Russia's First Gold Medalist

Russia’s First Gold Medalist 

One hundred years ago, at the fourth modern Olympics, held in London in 1908, Russia sent a team of six athletes; three of them returned with medals. Nikolai Panin was the only one to bring home a gold medal – Russia’s first ever. Panin won it in “special figures” figure skating (London was the first Olympics to include a non-summer sport). Nikolai Orlov and Alexei Petrov returned with silver medals in wrestling.

Yet Panin was not Panin. He was Kolomenkin.