Cold War hangover, I imagine.  Maybe it's just me, but it sure seems like the whole thing about her being raised in the midwest (bread basket of America!) and instilled with Christian values (not like those atheist Russians!) was a not-so-subtle attempt to cash in on the old anti-Soviet emotions.  People my age and older remember the nuclear war drills, where we had to crouch under our desks and put our hands over our heads so that the nuclear bomb wouldn't get us.

(Even as a kid, I thought that was pretty stupid.)

Yeah.  I'm puzzled by that, too.  I kind of thought you had to be a citizen to be on a country's Olympic team.  Why make it country against country if it's not?  I seem to remember some American sports stars playing on other teams, but it was always their home country.  Basketball comes to mind, and I know for sure that baseball has had that happen.  Lots of American players play on the Dominican team or the Puerto Rican team, etc...

According to the video she is a Russian citizen because she plays for a team in Moscow in our off-season

Yeah. Especially the "traitor" bit, from the country who wouldn't pay her to play, and basically demanded that the olympics be opened up to professional athletes. Remember the Dream Team?

So now the Russians pay her, she's a citizen, and I'm certain they exaggerated when they said she can't speak Russian. C'mon, even if she were a total idiot, she'd still pick some up while she was there.

The one thing that piece did beautifully is illustrate the classic American double standard: the free market is AWESOME ... until it's not working for us, then we get pissy and find you on a map. Duck and cover, bitches!

Given that much of the midwest is under about 20 feet of water at the moment, I say it's a fat lot of good her god-belief does anyone. The Russians can have her. One less U.S. athlete to listen to talking about their god-given abilities.

Russia is one of the most christian religious countries on Earth. Anyway who who its some sort of atheist haven of darkness really hasnt been there.

I've travelled to a large number  religious places throughout the world (as a tourist admirer of architecture etc  not as a worshipper) and Russia is the only place I've been verbally abused for not crossing myself and other doing other weird rituals that death cultists do).

Christianity is 'cool' in Russia especially among the young, its churches are over flowing in fact its an extremely good case for becoming a total theocracy even more than the US. It's nationalism and christianity go hand in hand. Also unlike the US it genuinely is under attack from Muslim countries/organisations so you can imagine what they think of them

Through Russia has always been religious even during communism, if priests didnt speak out against the government they were generally left alone

Yep.  That was kind of what I was alluding to earlier when I was talking about the hangover from the Cold War.  After the dismantling of the Soviet Union, not only did the Russian Orthodox community come out of hiding, but Christian missionaries from America and elsewhere descended on Russia like so many righteous locusts.