Some dedicated Russian athletes and businessmen are committed to beating America at its own game: baseball.

Beginning in 1986, when baseball was first recognized as an Olympic sport, youth clubs with an eye toward gold-medal glory popped up across the country and diamonds were carved into the tundra and steppes.

The game is still played — a national league includes 10 teams with names like Green Sox — but the sport is “limping along,” said Bob Protexter, an American who helped bring the game to Russia in the late 1980s.

Mr. Protexter believes that Russia’s obsession with the Olympics could revive an interest in the sport ahead of the 2020 Games in Tokyo, where baseball might again be featured. (Baseball has not been played at the Olympics since 2008.)