Ukraine's Olympians poised to repeat success of 1996 (09/10/00)

Ukraine's Olympians poised to repeat success of 1996

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - It is a younger and less experienced team than the one that won 23 medals in Atlanta - nine of them gold - and took ninth place in the overall standings, but the Ukrainian Olympic squad heading for Sydney, Australia, is just as strong and should do at least as well. It also will be the first Ukrainian squad whose talents have been nurtured since national independence in 1991.

"These are athletes who for the most part grew up in an independent Ukraine and have received their training in the system that Ukraine has developed," said Volodymyr Kulyk, an advisor to President Leonid Kuchma and longtime member of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.

On September 8, most of the Olympic team's 239 athletes, who will compete in 26 sports, left Kyiv for Sydney after a rain-soaked send-off held the previous evening in downtown Kyiv and attended by hundreds of supporters.

After months of training at the Koncha Zaspa sports facility outside Kyiv, as well as in Crimea and the Carpathian Mountains, the athletes will spend the last week before the September 15 opening of the Games in final preparation and acclimatization in the south of Australia. A portion of the team will stay near Melbourne, the rest in Albury-Wodonga, training in facilities arranged by the Australian Friends of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. Among them will be seven individuals who currently hold European and world championships concurrently, 11 world champions and 25 European title holders.

Although it is a youthful squad, the Sydney team has a sufficient number of veteran athletes to provide guidance, insight and stability. Serhii Bubka, the 36-year-old superstar pole-vaulter, who has attended more Games than almost any of the athletes who will gather in Sydney, will again captain the Ukrainian team as he did in Atlanta in 1996, when he carried the Ukrainian flag into the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremonies.

Mr. Bubka, who has yet to attain Olympic gold, will join six other prominent Ukrainian Olympians who achieved the distinction in Atlanta: Inessa Kravets in the triple jump; Viacheslav Oliinyk in Greco-Roman wrestling; Olena Pakholchyk and Ruslana Taran in yachting; and Yevhen Braslavets and Ihor Matvienko in yachting.

While these six athletes have continued to compete at a high level and all are favorites to win again in Sydney, Mr. Kulyk said the new generation of Ukrainian Olympians would make their mark in gymnastics, boxing and swimming.

As in the past, the gymnastics team is strong, even without 1996 star Lilia Podkopayeva, who took overall individual gold in Atlanta and upset the plans of the U.S. women's team to dominate gymnastics events. This year the focus will be on 19-year-old Viktoria Karpenko, who has extensive international experience and was the overall world champion in 1998. Although injury-plagued for the last year, Ms. Karpenko has recovered recently and is expected to vie for gold.

The seven-member women's gymnastic team also includes four 16-year-olds with plenty of talent and international success. The youngsters are led by Olha Roschupkina, the smallest of the tumbling pixies, who Ukrainian officials hope will medal in the beam. Team leaders believe that Tetiana Yarosh, who medaled in the most recent European Championships, also has a chance for a medal.

The men's team has had more limited international success than the women, but it does have Oleksander Beresh, who is the 1999 overall European champion. The hope is that the 23-year-old will dominate several of the individual events and push his way to an overall medal.

Ukrainian Olympic boxing also lost a dominating presence when Atlanta gold medalist Volodymyr Klychko entered the professional ranks after his 1996 success. The team has replaced him, however, with two powerful, albeit lighter, talents in Volodymyr and Valerii Sydorenko. The two brothers, who are fraternal twins, hope to maintain the standard set by Volodymyr and his boxing brother Vitalii (who did not qualify for Atlanta), explained Mr. Kulyk.

"They [the Sydorenkos] are from Zaporizhia, very capable fighters and true to the Kozak tradition of the region," said Mr. Kulyk.

While Ukraine remains a heavyweight in Olympic boxing and gymnastics, it has never made a noticeable splash in swimming. This year that could change.

"We have never had as strong a team in swimming as we do this year," said Mr. Kulyk. Ukrainian officials are confident the team can win at least three medals in Sydney. The leading contender is Yana Klochkova, an 18-year-old dynamo from Kharkiv who holds world championship titles in the 400-meter medley and the breaststroke. The team has placed high hopes on Ms. Klochkova and would consider it a disappointment if she does not medal.

The men's team has another young hopeful in Ihor Cherevynskyi, also 18, who took a medal in the 2000 World Championships. Veterans Ihor Snitko and Denis Silantiev supplement the swimming team's youth with their previous Olympic experience. In Atlanta, Mr. Snitko took fourth place in the 400-meter freestyle event.

In Olympic diving Ukraine may have its first medal-contender in years in the person of Olena Zhupina. The 27-year-old is the current world champion in synchronized diving. She will also compete in 3-meter board and platform diving in Sydney.

Ukrainian weightlifters have sufficient talent and experience to contribute to Ukraine's medal count in Sydney, as well. Although the team obviously will miss super heavyweight gold medalist and world record holder, Timur Taimazov, his absence could be offset by veteran weightlifter Denys Gotfrid, who took a bronze in Atlanta. Olympic officials say Mr. Gotfrid has improved tremendously in the last four years. Today he is world champion in the 99-kilogram division, an accomplishment he is expected to exceed with Olympic gold in Sydney. Ukrainian officials also like the chances of Ihor Razorionov in the 108 kilogram division. Mr. Razorionov was the world champion in that weight class in 1998.

In wrestling, the other Olympic power sport, Ukrainians should flex their strength as they did in 1996, when they took a gold and two bronze medals. Two of the three medalists will be back for the Sydney Games, including Viacheslav Oliinyk, who became the first Ukrainian to win Olympic gold for Ukraine in the Summer Olympics when he took first place in the 90-kilogram division. Mr. Oliinyk opted for retirement after his accomplishment, but decided to return to the sport for the 2000 Games. Also returning is Zaza Zozirov, who won a bronze in freestyle wrestling in 1996.

What is not known is whether the team can overcome the loss of its highly regarded head trainer, Borys Savlokha, who is serving a prison term after a racketeering conviction earlier this year.

Ukraine also should make another good showing in yachting, in which its squad has excelled in the last four years. The team has two returning Olympic gold-medal crews: the women's duo of Ms. Pakholchyk and Ms. Taran in yachting and the men's duo of Mr. Braslavets and Mr. Matvienko. While the Braslavets/Matvienko duo has had some limited success since Atlanta, Pakholchyk/Taran have continued to dominate the sport as world champions from 1997 to 1999.

The Ukrainian track and field team is, perhaps, the single Ukrainian squad at the Sydney Games that will have aged since Atlanta. However, among its athletes are many of Ukraine's most established Olympic stars, and much talent remains. Serhii Bubka remains first and foremost among them. The Sydney Games will be his fourth Olympics, but the 36-year-old still seeks his first Olympic gold, and that should be sufficient motivation to keep him competitive. Ukrainian officials say he has fully overcome the Achilles heel problems that forced him out of the 1996 Olympics and have hampered his performances for the last several years.

Also back is Inesa Kravets, the triple jump gold medalist in 1996. Although she had health problems as late as the beginning of this year, Mr. Kulyk said she is now in fine health and great form. In addition to defending her triple jump title, Ms. Kravets has qualified for the long jump.

Perhaps Ukraine's best chance in track and field lies with the long and lanky Inga Babakova, the current world champion in high jump and bronze medalist in Atlanta. She is one of the country's best athletes and has shown a remarkable ability to prepare for competition. Last year she gave birth to a baby girl, and just weeks later at the world championships showed up the last day and won the gold medal.

Another Ukrainian athlete to watch is Oleksander Bahach, bronze medalist in the shot put in Atlanta. The IOC has given him the go-ahead to compete in Sydney after he served a short suspension for failing a drug test. He and partner Yurii Bilonoh give Ukraine an excellent chance at a gold medal in the shot put. In hammer throw, too, the Ukrainians look good, with both Oleksander Krykun and Vladyslav Piskunov showing promise.

In the glamour event of track and field, the 100-meter dash, Ukraine can make a mark with Zhanna Pintusevych, who qualified for the finals in Atlanta only to finish last in the eight-person field. She has raised her level of performance still further in the last four years, taking second place at the most recent European Championships. The Sydney Games will show whether she can rise to the highest levels and compete with U.S. and Jamaican super-speedsters such as American Marion Jones.

Finally, Ukraine expects that it will harvest at least one gold and probably more in rhythmic gymnastics, another sport that it has historically dominated. While it was uncertain even last month whether current European and world champion Olena Vitrychenko would compete after problems with the NOCU, she was given the go-ahead several days ago and is part of the Sydney squad. She is the indisputable favorite for several medals, including her specialty, the ribbon, and in the overall judging.

Although the team's talent is obvious, and results in recent competitions prove as much, Mr. Kulyk underscored that, as in every Olympics where athletic prowess is honed to a fine edge, the difference between a medal and sixth place is minuscule.

"We are ready, but this is the Olympics, and many factors can come into play," explained the Ukrainian Olympic official. "Winning depends on more than physical training, it means psychological preparedness and proper adaptation to the environment. And let's not forget about good judging as well."

EDITOR'S NOTE: The names of Ukraine's Olympic athletes are transliterated from the official Ukrainian-language team list released in Kyiv.

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