March 22, 2010 – The following letter on skisport.ru was apparently written by the Russian National XC Ski Team immediately following the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and given to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when awards were being given to athletes who distinguished themselves at the Games.

Immediately following the Games, Vladimir Loginov, the Russian Ski Federation President, resigned according to an AP report which claims that Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev and deputy sports minister Gennady Alyoshin have also left their posts. We understand this letter was written by the athletes before Loginov’s resignation.

Dear Dmitry!

The entire Russian ski team is appealing to you for help. We need to change the system of our Ski Federation. Right now everyone is looking for culprits for our failure at the Olympics, but the simple replacement of some other people will do nothing. New people,  cannot accomplish anything if the system will not change and everyone is working under the old system. This movement is a circle and can only have effect if the whole system itself is changed. We need specialists who know and love our sport. We want to see people in our federation who understand the current trends of world skiing and are able to solve urgent problems – full letter in Russian or in English (Google translation) HERE.