Snowboarder Victor Wild was born in White Salmon, Wash., and lived in the United States until 2011. Speed skater Victor Ahn was born in South Korea, and lived there until 2011.

The two athletes — neither of whom had Russian citizenship four years ago during the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver— have combined to win five of Russia's 10 total gold medals this month in Sochi.

See also: Outrage Spreads: Was Women's Figure Skating Rigged in Sochi?

Confused? Wild and Ahn's Olympic success — and fluid citizenship — shows the unusual lengths to which Russia has gone to ensure that its turn hosting the games is as resounding a success as possible. Wild and Ahn's medal hauls also show the unusual lengths taken by Olympic athletes to achieve success in lesser-known sports that exist far from public scrutiny.

Wild has won two gold medals for Russia this week in Sochi – the first Olympics medals of his career — both in slalom snowboarding. Ahn (whose first and last names are sometimes spelled "Viktor" and "An," respectively) has won three gold medals for Russia in short-track speed skating this week. They'll go nicely with the three golds he won at the 2006 Olympics in Italy — back when he went by Ahn Hyun-soo, and skated for South Korea.

"With your win, you have proved that the sports fate smiles on the most talented, driven and strongest in spirit," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a congratulatory statement to Wild that was posted on the Kremlin's website Saturday.


Russian President Vladimir Putin, shown here in a meeting on Feb. 19, congratulated snowboarder Victor Wild for his Olympic snowboarding win on Feb. 22.
Image: Mikhail Metzel, Presidential Press Service/Associated Press


Wild is an alpine snowboarder, which means he navigates around slalom flags on downhill courses, rather than grinding or flipping like the more popular slopestyle and halfpipe snowboarders. But less flash means less sponsor money, and shortly after the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association largely quit supporting the sport.

Wild, 27, happened to be dating a Russian snowboarder named Alyona Zavarzina at the time. They got married, he became a Russian citizen and the couple moved to Moscow. Frustrated by the United States' lack of support for his sport, and intrigued by the financial support Russian Olympic athletes receive, Wild considered his options.

"I told everybody in the Russian snowboard federation: If you guys take me, you'll never regret it," he told The Wall Street Journal this week.

Wild joined the Russian snowboarding team, qualified for the Olympics and won his first gold medal on Wednesday in the giant slalom before Saturday's parallels slalom gold. Making matters sweeter, his girlfriend-turned-wife Zavarzina won a slalom snowboarding bronze for Russia the very same day. That led to this remarkable photo of medaling husband and wife:


Russia's Victor Wild (left) poses after winning the gold medal in the men's snowboard parallel giant slalom final, with his wife and bronze medalist in the women's snowboard parallel giant slalom final, Russia's Alena Zavarzina, at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on Feb. 19.
Image: Andy Wong/Associated Press

Ahn's story involves less happenstance, but includes a fascinating plot twist.

After his triple gold-medal performance for South Korea at the 2006 Olympics, Ahn suffered a major knee injury in 2008, which kept him out of the 2010 games. Ahn reportedly felt South Korea’s skating federation was not devoting enough time and resources to help one of its top talents back to peak form, so he went looking for a new home.

Ahn, 28, and his father narrowed their options down to Russia and the United States, according to a New York Times profile from earlier this month. Russia won out for a few reasons. First, its skating program offered less internal competition and an easier path to the Olympics. Second, Russian authorities reportedly made naturalizing "very, very easy" for Ahn, as opposed to the bureaucratic morass he would have had to wade through in the U.S. And, as with Wild, financial support helped.

"He needed some salary, and they could not pay," Jang Kwon-ok, a former Russian speed-skating coach who helped recruit Ahn, told the Times of Ahn's relationship with U.S. skating authorities. "There is no money there for short-track. The best condition was Russia because they are open, and make it good for him.”

And so, Ahn — like Wild — joined the Russian team, and became one of its best performers at Sochi. Ahn will take a short-track coaching position for the Russian team after the Sochi games are over, and it sounds like Wild has no regrets about switching sides, either.

"If I was still riding [for the United States], I'd be back home with some mediocre job doing something mediocre," he told ESPN.com after his win on Wednesday. "That's not what I wanted to be. I wanted to be the best I could be. I'm so stoked to win for Russia."


Victor Ahn of Russia celebrates on the podium after placing first during the flower ceremony for the men's 1000m short-track speed-skating final at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on Feb. 15.
Image: Darron Cummings/Associated Press