- April 25, 2021
Not-Russia Does Great Figure Skating
The non-doping "Russia" won three out of four events at the recent world figure skating championships and swept the ladies' podium.
The results are in: Not-Russia Russian Olympic Committee ended the 2020-er-2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics on August 8 in third place in the overall medal count, and fifth place in the race for gold. The United States took home the most gold medals, with China in second place.
Not-Russia took home 20 golds, one more than the 19 it had in the previous Summer Olympics in Rio in 2016. It was the most overall medals Russia won at an Olympics since 2004.
Russian officials report that Not-Russia overfilled the plan. Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov set the medal target at 50-60, but Not-Russia garnered 71 instead.
The biggest disappointment for Not-Russia was when Dina Averina lost the rhythmic gymnastics gold to Israel's Linoy Ashram. Ashram dropped her ribbon, but Averina did not. Russia has won every rhythmic gymnastics gold since 2000 and is very upset. Arina Averina, Dina's older-by-20-minutes twin sister, missed the medal podium completely because of a knot in her ribbon (Those darn ribbons!). Judging in Olympic sports like gymnastics and figure skating often comes down to artistry and perfection more than athleticism or speed as in so many other sports.
Due to the pandemic, the Closing Ceremony was a parade of flags rather than athletes. Holding the Not-Russia flag was gold-winning wrestler Abdulrashid Sadulayev.
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