Armenia at the 2010 Winter Olympics

Armenia became an independent nation again following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.^[1] The National Olympic Committee of Armenia was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 31 December 1992.^[2] Armenia participated in their first Olympics in Lillehammer at the 1994 Winter Olympics, and has sent a delegation to every Summer and Winter Olympics since.^[3] While Armenia has won multiple medals at the Summer Olympics, they had never won a Winter Olympics medal as of the close of these Vancouver Olympics.^[3] The Armenian delegation to Vancouver consisted of four athletes, two in alpine skiing and two in cross-country skiing.^[4] Alpine skier Arsen Nersisyan was chosen as the flag bearer for the opening ceremony, while cross-country skier Sergey Mikayelyan was chosen as flag bearer for the closing ceremony.^[5][6]

Arsen Nersisyan was 22 at the time of the Vancouver Olympics and was making his Olympic debut.^[7] On 23 February, he failed to finish the first run of the giant slalom.^[8] On 27 February, he participated in the slalom, but after skiing a first run time of 1 minute and 5 seconds, he was disqualified from the competition for "improper gate movement".^[9][10] He said he was disqualified "because coming out of the starting gate, my skies parted."^[9] Ani-Matilda Serebrakian was 21 years old at the time of these Games, and was also making her first Olympics appearance.^[11] On 24 February, in challenging weather conditions, she did not finish the first leg of the giant slalom.^[12] Two days later, she was disqualified from the Women's slalom, reportedly for using skis that fell outside of the allowed size tolerances.^[13]