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For the presentation of the Sochi Olympic Games, the Russian side drew on the country’s greatest creative and artistic resources. Valery Gergiev together with Mariinsky Ballet Company soloist Ulyana Lopatkina, internationally acclaimed soprano Maria Guleghina and Bolshoi Ballet Company soloist Nikolai Tsiskaridze emerged as special cultural envoys for the Sochi Olympics during the games in Vancouver.
“TO the sound of the Russian national anthem the main arena was lit up in the colours of our flag,” reported Zvezda TV’s news service, “The presentation of the Sochi Olympic Games has begun with a ‘calling card’ from the future host city. Valery Gergiev then entered the stadium. Using a satellite TV link, he conducted an orchestra located on Red Square.” .
“With a wave of his hand, maestro Valery Gergiev launched Sviridov’s energetic rhythm Time, Forward! , and in an eight-minute-long clip all of the great Russian symbols were displayed: Garagin’s first flight in space, the Bolshoi Ballet Company and Olympic ice dance champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov,” reported the correspondent from the RBK agency. “In the finale, hockey players Alexander Ovechkin and Vladislav Tretiak came on stage and, during the closing ceremony of the Games in Vancouver, Yevgeny Plyushchenko and Irina Rodnina were dressed in sports gear bearing the emblem Sochi-2014” .
After the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games and the transfer of the baton for the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Valery Gergiev held a press conference on the results of the Vancouver Olympics for Russian journalists at the Russian Embassy in Washington: “I can explain the achievements of the Russian team at the Olympic Games by saying we have almost exhausted the Soviet methods, discoveries and great and powerful traditions, and I think that if we use that we will no longer be able to skate our way to gold medals or jump high enough to reach them.” (From materials provided by the Interfax information agency.)
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