R-Sport's English service, created to cover the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, "closed on Monday after nearly two years in operation, during which it attracted several big clients and produced in excess of 10,000 stories," according to R-SPORT. R-Sport was the English-language arm of the Russian service with the same name and part of RIA Novosti, the official host agency of the Sochi Olympics and Paralympics. Chief Editor David Nowak, who arrived at RIA Novosti after four years at the AP in Moscow, said, "The experience has been at various times enjoyable, challenging, exciting and exhausting. But always interesting. I don't expect interest in Russian sport to wane one iota. There's Formula One in Sochi and the 2018 World Cup on the horizon, so there's every reason to keep Russian sports on your radar." R-Sport began operations on June 1, 2012, "with a mandate to cover sports from across the former Soviet Union with a focus on the buildup to and coverage from the Sochi Games." The closure of R-Sport's English service "comes with RIA Novosti in the process of state-ordered liquidation" (R-SPORT, 4/28).
