Russian Paralympic team wants to beat Turin record

The Russian team took the lead on the very first day of the Winter Paralympics in Canada. The athletes have already won three gold, three silver and two bronze medals and currently tops the overall ratings.

Before the Paralympic Games started, President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev said he was sure that the Russian athletes would prove their title of one of the world's strongest teams. Mr. Medvedev told the athletes he expected them to perform as well as they did it in Turin in 2006. A biathlonist Irek Zaripov won the first Russian gold in a 2.4 km race for sportsmen with aberration of locomotor system.

"I am very happy because I have been pursuing this victory for the past 4 years. We must demonstrate out best results. I believe Russia will win".

Zaripov's teammates Kirill Mikhailov and Anna Burmistrova finished first in the men's and women's upright skiing events. The "silver" went to Maria Iovleva, Nikolai Polukhin and Lyubov Vasilyeva, and Mikhalina Lysova and Alyona Gorbunova took the "bronze".

Many Paralympians will compete in several sports. The 26-year-old Kirill Mikhailov will participate in the men's 20-km cross-country skiing that brought him the "gold" in Turin.

Russia is hoping to repeat and even surpass its success in the Turin Paralympiad where it won 33 gold medals. Secretary General of the national Paralympics Committee Mikhail Terentyev has said that the victorious performance the athletes are striving towards in Vancouver is not just for victory's sake but for the sake of promoting the Russian Paralympic movement in Russia.