Russian Olympic Committee head Leonid Tyagachev resigned on Wednesday, two days after President Dmitry Medvedev said senior sports officials should quit over the country's poor showing at the Winter Olympics.
Tyagachev's press secretary, Darya Chervonenko, finally officially confirmed his resignation. Earlier today, Chervonenko denied the resignation reports voiced by the Olympic committee's press chief Gennady Shvets.
Russia took a disappointing 11th place in the overall medals table, winning three golds, five silvers and seven bronzes. Its hotly-tipped ice-hockey team was also knocked out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage by eventual winners Canada, going down 7-3.
Tyagachev, the former sports and tourism minister, has held his Olympic Committee post since 2001.
Medvedev said on Monday that, "Those who bear responsibility for the Olympic preparations...should make a courageous decision and submit their resignations immediately."
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Wednesday his ministry is not trying to shift responsibility for the Olympic failure.
"We have not removed the responsibility from ourselves. The ministry is responsible for the Olympic Games' results, but we will take organizational, staff and financial measures to prevent this from happening again," he said.
The Olympic failure was the second major blow that Russian sport, which had been experiencing its most successful post-Soviet period, has had to endure in the last four months.
In November, the national soccer side, surprise semi-finalists at Euro 2008, failed to make this summer's World Cup finals, losing in a play-off to tiny Slovenia.
That defeat saw unproven accusations that the players had been out drinking and partying on the eve of the first leg in Moscow, and even allegations by certain MPs that the team had thrown the game.
Russia's ice-hockey humiliation at the hands of Canada has already seen similar claims of misbehavior, but these have been angrily rejected by coach Vyacheslav Bykov.
Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi is due to host the 2014 Winter Games.
MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti)
