MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) - 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, the committee's press chief said.
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.
"It's true that Tyagachev has resigned," the press chief of the Olympic Committee told gazeta.ru.
"It was said a lot of times that the Olympic Committee would not answer for the sporting preparation," Gennady Shvets went on. "But Tyagachev, like a real sportsman and a great trainer, accepted the blame for everyone."
However, Tygachev's press secretary denied the reports.
"So far, there has been no official announcement," Darya Chervonenko told RIA Novosti.
The former sports and tourism minister has been in the post since 2001.
Medvedev said on Monday that, "Those who bear responsibility for the Olympic preparations...should take a courageous decision and submit their resignations immediately."
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.
