they had in Vancouver, Interfax reports.
He admitted that being 11th would be tough for the national team.
The minister reminded that a normal refresh for national teams was 30%, while Russia had replaced 70% of the athletes in its national team. Figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya will make her first Olympic performance. 60% of the skiers are new. Mutko summarized that the Russian national team had 47 honored masters of sports, three Olympic champions and seven world champions.
Seven foreign athletes will play for Russia. About 70 foreign specialists have been helping prepare Russian athletes.
Mutko urged people to stop worrying about figure skater Yevgeni Plushenko and called him a professional athlete of the highest level. The minister has no doubt that Russian ice hockey players Ovechkin, Malkin, Datsyuk and Varlamov will do their best at the Olympics.
