About three weeks before the Sochi Winter Olympics, Italian athlete Mirko Deflorian requested begging excluded from Moldova’s Olympic team.

“I think Deflorian is not prepared and does not want to have a poor performance at the Olympic Games,” vice president of the National Olympic Committee Nicolae Piatac has told IPN. The athlete received financing neither from the state nor from the Committee. His request was accepted.

Thus, Moldova’s Olympic team will consist of four athletes, two of whom are naturalized citizens. Victor Panzaru and Alexandra Kamenshchik will compete in cross-country skiing, the naturalized Romanian Bogdan Macovei in ludging, and the naturalized Swiss George Lindner in giant slalom. The name of the athlete who will bear Moldova’s flag will be announced on January 30.

The 22nd Winter Olympic Games will take place in the Russian town Sochi on February 7-23.

This year Moldova marks 20 years of its first participation as an independent state in the Olympic Games. In 1994 in Lillehammer, Moldova was for the first time represented at the Olympics, by Elena Gorohova and Vasile Gherghi.