BEIJING, February 15. /TASS/. Russian speed skaters won silver on Tuesday at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing in the team pursuit competition.

In the final run, Team ROC (the Russian Olympic Committee) of Daniil Aldoshkin, Sergey Trofimov and Ruslan Zakharov lost to Team Norway, which clocked the distance in 3 minutes 38.08 seconds to snatch the gold. The Russian speed skaters crossed the finish line of the final race 2.38 seconds behind the eventual winners.

Earlier in the day, ROC speed skaters set a new Olympic record of 3 minutes 36.62 seconds beating Team USA in the semifinals stage. In the race for the bronze, Team USA outpaced the Netherlands.

Speaking to journalists following the race, Trofimov, 26, said his team aimed to win the gold, but ,eventually, Team Norway turned out to be stronger.

"I am very satisfied," Trofimov told journalists. "We have displayed our maximum efforts in the semifinals round, because we aimed at a 100-percent result to qualify for the final race. We achieved this result clocking the new Olympics Record."

"We were certainly set for the gold in the final run, but the Norwegians turned out to be stronger," Trofimov added.

Team ROC (the Russian Olympic Committee) is currently 9th in the overall medal standings of the 2022 Olympics boasting four gold, seven silver and nine bronze medals (20 in total).

Team Norway tops the 2022 Winter Olympics medal standings with 11 gold, six silver and seven bronze medals. Germany is 2nd boasting eight gold, five silver and two bronze medals. Team USA is in 3rd place with seven gold, six silver and four bronze medals.

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are running on February 4-20. During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022).

Russian athletes at Beijing-2022

Due to international sanctions against Russian sports, athletes from Russia are competing in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing under the flag and logo of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) instead of the Russian national flag and state emblem.

The national anthem of Russia is also under sanctions at the Olympics in China. The First Piano Concerto by Pyotr Tchaikovsky was selected to be played at awarding ceremonies for Russian Olympians in Beijing.