08.10 Olympic Relay Fires Up Snowboard Medal Contender Tudegesheva
MOSCOW, October 8 (R-Sport) Running in the Sochi Olympic torch relay has left Russias double world champion snowboarder Yekaterina Tudegesheva fired up to go for gold at next years Winter Games, she said Tuesday.
Tudegesheva has won world giant slalom and parallel slalom titles, including one earlier this year, but has never finished higher than fifth in her two Olympic appearances. Running with the torch could provide an edge over the opposition, she suggested.
Its good motivation, she said. It lifts your mood, gets you fired up.
Like the other torchbearers, Tudegesheva has the opportunity to buy her torch, and she joked it would be a good idea to light it and take it downhill on her snowboard.
The record 65,000-kilometer (41,140 mile) relay started Monday, a day after President Vladimir Putin welcomed the flame to Russia in a lavish patriotism-infused ceremony.
Day two sees the flame tour some Moscow landmarks, including the Luzhniki stadium that hosted athletics at the 1980 Summer Olympics, before finishing at Red Square. The day's torchbearers include two-time world champion figure skater Irina Slutskaya, Vancouver 2010 silver medal-winning speedskater Ivan Skobrev and students of some of Russia's top universities.
After leaving the capital Wednesday, the flame will then head north to St. Petersburg before being flown to Russias Far East and eventually looping around the Kamchatka Peninsula, down to Vladivostok and back across southern Siberia via Lake Baikal, the worlds largest freshwater lake.
On its way through more than 2,900 towns in Russias 83 regions, the flame will make its way back into European Russia, winding down through the Caucasus to the Black Sea resort of Sochi for the opening ceremony.
Other high points on the relay's route include a trip up Russias highest mountain, Elbrus, in sub-zero temperatures and the sending of an unlit torch into space. That torch will later be used to light the cauldron at the Fisht Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony February 7.
The flame was lit an Ancient Olympia on September 29 and toured 33 Greek towns and cities before being flown to Moscow on Sunday.
