Ukraine welcomes back its winter Olympic athletes (03/08/98)

Ukraine welcomes back its winter Olympic athletes

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine greeted its 1998 Winter Olympians just back from Nagano, Japan, with a ceremony at the Institute of Physical Culture in Kyiv on February 24.

The 56 athletes who took part in the XVIII Winter Olympics were congratulated by government leaders and Ukrainian athletes in a brief ceremony that keyed on Ukraine's single medalist, Olena Petrova, and on the need to improve training conditions for its winter athletes so that Ukraine's Olympic future in winter sports would be brighter.

"We must analyze our shortcomings and prepare accordingly for the next Olympics," said Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko, who is an avid sports fan.

He said that at the World Economic Forum recently held in Davos, Switzerland, he had held discussions on foreign investment to develop a world-class winter sports complex and training center for Olympic preparations in the Carpathian Mountains in western Ukraine.

The president of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, Valeriy Borzov, who also greeted the returning athletes, told them and the 750 others in attendance that the Olympic Games had moved to a new level and that Ukraine has to meet the new challenges that lie ahead. "You can say that in the third millennium not only will people compete, but technologies, finances and equipment, as well," said Mr. Borzov.

Ukraine took 18th place at the Nagano Olympics - its poorest showing in the three Olympics in which it has competed since gaining independence in 1991.

Ukraine's star at the Games was Olena Petrova, a 25-year-old from Sumy who took the silver in the 15-kilometer biathlon. She was awarded a presidential medal and a financial stipend for her accomplishment.

Her fellow athlete in the biathlon, Iryna Taranenko Terelia, who finished in fourth place in two events, once coming a mere 2.7 seconds shy of a bronze medal, also was recognized at the return ceremony.

Although Team Ukraine's accomplishment's at the Nagano Games were not all that was expected, there is hope for the future in the young women's freestyle skiing team. Four of the women freestylers finished in the final top 10, taking fourth, fifth, eighth and 10th place. No team member is older than 18.

The youngest Ukrainian freestyler, 15-year-old Olena Yunchyk, was presented to the audience as an example of Ukraine's future Olympic prospects.

But what happened to Miss Yunchyk and the rest of the Olympians on their return to Kyiv from Nagano on a chartered Lufthansa flight was undoubtedly a more frustrating experience than anything they encountered at the Olympics.

They were supposed to fly from Osaka, Japan, through South Korea, China and Russia into the Baltic region and on to Germany. But as they approached Chinese air space they were denied permission to enter and had to return to Japan where their flight was re-routed through the Sakhalin Islands and Siberia. Near Moscow, they were forced to land because they were low on fuel. After a two-hour delay, they finally left for Germany.

In Frankfurt they transferred to an Air Ukraine International aircraft for the flight to Kyiv. But a door on the plane would not close, and they waited another hour and a half as German and Ukrainian flight crews worked to fix the problem. After 13 hours in the air, they finally arrived home.