Russian Punters Disappointed at Their Athletes’ Olympic Performance

In 2000, at Sydney Summer Olympics, Russia finished second after the United States. At 2004 Olympics, Russian athletes finished second in the medal count, right after the USA again. However, based on gold medals, Russia was third, behind China.

At 2008 Beijing Olympics, Russians finished third (even when it came to the medal count). China overtook the mighty Russians in the medal table.

So far in London, the Russian Federation is disappointing. Russians are far behind Chinese and Americans, and are even being overtaken by the British. Long gone are the good old days when it was the Soviet Union and America competing for no. 1 spot. Now, the competition Americans face shifted to the Far East where the Chinese dragon is awakening after long sleep.

What is even more disappointing, especially for the Russian punters who made bets via online sportsbooks in Russia, is the lack of gold medals.

At the time of writing of this article, Russian athletes won only 4 gold medals (out of 35 in total). This places Russia at no. 9 at the Olympic table based on the number of events. (Perhaps, a better strategy now is to bet on Russian athletes winning a medal rather than betting on gold.)

This kind of worries many. The question is: Who won those golds? For sure, China did. And so did Britain, South Korea, and Kazakhstan.

Is this a long-term trend? And is Russia going to be placed lower than nos. 3 or 4? It could happen. For example, Germany, which won 22 medals so far, only got 5 gold ones. Once great at Field & Track events, the German athletes lose to Jamaicans and other nations which didn’t exist on the Olympic map only a couple of decades earlier.

One thing, nevertheless, keeps Russian Olympic punters warm-hearted. Despite draconian Russian gambling laws, those who wager on sports can always find a way to pursue their hobbies (at least at offshore online gambling destinations)…unlike the Chinese punters who find it quite difficult to wager on their athletes’ fantastic performance.