American Paid by Putin Is Snowboarder Made Russian for Games
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American snowboarder Vic Wild says he’ll have two people to thank if he wins an Olympic gold medal this month: his Siberian wife and Vladimir Putin.
Wild, unable to afford to train at an elite level in the U.S., gained Russian citizenship in 2012 after moving to Moscow and marrying world champion snowboarder Alena Zavarzina. Now he’s sponsored by Putin’s government and competing for Russia, which will pay him as much as 300,000 euros ($410,000) if he adds to its medal count in Sochi.