03.03 Majority of Russians Praise Sochi Olympics Organization

MOSCOW, March 3 (R-Sport) – The overwhelming majority of Russians are pleased with how the Sochi Olympics were organized, the state-run All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center said Monday.

“Ninety-three percent of our citizens came to the conclusion that Russia organized the Winter Olympic Games properly,” a website statement said.

Respondents felt most proud of figure skater Julia Lipnitskaia (33 percent), who became the youngest gold medalist of the games, helping Russia to win the inaugural team event, and Adelina Sotnikova (29 percent) who earned a surprise gold in the individual competition of the same discipline.

The biggest disappointment came from the Russian hockey team (31 percent), which lost to Finland in the quarterfinals, and figure skater Evgeny Plushenko (20 percent) who withdrew with a back injury minutes before his short skate at the individual event.

The poll was conducted on the last two days of the February 7-23 Games among 1,600 people from 130 cities. The poll's margin of error was 3.4 percentage points.