RUSSIA: WINTER OLYMPICS - SOCHI 2014 - Six-times Olympic gold medalist Viktor Ahn says winning gold medals for Russia at theSochi Olympics were "valuable and meaningful"

Record ID: 402468

  • Title: RUSSIA: WINTER OLYMPICS - SOCHI 2014 - Six-times Olympic gold medalist Viktor Ahn says winning gold medals for Russia at theSochi Olympics were "valuable and meaningful"
  • Date: 22nd February 2014
  • Summary: SOCHI 2014 LOGO
  • Embargoed: 9th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: General,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVADNAX7U6JFMD6UWAWPLJLD8J7S
  • Story Text: Speed skater Viktor Ahn on Saturday (February 22) talked about the difference in his feelings after winning three gold medals for the Russian team, compared with his three gold for South Korea at the 2006 Turn Games.
    Speaking to journalists the day after winning two gold medals in Sochi, Ahn said it had been a different experience this time round, and something which he found difficult to describe.
    "I won the same number of medals in Turin and here, but they come with different, somewhat strange feelings which makes me a bit cautious and complicated when I try to express it in words," Ahn said at a news conference.
    Ahn won two gold medals in less than an hour at the Sochi Games on Friday (February 21), triggering wild celebrations in his adopted country Russia and more agony for his native South Korea.
    Ahn confirmed his place among the greatest Winter Olympians of all time when he won the 500 metres individual event, then returned to the ice about 45 minutes later and helped Russia win the 5,000m relay.
    Ahn also won gold in the 1,000m six days ago and now has six Olympic gold medals in total - more than any speed skater either in short track or the more traditional long course.
    He spoke of what it meant for him to win the medals for his new team.
    "What is true is that I'm one of the members of the Russian team - I received a lot from them as I was trained with them and won the medals together. In that I think the medals I won in this Olympics are indeed valuable and meaningful to myself," he said.
    The only Winter Olympians to have won more gold than Ahn are the Norwegian pair of biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and cross country skier Bjoern Daehlie.
    But Ahn's achievements are unique because he did it with two different countries. He won his first three golds for South Korea at the 2006 Turin Olympics competing as Ahn Hyun-soo.
    Ahn fell out with skating officials in his homeland after he was not selected for the 2010 Vancouver Games and switched his allegiance to Russia, changing his name after being granted citizenship.
    His amazing performances in Sochi have infuriated people in his Asian homeland, the sport's traditional powerhouse. While Ahn collected three golds himself, South Korea's men did not win a single medal in any of the short track events.
    But he said his medals were not to be interpreted as a political statement.
    "I didn't win the medals to send some sort of message to somebody. I think all athletes share one common goal; the Olympic competitions and the Olympic medals. In that, no athletes are different," he said.
    He added that he would not be fazed by negative reports about him in the South Korean media.
    "What I say during this interview may be taken in negative ways or seen as inconvenient statements in South Korea. I have no ways to avoid it because everyone has different points of view. I think I have to just embrace all the criticism," he said.
    Before the Sochi Games, Ahn had already gone on record to say that he switched nationalities after being overlooked by the South Korean federation for the 2010 Vancouver Games.
    The South Korean Skating Union (KSU) has suffered a backlash for not looking after Ahn's interests, while the country's government launched an official inquiry into how the skater was allowed to slip through the system and change allegiance.
    South Korea President Park Geun-hye has already ordered a government investigation into how one of the country's top athletes ended up competing for a rival nation.
    Ahn was also asked about the controversy surrounding the results of the women's figure skating in which South Korea's "Queen" Kim Yuna was dethroned to silver by Russian opponent Adelina Sotnikova.
    In her final Winter Olympics, 23-year-old Kim was beaten by 5.48 points by Sotnikova, thus taking silver home, who secured Russia's first women's individual gold, despite a flawless performance from South Korea's most loved and best-known athlete.
    There had been rumblings for days that Russian figure skaters were being marked rather generously at the Sochi Olympics, judges seemingly awarding scores with their hearts rather than their heads after being carried on a wave of national euphoria.
    "No matter what the result was, it's hard for me to tell anything about it because I'm in a different sport from her and I don't know how it's operated," Ahn said, adding: "Kim Yuna took the Olympic ice as her retiring stage, so the pressure on her should have been quite heavy even though she had said she would enjoy it - same as I did. But she seemed to deal with the pressure very nicely, and I was happy to watch her performances. And now she is positive and satisfied with her own performance as she left no regrets behind, and I'm very pleased as one of her senior colleagues in the skating community," he said.
    South Korean fans and media blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin and biased judging at the Sochi Games.
    Had she won, Kim would have joined Sonja Henie and Katarina Witt as the only women to win back-to-back titles in the sport's most-watched event.
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