Medvedev Blames Bureaucrats for Olympic Flop

Russia's president on Monday demanded resignations from the "fat cat" sports bureaucrats behind his country's worst-ever Winter Olympic showing. "Unprecedented investments are being made in sports, but money is not everything," he says. Russia must focus on putting athletes, not "sports federations and their executives," first.

The once-mighty Russians finished 11th in Vancouver, with three gold, five silver and seven bronze medals, CNN notes. "It's been a total washout," one blogger writes. Athletes, officials and fans blamed the results on everything from bad weather to bias to bad luck, prompting one Moscow tabloid to lament that Team Russia "has already won gold for the multiple excuses of its losses."
(More 2010 Vancouver Olympics stories.)