My Gymnastic Knights of the Order of Vladimir Putin

Time to reap the benefits of years of hard work. And by benefits, I mean cars, the Russian Olympic medalists get rewarded for their achievements big time (not as great as in Singapore though...). Everyone got knighted (not really) by Putin, some cash depending on their medal and brand new BMWs, X6 for Aliya (gold gets you a better model), X4s for the rest of the team. I can't even imagine tiny Princess Tut driving that giant thing, wow.

But she better lean to navigate the notorious Russian traffic (Russians are such bad drivers that you're actually required to have a dash cam, watch this vid with only 30 seconds worth of Russian roads), because apparently selling the car is extremely difficult with the other 56 medalists trying to sell it too at the same time, a market overflow. But I'll gladly take a donation. I don't have a car and the city transportation department had "some delays" in their subway renovation project, which will make my commute an hour longer than it already was in November-December. I'm really looking forward to those 7 am shifts...

Aliya was awarded with the Order of Honor, because she's awesome and a 7-time Olympic medalist. And no, she's not standing on a podium, Putin is really that short. And apparently he also ran out of money after buying those cars, because it looks like Aliya got the exact same flowers as in 2012. Maybe they have to give them back after the ceremony and Putin's minions freeze them for another 4 years.

I was really hoping for Aliya-Putin death stare competition like with Vitaly Mutko, but no such luck, I guess his security was keeping a close eye. What I did get was a death stare during Putin's speech, and watch the "not impressed" face at 0:24, I love it. Good job Aliya.

Masha got the next best thing, Order of Friendship, because she too is a repeat Olympian with multiple medals. The rest had to settle for 1st Class Medal of the Order “Merit to the Fatherland”. They always have Tokyo to try to rank higher.

Looks like Seda, Dasha, David and Nikita had the benefit of being super short, front row.

Here's the whole Kremlin ceremony, it's about as boring as any graduation ceremony. Aliya comes right after the 12 minute mark and gives some good stares throughout the event. She didn't give a speech like last time. Margarita Mamun is flirting with Putin around 25 minutes and gives a speech. I couldn't spot Masha and the others even though they got their medals too from Putin, maybe they came later.