January 26, 2006 – Russia’s national Olympic committee has chosen 16 athletes for the Olympic nordic skiing races in Pragelato.

A very tense and difficult decision was anticipated for the Russian Olympic committee. There were many strong athletes to choose from. From a large pool of strong athletes, an Olympic team had to be chosen and several strong skiers had to be denied a place on the Russian team.

There was one surprise however. The young Ivan Babikov, whose only international racing exposure was the World Cup races in Canada, was added to the Olympic team at the last minute. Babikov is expected to ski for Canada in the next Olympics, but was reconsidered by the Russian decision makers after his strong showing during the Canadian World Cup races as well as strong races at the recent Russian National Championships.

The complete team:

Men
– Vassili Rochev
– Ivan Alypov
– Yevgenij Dementiev
– Nikolai Pankratov
– Alexander Legkov
– Serguei Novikov
– Ivan Babikov

Women
– Julija Tchepalova
– Olga Rocheva-Moskalenko
– Evgenia Medvedeva
– Larisa Kurkina
– Natalia Baranova
– Olga Savialova
– Elena Burukhina
– Alena Sidko
– Natalia Matveeva