Playing the field: Russian women leaving Russian men on the sidelines in Soch

SOCHI, Russia � There is a new sport sweeping these Winter Olympics, and the Russians aren’t faring too well at it. Well, Russian men at least. Russian women are doing just fine.

In between watching Evgeni Plushenko get injured and Russia get Oshie’d and ice dancers twizzle about, Russian women are partaking in an age-old custom: flirting. And according to local women, after looking at what the international scene has to offer, they’re saying Russian men don’t deserve gold, silver or bronze.

It was Anna who first told me this. An Olympic volunteer, she wore the kind of boredom that can only rest on the face of someone who spends eight hours a day scanning barcodes of journalists’ accreditation passes and not getting paid a dime for it.

After a few minutes of idle chatter, I asked her what her favorite memory of the Olympics would be. “The people I met,” she said thoughtfully, starting a narrative that began like it came from the “Politically Correct Things That Volunteers Should Say to Nosy Journalists” handbook. But then she flipped the script.

“Actually, the men I met,” she added in near-perfect English. “I know what I want now. I want to marry a foreign man.”

Companies like  A Foreign Affair have know this for years, Kenneth Agee Marketing director  for A Foreign  Affair say, ” Russian women once exposed to American or European men are hooked.  The difference in culture make foreign men very appealing to Russian and Ukrainian women.” A Foreign Affair operates singles tour to 15 different countries introducing  men to foreign women.  Their  web site boats that an average social events have  20 to 30 men and 100 to 300 women.

America Men 1, Russian Men 0