Shcherbakova delivered a superb performance in the free skating element, landing both of her quad flips to score 175.75 in the second half of the event.

The 17-year-old had notched 80.20 two days earlier in the short programme, finishing with 255.95.

She led an ROC one-two, with Alexandra Trusova leading the scoring in the free skating after pulling off five quad jumps in her routine for a 177.13.

That moved her into the silver-medal position with a 251.73 effort.

In 2021, Shcherbakova triumphed in the women's singles on her debut at the World Championships in Stockholm with 233.17 points.

Shcherbakova also boasts a pair of European Championship silver medals among her honours.

In Tallinn in 2022, Shcherbakova finished second to compatriot Kamila Valieva at the European Championships.

Shcherbakova took silver at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Turin in the 2019-2020 season, and contributed to a Russian victory at the World Team Trophy in Osaka in 2021, topping the scoring in the women's singles event.

Shcherbakova has to date claimed four International Skating Union Grand Prix victories.

She first took up the sport in Russia's capital Moscow in 2007, following in the footsteps of her older sister Inna.

Shcherbakova then joined the national figure skating team in 2018.

The four-man squad consisted of Daniil Aldoshkin, Alexander Rumyantsev, Sergei Trofimov and Ruslan Zakharov.

In the semi-finals, the ROC team posted an Olympic record of 3min 36.62sec to defeat the United States.

In the final the ROC team faced Norway but could not replicate the record-setting form of the previous race, clocking 3:40.46 to claim the silver medal.

The first member of the squad Aldoshkin made his debut at the 2019 World Cup in Nagano, Japan, when he finished 11^th in the 5,000 metres B race.

Prior to Beijing 2022, his best performance on the international stage came when he finished sixth in the men’s 5,000 metres at the World Single Distance Championships in Heerenveen, The Netherlands.

Aldoshkin started skating in Kolomna, Russia, at the age of five.

The second member of the squad Rumyantsev is competing at a third Winter Olympics, after also participating at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014.

Earlier in Beijing 2022, Rumyantsev finished sixth in the men’s 5,000 metres and fifth in the men’s 10,000 metres.

His best individual performance on the international stage came at the 2021 World Single Distance Championships in Heerenveen, where he won a bronze medal.

Rumyantsev took up speed skating at the age of 11 in Arkhangelsk, but had to contend with extremely cold temperatures, which sometimes dropped to -30 degrees Celsius.

The third member of the squad is Sergei Trofimov, who is competing in a second Olympics after finishing 18^th in the men’s 1500 metres at Pyeongchang.

Earlier in Beijing Trofimov finished eighth in the men’s 1500 metres and fourth in the men’s 5,000 metres.

Trofimov’s best World Cup result came in 2018 at Obihiro in Japan, when he was part of the line-up that won gold in the team pursuit.

Speed skating runs in the family of Trofimov, who took up the sport at the age of 14.

His father Sergey Trofimov and mother Irina Lvovna both competed in the sport at national level, while his partner Darya Beskrovnykh won three medals at Russian National Championships in team competitions.

The fourth member of the squad is Ruslan Zakharov, who won gold at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games in the 5,000 metres short track speed skating relay.

After transitioning to long track speed skating, Zakharov’s best international results previously came at two World Cups - at Obihiro, Japan in November 2018 and Nagano, Japan in December 2019.

Zakharov switched from short track to long track after being relegated to the Russian Federation short track B team.

Earlier in Beijing, he finished 14^th and 15^th respectively in the men’s 5,000 metres and 1500 metres. 

The quartet of Alexey Chervotkin, Alexander Bolshunov, Denis Spitsov and Sergey Ustiugov secured a convincing victory after 1 hour 54min 50.7sec at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre.

Runners-up Norway were more than a minute behind.

It marked the ROC's seventh overall medal in the sport at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Chervotkin exploded out of the gate to give his team a substantial 23.5sec lead over Germany, who were second at the time.

The ROC team never looked back and had an advantage of almost a minute by the halfway mark.

Bolshunov, Chervotkin and Spitsov were all part of the Olympic Athletes from Russia team at Pyeongchang 2018 that won silver in the event, while Ustiugov's last team appearance at the Games was at Sochi 2014.

Chervotkin was experiencing his best season in the Cross-Country World Cup and had podiumed twice, with a silver and bronze finish in Rukatunturi and Val di Fiemme, respectively.

Bolshunov went into the race in fine form, having won gold in the individual 30km skiathlon.

The 25-year-old won four medals in the last Winter Olympics, with silvers in the 50km classical, team sprint freestyle and 4x10km relay as well as a bronze in the men's sprint classical.

Twice the overall World Cup champion, Bolshunov is the star of Russian cross-country skiing.

Spitsov followed behind Bolshunov in Beijing to win the 30km skiathlon silver, to add to three second-place finishes at Pyeongchang 2018.

Ustiugov is a former skiathlon and team sprint world champion with more than a dozen World Cup victories to his name, as well as a Tour de Ski title.

The quartet of Yulia Stupek, Natalia Nepryaeva, Tatiana Sorina and Veronika Stepanova claimed victory at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in a time of 53min 41sec.

Coming into the final leg, Germany had a narrow advantage over the ROC team, before Stepanova produced a strong leg to move clear of her rivals and give the ROC quartet victory by 18.2 seconds.

The first-leg skier Stupek claimed a third Olympic medal with this triumph in Beijing, adding to bronzes at Pyeongchang in 2018 in the women’s 4x5km relay and the women’s individual sprint.

Her best World Championship performance came at Oberstdorf in 2021 when she won a silver as part of the women’s 4x5km relay.

Stupek has contested three individual cross-country events at Beijing 2022, with her best performance a seventh-place finish in the women’s 10km classic.

For second-leg skier Nepryaeva this is her second medal at Beijing 2022, following a silver in the women’s 15km skiathlon.

Nepryaeva was also part of the quartet that won bronze in Pyeongchang 2018 in the same discipline, as well as World Championship silver in this event at Oberstdorf in 2021.

For third-leg skier Sorina the triumph is her first Olympic medal, with the 27-year-old also part of the quartet that won silver at the World Championships last year.

Sorina’s best World Cup performance so far this season came as part of the 4x5km relay team at Lillehammer in December 2021.

She is coached by her husband Egor Sorin, who is also a cross-country skier, and the pair are affectionately known as a glamour couple of ski sport in Russia.

For final-leg skier Stepanova this is also her first Olympic medal.

The 21-year-old’s best World Cup performance this season came as part of the 4x5km relay team that won gold at Lillehammer.

Stepanova was introduced to skiing at the age of seven and joined the national cross-country skiing team in the summer of 2021.

Speaking after the race, Sorina said: "I did not expect that Germany would be there together with us, so I wanted to create a better situation for Veronika.

"I managed to create a gap between the Swedes and the Norwegians, so I was sure that Veronika would be able to do her best and earn gold."

Stepanova added: "I was warming up and I was already calculating that the first leg would be ordinary and then we would have to solve the problem.

"We decided to follow the coach's plan and everything worked out."

Nepryaeva completed the course at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in a time of 44 min 43.9sec, 30 seconds behind the race winner Therese Johaug of Norway.

There was a real battle for silver with Nepryaeva claiming second place by just 0.3 seconds from bronze medallist Teresa Stadlober of Austria.

Nepryaeva’s silver in Beijing is her second Olympic medal, following on from a bronze in the women’s 4x5 kilometres relay at Pyeongchang in 2018.

Nepryaeva’s best World Championship performance came last year, when she won silver in Oberstdorf, Germany, in the women’s 4x5 kilometres relay.

In the run-up to Beijing 2022, Nepryaeva won the Tour de Ski, held over six stages and part of the current Cross-Country World Cup season.

Nepryaeva won two stages on her way to victory in the Tour de Ski, stage four in Oberstdorf, the women’s 1.2 kilometres sprint classic, and stage five in Val Di Fiemme, Italy, the women’s 10 kilometres mass start classic.

Skiing runs in the Nepryaeva family, with her parents Irina and Mikhail both former skiers, and Irina a former member of the Russian national cross-country team.

Nepryaeva was introduced to skiing by her parents at the age of three, and started training at the age of seven, being coached by her mother Irina until the age of 15.

Spitsov finished behind compatriot Alexander Bolshunov who triumphed by more than a minute in the event, contested at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre.

He ended 50 seconds clear of the bronze medal position, and was grateful for that gap as he slipped in the latter stages of the race, but quickly regained his footing and secured second place, before celebrating with Bolshunov.

Spitsov completed the gruelling race in 1hr 17min 20.8secs, with his silver in Beijing adding to the three he won in Pyeongchang in 2018.

In Pyeongchang, Spitsov won silvers in the 4x10 kilometres relay and team sprint, while he also earned bronze in the 15 kilometres freestyle.

He also finished fourth in the men’s 30 kilometres skiathlon event at Pyeongchang.

Spitsov came into Beijing 2022 in good form after winning his first individual World Cup event during the Tour de Ski at Val di Fiemme in Italy last month, when he triumphed in the men’s 10 kilometres mass start discipline.

Spitsov took up cross-country skiing in 2006 at a youth sports school in Vozhega, after deciding he preferred winter sports to football.

The ROC team finished second in a landmark result for Russian sport, behind Slovenia and ahead of bronze medallists Canada.

The last time a Russian athlete had won an Olympic ski jumping medal under any guise was at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, when Vladimir Belousov - representing the Soviet Union - claimed the individual large hill title.

At Beijing 2022, the ROC silver medal was down to consistency and an ability to follow the rules.

As many of their rivals fell foul of suit regulations, the ROC quartet stuck to their task and and Klimov led the way, producing the team's best score in both rounds of the competition.

Klimov jumped 100.5 and 103.0 metres, earing 126.5 and then 130.6 points.

The 28-year-old was one of the team's more experienced athletes and a three-time podium finisher on the Ski Jumping World Cup circuit.

Klimov's lone World Cup win came at Polish venue Wisla in November 2018.

Avvakumova, 30, had 12 individual World Cup podiums to fall back on, including a home win at Chaikovsky in January 2014.

Nineteen-year-old Makhinia and 18-year-old Sadreev are considerably less experienced, but now Olympic silver medallists nonetheless.

For Makhinia, the medal matches the colour of the one she earned in the women's team ski jumping event at the 2021 Nordic World Ski Championships.

Nikita Katsalapov, aged 30, was the only previous Olympic gold medallist, winning the team event and adding an ice dancing bronze at Sochi 2014.

His ice dancing partner at Beijing 2022 was 26-year-old Victoria Sinitsina.

They are the reigning ice dancing European world champions, and were part of the Russian side which won the International Skating Union's World Team Trophy in 2021.

The pair picked up nine points in the both qualifying and the final of team event at Beijing 2022 for the ROC.

In the women's singles element, 15-year-old Valieva became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at an Olympic Games.

She was crowned junior world champion in 2020 and European champion in Tallinn a month before the Winter Olympics.

Valieva contributed 20 points to the ROC's total in the team event after topping scoring in qualifying and the final.

The 18-year-old Mark Kondratiuk earned men's singles gold at the European Championships, and collected eight points from qualifying and nine from the final in the team event in the Chinese capital.

Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, aged 20 and 22, respectively, completed a Russian clean sweep at the European Championships, and they came out in top in the pairs final in the team event to amass a further 19 points.

They won gold at the World Junior Championships together in 2019, and featured for Russia in the successful World Team Trophy campaign in 2021.

The ROC finished with a total of 74 points in the team event at the Winter Olympics, nine clear of closest challengers the United States.

He led an ROC one-two at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre, leading for most of the race and finishing in a time of 1 hour 16min 9.8sec.

The Olympic champion was 1:11.0 clear of compatriot Denis Spitsov, who secured a first medal at the Games by finishing second, and the pair celebrated together at the finishing line.

After clinching gold, Bolshunov conveyed his pride in his success.

"My emotions cannot be expressed," he said. 

"I still have not realised that I am truly an Olympic champion. 

"This last month, I believed in myself a lot and understood that I had to become an Olympic champion and I'm especially happy that I was able to do it here in the first race."

Bolshunov won a second gold medal on the penultimate day of competition in Beijing in the men's 50 kilometres mass start free.

In a race shortened to 30km due to weather conditions, Bolshunov triumphed in a time of 1:11.32, claiming victory by 5.5 seconds from compatriot Ivan Yakimushkin.

It was a second victory over the distance for Bolshunov following his earlier win in the 30 kilometres skiathlon.

Bolshunov also won a silver medal in the men's 15 kilometres classic, in a time of 38min 18sec.

Bolshunov finished 23.2 seconds behind Finland's Iivo Niskanen.

Niskanen had led in the men's 30 kilometres skiathlon, before being overtaken by Bolshunov, who went on to claim gold in the discipline.   

The 25-year-old Bolshunov travelled to Beijing 2022 as the reigning world champion in the discipline after his triumph in Oberstdorf last year, where he also collected silvers in the men's 50km classical and the 4x10km relay and a bronze in the team sprint.

At the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang four years ago, Bolshunov won four medals in cross-country skiing.

Bolshunov placed second in the men's 50km classical, team sprint freestyle and 4x10km relay and third in the men's sprint classical.

He is the overall Cross-Country World Cup champion from the last two seasons, and has topped the distance standings for the last three.

Back-to-back Tour de Ski titles are also included on his list of honours, although Bolshunov had to settle for second place this season.

Going into Beijing 2022, he again leads the distance rankings and sits second overall in the World Cup behind perennial Johannes Høsflot Klæbo from Norway.

Bolshunov's first World Cup victory came in March 2018.

The volleyball team came through a difficult group and dispatched some dangerous teams on their way to their sixth medal since Sydney 2000.

Placed in Pool B, the Russian team won five of their six group games to top the standings, winning 13 of the 18 sets played. 

They led defending champions Brazil, who beat them in the semi-finals in Rio, and eventual winners France. 

In the knockout stages, the side beat Canada 3-0 in sets, avenged their defeat to Brazil with a 3-1 win and then fell one set short against France in the final.

In the final, Russia's team valiantly battled back from two sets down to draw the contest level.

However, France pulled clear in the fifth set, ultimately securing the final set 15-12.

The team was lead by Maksim Mikhaylov.

The 33-year-old was a part of the bronze medal-winning team at Beijing 2008, the gold medal-winning London 2012 Russian team, and the fourth-placed finishers in Rio, five years ago.

Mikhaylov started playing volleyball in the Leningrad region and was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) at the 2011 International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) World Cup.

He was also the highest scorer at London 2012 as Russia won gold.

Artem Volvich, 31, was named Best Middle Blocker at Rio 2016 and followed up that form on this occasion. 

Volvich won gold at the 2013 Summer Universiade and has won three European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) Champions League gold medals throughout his career.

Igor Kobzar was the only other over 30-year-old in the squad. 

The 30-year-old Kyrgyz-born setter won gold in the 2018 and 2019 FIVB Nations Leagues with Russia and has won five Russian Championships, one with Belogorie Belgorod, three with Zenit Kazan and a final one with Kuzbass Kemerovo in the 2018-2019 season.

Dmitry Volkov, 26, was a part of the Rio 2016 team.

He enjoyed a dominant junior career, winning gold at the FIVB Under-19 World Championships in 2013, the CEV Under-20 European Championships in 2014, and the Under-21 and Under-23 FIVB World Championships in 2015.

Another 26-year-old, Ivan Iakovlev plays as a middle blocker. 

Iakovlev won the CEV Cup with his club side Zenit Saint Petersburg.

For Pavel Pankov, 25, volleyball runs in the family. 

His mother, Marina Pankova, is an Olympic champion from Seoul 1988, while his sister, Ekaterina Kosianenko, also plays for the Russian women's national team.

Pankov is another youth star, having won multiple world and European junior championships, including being named the MVP in the World Youth Championships in 2013, the Youth European Championships in 2014 and the Youth World Championships in 2015.

Another dominant performer at junior level, Viktor Poletaev made his Olympic debut in Tokyo.

The 26-year-old was named the MVP of the 2013 CEV Under-19 European Championships, which Russia won, and the 2013 FIVB U21 World Championships, which Russia also won.

In all, Poletaev won two world youth golds and two European youth golds.

Denis Bogdan, 24, and Yaroslav Podlesnykh are both outside hitters playing for Dynamo Moscow.

The Belarusian-born Bogdan moved from Fakel Novy Urengoy to Moscow at the end of the 2020-2021 season. 

Podlesnykh, 26, moved from Kuzbass Kemerovo to Moscow before the 2020-2021 season, helping Moscow win the Russian Championship.

Another Belarusian-born star, Egor Kliuka, also 26, plays for Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Like many of his team mates, he was a member of the 2015 FIVB Under-23 World Championship-winning Russian team, in which he was named the MVP, and the 2015 Summer Universiade. 

Kliuka was joined in the 2015 Summer Universiade-winning team by Ilyas Kurkaev.

The 27-year-old won gold at the FIVB Under-21 World Championships in 2013 and helped his domestic side Lokomotiv Novosibirsk to the Russian Championship in 2019-2020.

The final member of the 12-man team is Valentin Golubev.

The 29-year-old libero won a gold medal with Russia in the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League. 

Right back Anna Vyakhireva was named as the competition's Most Valuable Player in addition to her spot on the all-star team.

She was the third-highest scorer at the tournament with 43 goals.

The Volgograd native was a member of the undefeated gold medal-winning side at Rio 2016.

She also plays domestically for Rostov-Don, who won the Russian Women's Handball Super League title five times in the past seven years.

She is known as the Handball Messi.

Her older sister, Polina Kuznetsova, also played in Tokyo and was named on the all-star team at left wing.

Like her sister, she too turns out for Rostov-Don and was a member of the all-star team at the 2012 European Women's Handball Championship.

The veteran has made 157 appearances for her country since 2005, scoring 419 goals in a glittering career.

Goalkeeper Anna Sedoykina played in all eight matches at Tokyo 2020.

The CSKA Moscow shot stopper won the 2009 World Championship as well as a bronze 10 years later in Japan.

The 37-year-old has made 168 appearances for her country, making her the most experienced member of the team.

Left winger Polina Gorshkova mainly played second fiddle to Vyakhireva at the Games but still provided valuable contributions off the bench on the way to the final.

She won the Russian Super League once in 2008 and the Russian Cup in 2006, both with Handball Club Lada.

Gorshkova now plays for CSKA Moscow and helped them to their first-ever league title in the 2020-2021 season.

Daria Dmitrieva is another CSKA Moscow player who featured this summer.

The centre back won gold at Rio 2016 and was named in the all-star team.

She has made 104 national team appearances since her debut in 2013.

After winning gold at the 2013 European Junior Championships in Denmark, the 25-year-old was considered to be one of the most promising young players, alongside Vyakhireva.

Utility player Anna Sen mainly played at left back throughout the tournament but can also be deployed at right back or pivot.

She is currently playing her second stint at Rostov-Don after spending three years with the team between 2011 and 2014.

The Krasnodar-born played a season with Győri Audi ETO KC before returning to Russia.

Polina Vedekhina is another CSKA Moscow player, following her move from Lada Togliatti in 2019.

She was named the best defensive player of the 2011 European Under-17 Championship in 2011.

Making her national team debut in 2015, she has gone on to score 100 goals in 47 appearances.

Vladlena Bobrovnikova was also a Rio 2016 gold medallist.

The left back was in the all-star team for the 2020 European Championships.

She has played for Rostov-Don since 2012 and has 202 goals in 78 games for Russia.

Kseniya Makeyeva made her national debut in 2009 when she was 18, racking up 159 appearances.

The pivot has won the World Championship, European Handball Federation Cup, the Romanian Championship and silver medals in the European Championship and now Olympic Games.

Elena Mikhaylichenko is one of Russia's upcoming handball stars.

The 19-year-old was included in a list of the twenty best young handballers by the European Handball Federation (EHF).

Olga Fomina is a right winger currently playing for HC Lada.

The Samara-born player has scored 276 times for Russia in 135 appearances since 2010.

Yekaterina Ilyina was one of Russia's key players at Tokyo 2020 and was the fifth highest goal scorer of the tournament with 49.

The CSKA Moscow centre back was named Most Valuable Player of the Russian Super League for the 2020-2021 season.

Yulia Managarova was born in Dnipro and played for the Ukrainian national team until 2014.

However, she stated that since the 2014 Ukrainian crisis, handball in Ukraine has been in a poor state, mostly due to financial difficulties.

She has played for Rostov-Don since 2013.

Antonina Skorobogatchenko is a right back for Russia and has made 42 appearances since 2016.

The 22-year-old has shown a lot of promise for the future.

She was named the all-star right back of the 2015 U17 European Championship, 2016 Junior World Championship and the 2016 Youth World Championship.

Goalkeeper Victoriya Kalinina was also a gold medallist at Rio 2016 and has made 101 appearances for her country.

The team of five consisted of Anastasia Bliznyuk, Anastasiia Maksimova, Angelina Shkatova, Anastasiia Tatareva and Alisa Tishchenko.

In the final, they finished second to Bulgaria in the first rotation – the five balls – to the tune of Prince Igor: Polovtsian tancis khorom performed by the Symphony Orchestra of State Moscow Philharmonique and narrowly missed out on first place in the three hoops and two pairs of clubs, accompanied by Ruslan and Lyudmila performed by the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation.

Maksimova is the most senior of the quintet aged 30. 

She won gold in the all-around event at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and was also part of gold-medal winning teams at the World Championships in Stuttgart in 2015 and Baku in 2019, which are among her seven golds won at a World Championships.

Earlier this year at the Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships in Varna in Bulgaria, Maksimova clinched gold in the group all-around and team all-around competitions.

Twenty-seven-year-old Bliznyuk has won gold in the previous two Olympic Games, having been part of victorious groups at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

She also shared Maksimova’s success at the European Championships in Varna and has won three golds across her two appearances at the World Championships.

Tatareva is the third member of the group who also finished first in the all-around at Rio 2016.

She boasts six gold medals at four World Championships, with three gold medals at the European Championships in Varna in 2021 and Guadalajara in Spain in 2018 among her impressive list of honours.

Shkatova and Tishchenko were both making their Olympic debuts in the Japanese capital.

Twenty-year-old Shkatova has enjoyed great success since making her national debut, winning her first World Cup event in the group all-around at Pesaro in Italy this year, on top of golds in the group all-around and team all-around at the European Championships in Varna.

Tishchenko was making her Olympic bow at the age of 17, although she had already been awarded the title of Master of Sport of International Class in the Russian Federation in 2019, the same year in which she won gold in the team all-around event at the Junior European Championships in Baku.

She also won four gold medals at junior level in the World Championships and European Championships in 2019.

After qualifying for the final with a jump of 1.95 metres on her third attempt in group B, Lasitskene was the only jumper to clear 2.04m, beating off competition from Australia’s Nicola McDermott and Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh to claim gold.

This was the 28-year-old’s first appearance at an Olympic Games after missing Rio 2016, but she has dominated the sport in recent years.

She has won gold at the last three World Athletics Championships in Beijing in 2015, London in 2017 and Doha in 2019, the latter meaning she is the first high jumper ever to win three gold medals at the competition.

She is also a two-times world indoor champion, most recently at Birmingham in 2018, won gold at the European Indoor Championships at Glasgow 2019 and is the reigning European champion from Berlin 2018.

Her personal best is 2.06m, which she achieved at a Diamond League event in Lausanne in 2017.

From July 2016 to June 2018, Lasitskene won a staggering 45 consecutive events.

Born in Prokhladny, she started high jump training in 2001 and burst onto the international stage at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010, claiming gold with a jump of 1.89m.

Lasitskene has been awarded several honours and titles, including being named Female Rising Star by European Athletics in 2014, Female Athlete of the Year at the Pride of Russia awards in 2019 and joint-European Athlete of the Year by European Athletics in 2019.

She is also Honourable Citizen of Prokhladny as of 2018 and Honoured Master of Sport in the Russian Federation.

Sadulaev had won gold in the freestyle 86kg at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 but moved up a weight division in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

He did not drop a point en route to the final, breezing past Sharif Sharifov of Azerbaijan in a 5-0 victory by points and Georgia’s Elizbar Odikadze in a 10-0 victory by technical superiority.

He had too much for Cuba’s Reineris Salas Perez in a 4-0 victory by points, before a dominant performance in the final against the United States’ Kyle Frederick Snyder delivered a 6-3 victory by points and another gold medal.

The 25-year-old is nicknamed ‘The Russian Tank’, and he has dominated his wrestling events since making his senior debut at the age of 15.

Sadulaev won gold at the United World Wrestling (UWW) World Championships in the freestyle 86kg category at Tashkent 2014 and Los Angeles 2015.

He suffered a rare defeat to Snyder in the final of the 97kg event at Paris 2017 to earn silver, but avenged his defeat the following year in Budapest and then retained his world title at Nur-Sultan in 2019.

At the European Championships, Sadulaev won three consecutive gold medals - in the freestyle 92kg at Kaspiysk in 2018 and freestyle 97kg at Bucharest 2019 and Rome 2020.

Sadulaev was awarded the Order of Friendship in the Russian Federation for his gold at Rio 2016, and he also holds the title of Honoured Master of Sport in the Russian Federation.

The Olympic champion began training in his home town of Tsurib at the age of 10.

He is the fourth Russian wrestler to win gold at Tokyo 2020, following on from Musa Evloev in the men’s Greco-Roman 97kg, and freestylers Zavur Uguev in the 57kg and Zaurbek Sidakov in the 74kg.

In a dominant performance, the group scored 196.0979 across the technical and free routines. 

China finished second, more than two and a half points in arrears. 

The team also recorded the highest score in both disciplines, 97.2979 in the technical routine and 98.8000 in the free routine.

Russia has won every artistic swimming team gold since Sydney 2000.

Leading the team was Romashina, 31, and Kolesnichenko, 27, who won the duet event earlier in the Games. 

The former has now won gold medals at four successive Olympics, including three successive duet titles at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and four successive team golds. 

She is now a seven-times gold medallist, becoming the most successful artistic swimmer in Olympic history.

Kolesnichenko has also won multiple gold medals at five World Championships, including at Gwangju 2019, when she won the solo technical routine, duet technical routine, duet free routine and free combination categories.

She was named the International Swimming Federation Female Artistic Swimmer of the Year in 2017, before sharing the award with Romashina in 2019.

Chigireva is 26 and made her international debut in 2013.

She was part of the team that won gold in Rio and helped her country to finish first in the team free routine and team technical routine at the last four International Swimming Federation (FINA) World Championships, also clinching gold in the free routine combination at Barcelona 2013, Kazan 2015 and Gwangju 2019.

Chigireva was also part of the team technical routine which became European champions at Budapest in 2020.

Twenty-four-year-old Goliadkina was making her Olympics debut but had already won five gold medals at the World Championships in Budapest in 2017 and Gwangju in 2019 across the team technical routine, team free routine and free routine combination.

Goliadkina also won three gold medals at the European Aquatics Championships in Glasgow in 2018 and Budapest in 2020.

The team’s youngest artistic swimmer was 21-year-old Polina Komar, who made her national debut in 2017.

Komar continued her unblemished record on the highest stage on her first appearance at the Olympics, having already earned five gold medals at the World Championships and three at the European Championships.

Patskevich, 32, is a more experienced Olympian, having also secured gold at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

She debuted at the 2009 World Championships in Rome, where she won gold in the team free routine and team technical routine.

She did likewise at Shanghai 2011, Barcelona 2013 and Kazan 2015, also triumphing in the free routine combination at all three championships, while victories in the duet technical routine and freestyle routine at Budapest 2017 took her World Championships gold medal tally up to 13.

Shishkina, also 32, has also won her third Olympic gold medal and was part of the gold-medal winning teams at the World Championships with Patskevich, winning 14 golds in all.

She took a break from the sport after Rio 2016, before winning gold in the team technical routine and free routine and free routine combination at Gwangju 2019.

Victory at Budapest in 2020 means she has a European Championships gold to go with her 14 from the World Championships.

Shurochkina picked up her second gold medal in as many Olympic Games.

Since making her debut in 2013, the 26-year-old has also won 11 World Championships golds and three European Championships golds.

The 25-year-old dominated the competition throughout, winning both his semi-final and final without conceding a point.

Sidakov claimed gold at the expense of Belarus' Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau.

Sidakov took a 1-0 lead into the interval, before taking charge after the restart, winning 7-0 in the end.

On his way to the final, Sidakov thrashed Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Kaisanov 11-0 in the semi-final, again enjoying a very strong second period in which he won 10 unanswered points.

Sidakov’s closest match was the quarter-final against Bekzod Abdurakhmonov of Uzbekistan, which he won 13-6, while his first bout of the Olympics saw him defeat Augusto Midana of Guinea-Bissau 12-2.

As with his compatriots Zavur Uguev and Musa Evloev, who have also won wrestling golds in the Japanese capital, Sidakov was making his Olympic debut.

He had, however, built up a strong reputation in the sport as the two-times and reigning freestyle 74kg world champion, triumphing at Budapest 2018 and Nur-Sultan 2019.

Sidakov also won gold at the European Games in Minsk in 2019 and regained his Russian National Freestyle Wrestling Championships title in March 2021, winning the event for the third time after having to settle for bronze in 2020.

Russia won gold at the Wrestling World Cup in 2019, with Sidakov a key part of the team.

The Olympic champion started wrestling aged seven in Beslan and has been awarded the title of Honoured Master of Sport in the Russian Federation.

He dominated the first period against his opponent, leading 4-2 at the interval, and went on to notch an eventual 7-4 victory.

The 26-year-old saw off the United States’ Thomas Patrick Gilman in his first fight, before edging past Uzbek Gulomjon Abdullaev in the quarter-final.

The semi-final then saw him dominate Iran’s Reza Atrinagharchi in an eventual 8-3 win.

Uguev was appearing at his first Olympic Games in the Japanese capital, but arrived as a two-time and reigning world champion after claiming gold at Budapest in 2018 and Nur-Sultan in 2019. in the men’s freestyle 57kg category.

He also secured a bronze medal at the European Games in Minsk in 2019.

The wrestler from the city of Khasavyurt in Dagestan is also a four-time Russian champion in his division.

Uguev has now medalled at his last 16 tournaments, including six consecutive golds starting from the World Championships in 2019.

He is undefeated since his semi-final loss to eventual winner Mahir Amiraslanov of Azerbaijan at the European Games.

Uguev was awarded the title of Honoured Master of Sport in the Russian Federation in December 2019.

His wrestling gold followed the success of his compatriot Musa Evloev in the men's Greco-Roman 87kg category.

In a terrific contest, Batyrgaziev was awarded the first two rounds by four of the five judges, with three of the cards having him leading 20-18 while the other two had the fight as a draw.

Four of the judges awarded the final round to Ragan, with Batyrgaziev claiming gold after being declared winner by three of the five judges.

Batyrgaziev had defeated the Dominican Republic’s Alexy Miguel de la Cruz Baez on a unanimous points decision in his first bout of the Games, and followed it up with split-decision wins against Mongolia’s Tsendbaatar Erdenebat and Cuba’s Lázaro Álvarez in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.

Prior to the Games, the 23-year-old had been beaten by Álvarez at the quarter-final stage of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) World Boxing Championships in Yekaterinburg in 2019.

He made his professional debut in July 2020, and triumphed at the European Qualification Tournament for Tokyo 2020 in London.

Batyrgaziev was previously a kickboxer, where he won gold medals at under-18 level in the World Championships and European Championships, before focusing on boxing from 2016.

Born in Babayurt in Dagestan, Batyrgaziev has previously spoken of how a boxing career had been his dream from an early age.

He has also been awarded the title of Master of Sport of International Class in the Russian Federation.

He can now add a gold on Olympic debut to his list of honours.

Kolesnichenko and Romashina scored 195.9079 points on their way to winning the first artistic swimming gold of Tokyo 2020, performing a routine to famous Russian folk song Kalinka.

Kolesnichenko and Romashina led the competition after the first day’s technical routine, and also scored the highest marks on the second day in the free routine as they claimed gold in convincing fashion.

Kolesnichenko, 27, won gold in the team event at Rio 2016, and has also won multiple gold medals at five World Championships, including at Gwangju 2019, when she won the solo technical routine, duet technical routine, duet free routine and free combination categories.

At the 2020 European Championships, Kolesnichenko won the duet technical routine, duet free routine and team technical routine categories in Budapest, Hungary.

Kolesnichenko, who took up the sport at the age of seven, has won the award of International Swimming Federation Female Artistic Swimmer of the Year twice, in 2017 and 2019, when she shared the award with Romashina.

Away from the water, she enjoys spending time with her dogs, and entering them into dog shows.

Romashina, 31, has now won gold medals at four successive Olympics, including three successive duet titles at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

She has won team gold at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, and both Romashina and Kolesnichenko were a part of the successful team event later in the Games.

Romashina has won multiple gold medals at six World Championships, including in the solo free, duet technical, duet free and free combination categories at Gwangju 2019.

Romashina also won three gold medals at the last European Championships in 2020, in the duet technical, duet free and team free routines.

She began training in artistic swimming at the age of six after being asked to choose between artistic swimming and dancing.

Away from competing and training, Romashina’s hobbies include fishing, gathering mushrooms, sailing and helping stray animals.

Evloev was the number one seed entering the competition and dispatched with Giorgi Melia of Georgia, Alex Gergo Szoke of Hungary, and Tadeusz Michalik of Poland on the way to the gold medal. 

In the final, Evloev beat his great rival Aleksanyan 5-1.

Across the four fights, Evloev scored 21 points and conceded just one.

After the triumph, he said: "I am very happy, this is a great victory for me," as reported by TASS, Russia's official state news agency.

"Thank you very much to everyone who was rooting for me. 

"I am overwhelmed with joy, I am very grateful to my coach.

"I fought here with very serious wrestlers, the opponent in the final was very strong.

"Thanks to him."

The 28-year-old was born in the Republic of Ingushetia.

He won his first of two world titles in 2018, going one better than his silver medal the year prior. 

In 2019, Evloev defended his world title. 

He followed that success up with European titles in 2019 and 2021. 

Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev squandered four match points and staved off one in a thrilling super tie-break as they eventually won 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 13-11.

Rublev was ranked seventh in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals during Tokyo 2020.

In his singles career, he has reached the quarter-finals of the Australian, French and US Opens.

He reached the fourth round at Wimbledon earlier in 2021.

He was born in Moscow in October 1997, and his father was a former professional boxer and his mother a tennis coach at the Spartak Tennis Club.

She worked with the likes of Anna Kournikova.

Born in Samara, Pavlyuchenkova also has a sporting family.

Her father was a rower, her mother was a swimmer and her brother, Alexander, played professional tennis, reaching a career-high ranking of 705.

The 30-year-old was ranked 18^th in the world by the Women's Tennis Association during the Olympics.

She reached the final of the French Open in June 2021 but lost 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 to Barbora Krejčíková.

In her career, she has also reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open three times as well as the same stage in the US Open and Wimbledon.

In a repeat of the women’s foil team fencing final, France were once again beaten 45-41, following on from victories over South Korea by 45 points to 26 in the semi-final and a 45-34 triumph over hosts Japan in the quarter-final.

The trio who fought each bout became European champions in team sabre in Düsseldorf in 2019, and world champions the following month in Budapest.

Pozdniakova and Velikaya were part of the gold-medal winning team at the 2018 European Championships in Novi Sad in 2018, and silver medallists at the World Championships in Wuxi in the same year.

Velikaya, now 36, is the most experienced member of the team, having also been part of a gold medal triumph in the team sabre event at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The world number two in women’s sabre also boasts a number of individual honours.

She earned a silver medal at the last two World Championships and clinched gold at the event at Catania 2011 and Moscow 2015.

Velikaya finished on the podium six times at the World Championships in the individual sabre event, which goes alongside three consecutive silver medals at the Olympic Games.

She served as the flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony of Tokyo 2020 and was named Female Athlete of the Year in the Russian Federation in 2015.

Pozdniakova’s success was the 24-year-old’s second gold medal at her first Olympic Games, having defeated her compatriot Velikaya 15-11 in the individual sabre final.

Since making her international debut in 2017, the Russian fencer has already won gold at the 2018 World Championships in individual sabre to go with her team gold from the following year, and her exemplary record has continued in both sabre events in Tokyo.

Both of her parents were also professional fencers - her father Stanislav winning four Olympic gold medals, including in the men’s individual and team sabre at Atlanta 1996.

He is also a 10-time world champion and 13-time European champion and has served as President of the Russian Olympic Committee since 2018.

The youngest member of the team is Nikitina, making her Olympics debut at 22.

She is ranked 11th in the world and was part of the team sabre success at the European and World Championships in 2019.

In the same year, she earned gold in Wuhan at the Military World Games, both in the team foil and team sabre events.

Nikitina started out as a figure skater, before turning to fencing and making her international debut in 2016.

Sheveleva also featured in the team of four as a reserve, but the three bouts were all fought by her team-mates.

The 24-year-old is ranked 54th in the world and is the team’s only left-hander.

She earned a bronze medal in the individual sabre event at the 2018 European Championships and was part of a gold-medal winning team at the 2016 World Junior Championships.

Following a tie between the pair in the final, An - who broke the Olympic record in the ranking round - was closest to the centre with her single arrow.

Osipova ends her Tokyo 2020 campaign with two silver medals, adding an individual piece of silverware to the team medal she previously won with Svetlana Gomboeva and Ksenia Perova at the Games.

Earlier in 2021, Osipova was part of the team that won women's team recurve and mixed team recurve gold at the European Archery Championships.

At 28-years-old, she is also a team silver medallist from the 2019 Military World Games and a team bronze medallist from the 2017 Summer Universiade, but her achievements at Tokyo 2020 are by far her greatest successes to date.

She is ranked fourth in the world in women's recurve and made her international debut in 2013.

Before taking up the sport in 2010, Osipova played tennis for five years and took up archery after a senior national team coach came to her school, announcing they were setting up a group in the city of Taganrog where she was living.

Prakatsen, 28, the reigning European champion, claimed silver in a time of 7min 17.39sec, with her medal coming a day after compatriots Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia earned silver in the women’s pair.

Prakatsen is the first Russian since 1980 to win an Olympic medal in the single sculls discipline, when the feat was achieved by Antonina Makhina.

Prakatsen only transferred to the single sculls discipline this year and claimed some impressive results in the build-up to Tokyo 2020, winning single sculls gold at the European Championships in Varese, Italy and at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Before transferring to the single sculls, Prakatsen competed in the fours discipline for Russia.

Prakatsen, who took up the sport in 2005, only began competing for Russia in 2019, having previously represented Belarus until 2016 before changing her international allegiance.

The top seeds defeated third-seeded France 45-34 in the final, following a 45-42 semi-final win over the United States.

Both Korobeynikova and Deriglazova were part of the Russian team which won the silver medal at London 2012 in the same event, along with Aida Chanaeva and Kamila Gafurzyanova.

Deriglazova, 31, was the Olympic champion in the women's individual foil at Rio 2016 and claimed the silver medal in the same event at these Games, following a 15-13 defeat to American Lee Kiefer in the final. 

With the victory in 2016, Deriglazova became the first Russian Olympic champion in the women's individual foil since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Deriglazova is also a three-time world individual champion and two-time European individual champion.

Korobeynikova, 34, claimed bronze in the individual event at Tokyo 2020, defeating Italian Alice Volpi in the third-place play-off.

She is a three-time world champion in the team foil and has two European team foil titles to her name.

Zagidullina is a two-time team foil world champion, also holding two golds from the European Championships and a gold from the European Games.

Her crowning achievement as an individual athlete came at the 2015 European Games in Baku, where she won the bronze medal in the women's foil.

Martyanova is the youngest member of the team at 22 and was initially a reserve before replacing Zagidullina in the semi-finals against the US, keeping her place for the final.

Despite sustaining a foot injury in her first bout of the final against France, Zagidullina kept her team in front.

Zagidullina and Martyanova made their Olympic debuts in Tokyo, while Korobeynikova and Deriglazova both competed in their third Games.

The duo finished with a time of 6mins 51.45secs as they narrowly lost to New Zealand by 1.26 seconds.

This was the first event where they have competed in the pair, making the feat even more special.

Stepanova was born in Tver in 1993.

Her father is a rowing coach for CSKA Moscow and inspired her to get involved with the sport when she was 15-years-old.

As well as her silver, the 28-year-old won a bronze medal at the 2019 European Rowing Championships and gold at the 2014 World Under-23 Championships in the coxed eight and coxless four events respectively.

In 2014, she married Vasily Stepanov, another rower who has represented Russia at the 2021 European Championships and the 2018 and 2019 World Championships.

Oriabinskaia, who was born in Saint Petersburg, has won a wide array of medals throughout her career.

She has two World Championship bronze medals, one European Championship gold as well as three bronzes and a silver, and bronze at the World Under-23 Championships.

She had never heard of rowing before she started.

When she was at school a coach came in to recruit tall children and Oriabinskaia was immediately interested when she saw how "tall, strong and beautiful she was".

She graduated from the Kuban State University of Physical Education, Sport and Tourism in Krasnodar in 2021.

In a closely fought affair, Latvia eventually prevailed 21-18, although Russia competed hard and were in with a chance until the dying seconds.

Russia played 10 games in total and made a somewhat unexpected run to the final after initially winning three out of their seven pool matches.

However, knockout victories against the Netherlands and Serbia earned a gold medal game against Latvia.

Russia averaged 17.6 points per game throughout the tournament.

Karpenkov, Sharov and Pisklov were also on the team that won the gold medal at the 2019 European Games.

Karpenkov, born in Mineralnye Vody, has represented the Russian Federation in regular basketball and competed at the 2014 and 2015 European Under-18 Championships as well for Russian Super League 1 side Temp-SUMZ-UGMK Revda.

Alexander Zuev was a part of the team that won two consecutive 3x3 Under-23 World Cups in 2018, where he was named Most Valuable Player, and 2019.

He also plays in the Russian 3x3 Championship for Gagarin.

His partner, Ulyana Muller, plays ice hockey in the Russian Women's Hockey League.

Sharov played university basketball for six years before playing the sport at amateur level.

From there he was recruited into 3x3 basketball.

He has studied for a post-graduate degree at the Moscow State Academy of Physical Education and now plays for Gagarin alongside Zuev.

Pisklov has also played for the Russian Federation in five-on-five basketball, competing at the 2014 European Under-18 Championship.

The Chelyabinsk-born basketballer began playing 3x3 in 2017 and now turns out domestically for Uralmash in Yekaterinburg.

Russia have won both 3x3 tournaments at the European Games in 2015 and 2019 as well as a bronze medal at the 2014 FIBA 3x3 World Cup in Moscow.

The Russian team fought hard before being defeated 18-15 by red-hot favourites the United States, whose squad contained a host of players from the Women’s National Basketball Association.

The first member of the silver medal-winning team from Russia is Evgeniia Frolkina, 24, who plays as a small forward for the club Dynamo Kursk.

Her twin sister Olga Frolkina, 24, was part of the Russia squad that finished eighth at the 2019 European Games in Belarus.

Both of the Frolkina sisters tried swimming, volleyball and tennis before their mother, who also played basketball, enrolled them into the sport.

In an interview in the build-up to Tokyo 2020, the Frolkina sisters said they "just could not live without 3x3".

The third member of the silver-medal winning squad is Yulia Kozik, 24, who was also part of the squad that competed at the 2019 European Games.

Kozik represented the Russian Federation at 5-on-5 basketball and won bronze at three consecutive European Under 20 Championships from 2015 to 2017.

Kozik, who started playing basketball as a child at the age of nine, took up 3x3 basketball professionally in 2019.

The fourth member of the squad is Anastasiia Logunova, 31, who was part of the Russia team that finished in first place at the 2017 Women’s 3x3 World Cup in France.

Logunova was also part of the Russia team that finished in first place at the 2017 3x3 Europe Cup in The Netherlands.

Logunova, who began playing basketball while at school, competed at the 2015 and 2019 European Championships in the 5-on-5 discipline, while earlier in her career she won silver in women’s basketball at the 2013 Summer World University Games on home soil in Kazan.  

Larin beat North Macedonia's Dejan Georgievski 15-9 at the Makuhari Messe Hall A to claim the gold medal - having topped the world rankings in the category heading into the Olympics.

After winning gold, he said: "There are so many emotions that I have not yet fully realized what happened.

"Probably, understanding will come in a few days. 

"Now, I am overwhelmed with pride and joy for the team, for our country, for the work done. 

"I am grateful to all the guys in our team."

Larin was born on October 7 1995 in the village of Kotkozero, before moving to Petrozavodsk, the capital of Karelia, and taking up the sport of taekwondo in 2002 after first being interested in artistic gymnastics.

Larin broke onto the scene in 2015 with a bronze medal in the under-87kg category in the World Championships. 

A silver medal in the over-80kg category at the Baku 2015 European Games followed, and two months later, he won silver in the same division at the Moscow Grand Prix.

Larin then won gold in the under-87kg class at the European Championships in Montreux in 2016, before winning silver in the same class at the 2017 World Championships in Muju. 

The silver medal set him up for continued success in 2018 and beyond.

Of his six career Grand Prix victories, four came in the over-80kg category in 2018. 

Larin defended his European crown in the same year, before adding the under-87kg world title in 2019.

For winning gold at the 2019 World Championships in Manchester, Larin received an award for Contribution to Development of the Republic of Karelia in the Russian Federation.

Larin was also awarded the title of Honoured Master of Sport in the Russian Federation in 2016.

Before this year, no Russian had won an Olympic taekwondo title, but Larin's success followed Maksim Khramtsov winning the men's under-80kg category.

The women’s team triumph, which saw them hold off the United States by more than three points, came a day after their male compatriots earned gold.

After the victory, Melnikova said: "After the beam, it was very exciting, it became a little uncomfortable.

"Before the floor exercises, seeing that after gross mistakes we are still in the lead. 

"We somehow believed in ourselves and were able to do everything to the maximum.

"We are so exhausted that we cannot even stand and speak, our thoughts get confused. 

"We gave all our strength: physical and emotional. 

"After qualifying, we realised that anything is possible, that we are able to fight for the gold, and the victory of the guys the day before inspired us. 

"Previously, we could not even think about gold in the all-around."

Akhaimova is the first member of the successful women’s team.

Akhaimova was part of the Russia team that won gold at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow and also has two World Championship silver medals to her name.

The 24-year-old's best World Cup performance in an individual discipline came during the 2017-2018 season when she placed first in the floor exercise in Cottbus in Germany.

Akhaimova, who started the sport at the age of five, originally took up rhythmic gymnastics before switching to the artistic disciplines.

Listunova, 16, is the second successful member of the women’s team.

Listunova started competing at senior level earlier in 2021, winning the Russian National Championships in March.

A month later she made her senior international debut at the European Championships in Basel, winning individual all-around gold in Switzerland.

The third member of the victorious quartet is 21-year-old Melnikova.

Melnikova won team gymnastics silver at Rio 2016, and has twice won World Championship team gold at Doha 2018 and Stuttgart 2019.

In individual all-around competition, Melnikova won gold at the Minsk 2019 European Games and the Glasgow 2018 European Championships.

She also won individual all-around gold at the 2018 World Cup in Birmingham in England.

Melnikova took up gymnastics at the age of six and has also started her own leotard business.

The fourth member of the winning team is Urazova, 16, who became eligible to compete on the senior circuit in 2020, but did not do so due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Urazova’s senior debut came at the 2021 Russian National Championships, where she finished second behind Listunova.

Her senior international debut came during the 2021 European Championships, with her best performance coming on the uneven bars, when she earned a silver medal.

This was the first time Russian gymnasts have won the event since Atlanta 1996.

The ROC team won by the smallest of margins, finishing ahead of Japan by 0.103 points.

The winner of the event is determined by a combined score on six different gymnastics apparatus: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and the horizontal bar.

Nagornyy was born in Rostov-on-Don in 1997 and married fellow gymnast, Daria Spiridonova, in 2018.

He took up gymnastics when he was six, under the encouragement of his grandmother.

The 24-year-old competed at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing and established himself as a promising athlete, winning three gold medals in the pommel horse, rings and the parallel bars, in addition to a silver and bronze in the all-around and the vault respectively.

Across the Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships, Nagornyy has won 12 gold medals, four silvers and two bronzes, cementing his status as one of the world's best gymnasts.

Nagornyy is credited as the first gymnast to complete the triple back pike.

It is a move with a difficulty score of 0.9 and is only the second move with as high a difficulty score after The Miyachi.

Belyavskiy is an experienced gymnast born in 1992 in Votkinsk.

At Rio 2016, he won a silver and a bronze medal, before clinching the elusive gold this summer.

Across eight World Championship appearances, Belyavskiy has one gold, two silvers and one bronze.

Belyavskiy can put his gymnastics career down to the influence of his grandmother after she took him to a school where gymnastics and fitness were taught.

His teacher organised a fitness competition that he won and sent him to a gymnastics club.

From there, he was determined to become an Olympic champion.

For his performances at Rio 2016, Belyavskiy received the Order for Merits to the Fatherland.

He also holds the title of Honoured Master of Sport in the Russian Federation and was named Most Elegant Gymnast at the 2016 European Championships.

In 2017, the 29-year-old opened a gym in Yekaterinburg in Russia aimed at supporting young gymnasts.

The third member of the team, Ablyazin, was born in Penza and, prior to Tokyo 2020, had won five Olympic medals.

At London 2012, he won a silver in the vault and a bronze in the floor.

He followed that up with a bronze in the parallel bars and silver in the team event at Rio 2016.

When he was younger, Ablyazin was a keen ice hockey player and wanted to become a professional.

However, he tried multiple sports as a child and was set on gymnastics after winning a gold medal at a youth version of Spartakiad, a former international event sponsored by the Soviet Union.

In 2016, Ablyazin married former gymnast and two-times world champion Ksenia Semyonova, before separating two years later.

Last year, he opened a shop in Penza selling gymnastics equipment.

Dalaloyan, the final member of the ROC's victorious Olympic team, was born in Moldova to an Armenian father and a Moldovan mother before his parents moved to Novosibirsk in Russia.

At the 2018 World Championships, he won the all-around and floor titles, a silver in the team event and vault, and a bronze in the parallel bars.

He then won silver in the all-around in the 2019 World Championships, with a gold in the team event. 

He also won another silver in the vault and a bronze in the high bar.

Prior to Toko 2020, Dalaloyan suffered an injury to his Achilles tendon but still managed to compete in all six events.

The Tiraspol-born athlete competed at the 2017 World Championships despite having a broken foot.

However, he could not fight through a torn meniscus in his knee in 2016 that ruled him out of the Olympic Games.

Just like Russian sabre fencer Sofia Pozdniakova, Dalaloyan studied Sport and Tourism at the Smolensk State Academy of Physical Education.

Pozdniakova made her international debut in 2017 and has two gold medals and a silver to her name from both the World Championships and European Championships.

She won team gold in the 2018 and 2019 European Championships and the 2019 World Championships.

The most treasured of those medals would have been an individual gold from the World Championships in Wuxi - until an Olympic title came along.

Pozdniakova has fencing in her blood, as both of her parents were professional athletes in the sport.

Her father, Stanislav, is a four-time Olympic champion, 10-time world champion and 13-time European champion in the sabre competition.

He has also served as the President of the Russian Olympic Committee since 2018.

Her mother, Anastasia, is Master of Sports and secretary at the Fencing Federation of the Novosibirsk Oblast.

Born on June 17 1997 in Novosibirsk, as a child Pozdniakova was a keen swimmer and acrobatic gymnast but decided to follow in her parents' footsteps instead.

Her younger sister, Anna, has also represented her country in 3x3 basketball, winning gold at the 2018 Under-23 World Cup in Xian.

Pozdniakova studied Sport and Tourism at the Smolensk State Academy of Physical Education.

After her fencing career is over, she intends to become a sports journalist and is married to fellow fencer Konstantin Lokhanov.

The Novotroitsk native won gold in the 100m to blow his sixth-place finish at Rio 2016 out of the water.

He claimed bronze in the 200m backstroke at Rio 2016 but improved on that result this time around with a new Olympic record time of 1:53.27 to clinch his second gold in the Japanese capital.

"I swam at the maximum speeds for myself," said Rylov after the 100m gold. "The last metres were hard, my muscles were already cramping. 

"Klim was catching up, but I decided to turn on the maximum from the start. 

"I went all-in - and I was right! 

"It's very cool that we have gold and silver. 

"The Americans have never lost a back, and here we take the first two places from them. 

"The next challenge is to break Murphy's world record."

Rylov exploded onto the world scene at the 2014 Nanjing Summer Youth Olympics in China, where he achieved a total of four medals, three golds and one silver, and broke two junior world swimming records.

As well as his Olympic success, Rylov is a five-time world champion in the long and short course competitions.

The 24-year-old has also won four gold medals at the European Championships.

In 2019, he was a member of the inaugural International Swimming League, racing for the Energy Standard International Swim Club, who won the team title in Las Vegas in December.

His father, Mikhail, is a former footballer, playing for Russian second division side FK Orenburg.

As a child, Evgeny wanted to emulate his father by becoming a professional footballer but instead chose swimming.

Rylov is also a police sergeant of the Moscow Oblast Police in the town district of Lobnya.

The 24-year-old set an Olympic record on the way to winning the 10m title, scoring 240.3 in the final.

A silver in the mixed 10m air pistol followed in the Japanese capital.

After the mixed event, the shooter said: "In the individual final, perhaps, it was more difficult, because, in it, all the mistakes accumulate, overlap one another, because the points obtained are summed up,

"Here, after each shot, everything is reset to zero, and it becomes possible to level the situation.

"I hope the team finals were interesting for the audience, that they were able to enjoy our fight with the Chinese duo."

In the 25m air pistol final, Batsarashkina tied with South Korea's Kim Minjung on 38 points, before triumphing in a shoot-off to claim her second gold of Tokyo 2020.

Batsarashkina also won an individual silver in the 10m air pistol at her first Olympic Games, Rio 2016, aged 19.

The Omsk was awarded the Order for Merits to the Fatherland of the Russian Federation, as well as the title of Honoured Master of Sport in the Russian Federation after her achievements in Brazil.

She took up the sport when she was 12 years old after being introduced to shooting by her grandfathers, who were both avid hunters.

Aside from Olympic success, the Russian athlete has earned a plethora of medals during her career, including a mixed team gold at the 2018 World Championships in Chnagwon, three European Championship victories and a mixed team triumph at the 2019 European Games in Minsk.

Batsarashkina is hoping to get married later this year following plenty of planning.

Khramtcov switching from karate to taekwondo when he was five years old, and 18 years later is an Olympic champion.

The 23-year-old began his martial arts career when his parents enrolled him in karate.

However, he decided to switch to taekwondo as he was determined to compete in the Olympic Games.

Khramtcov's Tokyo 2020 victory is even more impressive considering he broke his arm in May.

In his first fight in Japan this summer, his injury relapsed and, by the end of the bout, the arm was completely swollen.

His mother also passed away six months before his triumph and the Russian dedicated the win to her after the fight.

The taekwondo fighter has had a glittering career and is highly decorated despite still being 23.

Aside from his Olympic gold, he has won gold in the 2017 World Championships in Muju, earned two European titles and won five World Taekwondo Grand Prix legs.

He has only ever been coached by former European champion Alexander Lahpanov, who became his personal tutor in 2011.

Khramtcov cites Irish mixed martial artist Conor McGregor as his sporting hero.