Ready for “white Olympics”

On February 12, Vancouver, Canada, will see the opening of the 21st Winter Olympic Games, one of this year’s greatest sport events, which will last until February 28. Meanwhile, on February 3, Kyiv’s Ukrainian Home hosted a send-off ceremony for the national Olympic team. Among those who came to wish the athletes to win as many medals as possible were some well-known politicians and Ukrainian sport stars, including independent Ukraine’s first Olympic medal holder in women’s biathlon Valentyna Tserbe. After showing that historic medal, she said she hoped that awards would find Ukrainian athletes at the upcoming Olympics, too.

Our 51-strong team had already gone to Canada so it could have enough time to train and adapt. The only thing that raised concern among the Olympians until the last day was whether Ukrainians would be able to see Olympic broadcasts on the 1st National Channel, as they were in the previous years. The trouble is that the national Television and Radio Company of Ukraine has only received 429,000 hryvnias out of the required nine million for the first quarter of 2010 to broadcast the Olympic and Paralympic Games. National Olympic Committee President Serhii Bubka has sent a letter to the government in this connection. Yurii Pavlenko, Minister for Families, Youth and Sport, said in reply that the government had earmarked 14 million hryvnias for Olympic broadcasts. “Some technical points are still being sorted out, but there are sure to be broadcasts,” the minister said reassuringly.

According to Volodymyr Nechaiev, the team’s Nordic skiing coach, our athletes will be competing in eight out of 15 events. The coaches are so far pinning hope on 12 participants, especially on Valentyna Shevchenko, 34, the women’s team leader, who excels in skiing. Incidentally, the Vancouver Olympics will be the last one in her career.

It is not ruled out that Ukraine’s best figure skating pair, Stanislav Morozov and Tetiana Volosozhar, will also stand good chances to win a medal. Biathlon is another winter sport event that inspires hope. The Ukrainian Federation of Biathlon has no doubts that Serhii Sedniev, Oksana Khvostenko, Vita Semerenko, and Olena Pidluzhna will make a successful and spectacular show in Vancouver.

“They have showed themselves very well and confidently in the latest competitions,” comments the team’s coach Hennady Baturin, Secretary General of the Federation of Biathlon. “Our team has been training very well, and there have been almost no delays in funding. The federation is sending a total 11 athletes: six men and five women. Although forecasting is a treacherous thing, it is no secret that Ukraine is strong, above all, in biathlon, Nordic skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, and the luge. We can seriously compete in these events on the international arena, while the other winter sports are so far in a stage of development. In biathlon, our traditional rivals are the teams of Russia, Norway, France, Spain, and Slovenia. As a matter of fact, only five to six teams will be vying for medals. We must do our utmost to be among the best ones. We can still brush up on some technical details in shooting or in something else in the reaming time, and the first start is on February 13. Should anyone suddenly have some health problems, there is still time for doctors and masseurs to solve the problem.”

“Naturally, we hope that our athletes will show the best of what they can,” Serhii Bubka said at the last session of the NOC Executive Committee. “But let us take a sober look at things. Ukraine has far stronger traditions in summer sports. For winter sports to successfully develop, we must, first of all, reinforce the logistics which we inherited from the Soviet era in a very weak condition. Our athletes train abroad, as a rule, but we must keep developing reserves and raising young athletes.”