"For our team and the whole country the start of the Olympics was difficult because the possibility of our team’s participation was discussed. Despite this fact, the team performed successfully in most of the events from the very beginning. 107 of 280 athletes go home with medals, we took medals in 20 events," he said.

"We took medals almost in all events of the Olympic program and not only in the sports we traditionally were strong but also in those events where we never took medals or did it way back in the times of the Soviet Union. None of the recent Olympics gave us such a variety of medals," he said.

In total, now Russian athletes have won 56 medals - 19 gold, 18 silver and 19 bronze. The Russian team ranks fourth in the unofficial team standings.