The Russians aren’t happy. They’re so upset, in fact, that president Medvedev is asking the people responsible for preparing the Olympic athletes to resign. Those that don’t, he threatens to fire. Russia only won three gold medals, and 15 medals overall. They were hoping to win at least 30 medals, and place in the top three countries winning medals.

I can see how they might be disappointed. Once powerhouses in figure skating, they fail to reach the podium at all in pairs or the ladies skate, breaking a streak that has been going on for decades. Evgeni Plushenko wound up with silver when he was hoping for gold. They didn’t exactly have a hot year.

I have been thinking over the last couple of weeks about what it takes for a country to have a lot of great athletes. The country really has to invest in a sport to see medals. The United States Ski Team wasn’t able to fund the ski cross team, and we had two competitors, no female competitors, and no medals. It does have money for skiing, and we had Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller, and Julia Mancuso.

Russia is not in its economic heyday right now. In fact, they haven’t been doing well for quite some time. It takes years to make a champion, especially in sports like figure skating. If the people (or government) of Russia does not invest in its athletes, they’re not going to see results. And that takes money.

China has been doing well in the Olympics, and I expect them to do better in the future. China has a growing economy, and invests the time and money in its athletes. They work even their snowboarders hard. They will probably do well in both London and Sochi.

Will Russia get back to its glory days? I think that they can perform better in Sochi than they did in Vancouver. Russia is improving economically, while at the same time the Western nations are having a tough time supporting their athletes. They could do better in Sochi, but I’m not sure that they have enough time to become the Russian powerhouse that they once were. Not in four years.

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