Nation pins hopes on swimmers, sprinters
Hopes are high that Ukrainians could bring home the gold from the 28th Summer Olympiad, set to take place in Athens, Greece from Aug. 13-30.
On Aug. 10 Ukraine’s National Olympic team was given a festive send-off on Maidan Nezalezhnosti before their departure for the games. Traffic around the city center was blocked off for the official pep rally, which included the public launch of Ukraine’s Olympic anthem “Ukrayina Vpered!” (Ukraine Onward!) by a host of pop stars that included Natalia Mogilevskaya, Andriy Kuzmenko of Skryabin, Sashko Polozhynsky of Tartak and Fagot of TNMK.
Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko promised in a speech to give an apartment in Kyiv to each Ukrainian athlete who wins a medal at the Olympics.
Ukraine will be represented in Athens by 243 athletes taking part in 19 of 28 events. By comparison, 234 Ukrainian athletes competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
On the whole the Ukrainian delegation will total 411 people, including 147 coaches, physicians, and masseurs, 18 members of Ukraine’s national team headquarters, 10 referees and two reserve athletes.
Olympic fever has been burning in Ukraine since the arrival of the Olympic torch in Kyiv on July 5 – for the first time ever. The Olympic torch is customarily only carried in cities where the Olympics have already taken place, or are slated to take place. However, Kyiv was the venue for the soccer competition during the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Greek officials who accompanied the torch in Kyiv were quoted as saying that with the exception of Beijing never did so many people come out to greet the flame.
Overcoming ‘failure’
The hopes for Ukrainian Olympic gold are high despite the country’s “failure” in Sydney in 2000. Those games, which were largely considered unsuccessful for Ukraine, produced 23 medals, including three gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze, placing the country 21st among all competing countries.
The head of Ukraine’s Olympic sports department, Nina Umanets, said that “Ukraine’s failure at the Sydney Olympics is explained by a lack of financing…It’s impossible to win something based on pure optimism. Low financing also resulted in other failures of Ukrainian teams in international competitions in 2001-2002.”
But despite the letdown at the Sydney Olympics, those games brought some notable victories and introduced some new sports stars to Ukraine.
The most successful Ukrainian medalist at the Sydney Games was Kyiv-based swimmer Yana Klochkova, who won two gold medals in the women’s 200m and 400m individual medley and a silver in the 800m freestyle. She was subsequently named Ukraine’s athlete of the year for 2000.
Shooter Mykola Milchev won Ukraine’s other gold in Sydney in skeet shooting by setting a new world record with a score of 150.
Swimmer Denys Sylantyev won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly, as did gymnast Oksana Tsyhuliova in gymnastics for the trampoline. Other silver medal triumphs were in men’s all-around gymnastics and Greco-Roman wrestling. Bronze medals winners in women’s synchronized diving, triple jump, sailing, men’s boxing and long jump rounded out the games in Sydney.
The financing for these games was much improved, and Umanets says Ukraine can expect significantly better results in Athens.
“Ukrainians should expect to win 23 to 25 medals, five to six of them gold,” Umanets said. Sports in which Ukrainians expect to medal include track and field, weightlifting, swimming, fencing, cycling and wrestling, she said.
Whom to watch
Umanets also listed the athletes most likely to succeed during competition. Female weightlifter Natalya Skakun and wrestler Irini Merlini-Melnyk should be kept an eye on. So should Zhanna Block in track and field, who won the 2001 World Championships in the 100 meter dash, swimmer Oleh Lisogor, and, naturally, Ukraine’s goldfish, Klochkova. Rhythmic gymnast Anna Bessonova is also expected to medal in Athens.
Sydney Olympic silver-medal swimmer Denis Sylantyev will carry the Ukrainian flag during the opening ceremonies in Athens on Aug. 13.
Ukraine’s place in the opening ceremonies will also change. In a change from previous years, Ukraine won’t be bringing up the rear, but marching in the middle of the pack. The parade order is traditionally determined by the alphabet, and “Ukraine” reads in Greek as “Oykraina.”
The majority of Ukrainian athletes left for Athens on Aug. 12. That same day, the heads of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee as well as 42 Ukrainian journalists joined the Ukrainian delegation.
A 200-person delegation of honored guests, including Ukrainian authorities from the central and local level, the Presidential Administration and the Rada is also expected to attend.
The most prominent attendee will be Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who also heads the Ukrainian Olympic Committee.
Yanukovych plans to visit various competitions in which Ukraine should medal, as well as some in which Ukraine is not projected to, a spokesperson said Aug. 11. The spokesperson also stressed that his Olympic visit is neither a vacation nor part of his election campaign.
