ON THE ROAD TO ATLANTA

The Weekly staff editor Roman Woronowycz

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Ukraine was going to compete in its first ever Summer Olympics as an independent state. It was the 100th Olympiad. They were going to be in Atlanta, in the U.S. We were not going to be left out. We were determined to be there to cover the Ukrainian Olympic teama.

After more than a year of writing letters, faxing memorandums, expectations, frustrations, we finally found success. The Weekly was officially accredited on July 1, when the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games notified us that it had received and processed our documents as submitted by the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. Ukraine is at its first Summer Olympics and we are too.

We would like to thank Minister of Youth and Sports Valeriy Borzov, NOC General Secretary Borys Bashenko, Media Representative Ivan Sayko and, most of all, NOC U.S. Representative Laryssa Barabash Temple for their help.

The process was arduous because The Weekly does not fit a neat niche. The United States Olympic Committee stated unequivocally that we should not apply because far too many larger and more mainstream U.S. newspapers would get precedence. Ukraine, of course, had to take care of its journalists first with the limited accreditations that the International Olympic Committee had provided it.

But a year of perseverance and persistence has paid off. Staff Editor Roman Woronowycz arrived in Atlanta on July 17 and will be there for the duration of the Games, which run from July 19 through August 4. He will give our readers a chance to experience from a more intimate perspective the feats and failures, hopes and dreams of the members of the Ukrainian Olympic squad.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 21, 1996, No. 29, Vol. LXIV

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