That same year, Khabibulin appeared in the 1992 Winter Olympics with the CIS as the third goaltender. He remains the last active player from Russia to win the Olympic Games. Controversy arose after the CIS captured the gold medal when legendary Russian coach Viktor Tikhonov kept a medal for himself (coaches and management are not awarded medals in Olympic hockey) instead of allowing Khabibulin to have one, as Khabibulin had not played a game in the tournament. This is speculated to be the reason for Khabibulin boycotting the Russian team in later international tournaments.