Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Russian Empire first competed in the Olympics at the 1900 Summer Games. This marked a quiet beginning for a nation that would later dominate global sports before political upheaval changed everything.
Russian athletes secured 542 medals between 1994 and 2016 including 422 summer medals and 120 winter medals. This combined total placed them second only to the United States across twelve appearances with 193 gold medals among the hauls.
Systematic violations led to the stripping of forty-six Olympic medals from Russian athletes globally due to state-sponsored doping scandals. This number represents four times more than any runner-up and thirty percent of all removed medals worldwide making Russia the most sanctioned nation in Olympic history regarding doping.
Athletes returned to the 2018 Winter Olympics under the designation Olympic Athletes from Russia or OAR following suspension by the International Olympic Committee in 2017. They competed again as representatives of the Russian Olympic Committee or ROC during the 2020 Summer and 2022 Winter Games before Individual Neutral Athletes status began in January 2023.
Yulia Lipnitskaya won a medal at age fifteen on the 9th of February 2014 making her the youngest Russian Winter Olympic medalist. She earned this distinction while competing in team figure skating at the Sochi venue where Russia captured its inaugural gold medal that day.