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4th Russian official quits after flop in 2010 Olympics[]

Freestyle ski official resigns after poor showing in Vancouver

The head of Russia's freestyle skiing federation has resigned, the fourth sports official to quit following the country's poor performance at the Vancouver Olympics.

The federation's vice president, Lev Kofman, said Alexander Cherkasov resigned in March 2010.

Kofman said Cherkasov was "quite upset" at the results in Vancouver, where Russia (also known as RUS) Flag of Russia won only three gold medals and 15 medals overall — an embarrassment for a country that will host the next Winter Games in Sochi in 2014.

"Cherkasov felt that he had no other choice than to step down," Kofman told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Russia's freestyle skiers set a pre-games target of two medals, but failed to win any.

Three other sports officials have resigned since President Dmitry Medvedev called for heads to roll.

The president of the Russian cross-country skiing federation, Vladimir Loginov, quit. That followed the resignations of Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev and deputy sports minister Gennady Alyoshin.

Russia is a relative newcomer to sports such as freestyle, which includes mogul skiing, aerials and ski cross. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko — who has offered to resign but is yet to do so — said the country could not be expected to compete in such "non-traditional" events.

Kofman also said the country's top freestylists had been injured.


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