The XXI winter Olympic Games start in Vancouver today

The XXI winter Olympic Games start in Vancouver on Friday, February 12. The Russian national team consists of 179 sportsmen, including 55 honored sport masters.

86 medals on 14 sports will be played out.

Ten sportsmen will represent Republic of Bashkortostan at the Olympiad-2010: biathlonist Maxim Chudov, Nordic combined skier Sergey Maslennikov, Alpine skier Leisan Rayanova, short-track speed-skaters Ruslan Zakharov and Simeon Elistratov, hockey players Dmitry Kalinin, Sergey Zinoviev, Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Radulov (Alexander Eremenko and Vitally Proshkin will warm the bench) and bobsledder Dmitry Abramovitch.