Moscow, Mar 27 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Russia will have a delegation of around 220 athletes at its first home Winter Olympics in Sochi next year, the team's chef de mission Alexander Kravtsov said.
It is a substantial increase on the 177 sportsmen and women at Vancouver 2010 and 14 more than what hosts Canada had at those Games.
"We are counting on 220 people, taking into account certain nuances and peculiarities," Kravtsov said Tuesday.
The maximum allocation Russia could have had was 256, Kravtsov said, but that would require the maximum possible qualification in every sport.
The Olympics run from Feb 7 to 23.