Ukraine at Salt Lake City Games: no medals, but some surprises
by Andrew Nynka
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - With much of the 19th Winter Olympiad's competition completed and Ukraine's delegation earning no medals, the disappointment in the Ukrainian camp seems to have brought about, not only the firing of a biathlon coach and biathlon team leader, but questions regarding the reasons for Ukraine's poor showing.
However, the results have not been completely negative, said Vasyl Karlenko, team Ukraine's chief of mission.
According to Mr. Karlenko, with exception of Ukraine's biathletes, the group's athletes finished within what team trainers believe was their potential - even above expectations in the case of the men's Olympic ice hockey team and the men's freestyle aerials event.
It wasn't until the final three competitors in the men's freestyle aerials event that 24-year-old Stanislav Kravchuk of Ukraine was knocked out of medal competition. With the fall of the American gold medal favorite, Eric Bourgoust, in his final jump, Kravchuk completed his personal goal of finishing above sixth place. His fifth place result was better than most analysts predicted for the 1998 Nagano competitor who had finished ninth.
Kravchuk said of his second Olympic performance: "I feel I could have done better on my first jump - not by much, but better. My second jump, I've only attempted three times in my life. Today was the third time. This was my very first time in competition, especially attempting it in a competition like the Olympic Games, I'm very proud."
Born in Chirchik, Uzbekistan, Kravchuk qualified in 11th place and moved up to seventh after the first jump of finals competition. His second jump put him in first place after seven competitors but, with six competitors left, his score was not good enough to hold him a medal spot.
Despite a crushing 9-2 defeat by Latvia in the playoff for ninth place, Ukraine's hockey team was not expected to fair as well as it did against the likes of France and the preliminary round's Group B favorite, Switzerland. Had it not been for a 1-0 loss to Belarus in its first ever Olympic game, Team Ukraine would have moved on to the next round of competition instead of Belarus.
In what many analysts have dubbed one of Olympic hockey's greatest upsets, going as far back as the United States' 1980 "miracle" win over the Soviet Union, Belarus eliminated Sweden on February 20 by a score of 4-3, putting Ukraine's neighbor in a semifinal showdown against Canada.
Regarding Team Ukraine's disappointing showing against Latvia, National Hockey League veteran Dimitri Khristich said, "I think we were too happy with our past performances and we took this game for granted." The Washington Capital continued, "It became obvious when the game started that not everyone came ready to play."
Ukraine's head coach, Anatolii Bohdanov said of the performance, "The first few minutes of the game [against Latvia] were difficult - it was like a boxer who takes several hits, it's difficult to stay on your feet. It was an unexpected surprise, this cold shower - the players didn't have time to rest after the game last night. The players needed to wake up and find their game. I wanted to keep the image of the team intact. This was a difficult game on many counts. A bad game for us."
"I just tried to put my focus on this game," said Ukrainian goalie Kostiantyn Simchuk. "It was not easy. I was not prepared for this. We have a good team, we stay so close to each other. Our success is because of this. It was just a bad game for us."
Khristich also explained to The Weekly that there is no significant camaraderie among Ukrainian players in the NHL, but he emphasized that he was elated just to play with Team Ukraine.
Sergei Varlamov of the NHL's St. Louis Blues also said that, although he is aware of other Ukrainians playing in the NHL, "We don't know each other. We are spread out all over the country and we don't really get an opportunity to interact with each other."
Questions re: biathlon
Questions have abounded over Ukraine's disappointing performance in the biathlon - a winter sport that is considered to be Ukraine's strongest
With a case of flu hitting the biathlon and cross-country teams, including with 1998 Nagano Silver medalist Olena Petrova,just days before Olympic competition team officials seem to attribute a portion of the team's showing to poor health.
There have been questions also about the delegation's greatest medal hopeful, 28-year-old biathlete Olena Zubrylova. Conflicting reports out of the Ukrainian camp referred to her heart condition, with some team officials claiming that recent tests had revealed a clean bill of health while others have stated that the Kyiv native may have minor heart palpitations.
Also in question was the effect of altitude on the team.
Biathlon team leader Roman Bondaruk chose to keep the biathletes in Park City, away from the Olympic Village atmosphere and closer to the Soldier Hollow venue, in order to ensure what he believed where proper training conditions.
However, Ukrainian TV analysts have commented that the higher altitude of nearly 7,000 feet in Park City, as opposed to the 6,000 feet at the Soldier Hollow venue, could have adversely affected the team's results.
In reference to the altitude, Zubrylova later said she felt something was holding her back and simply did not feel strong during her competitions. It was very evident, however, that her breathing had affected her shooting, which is normally a strong point for the two-time Olympian who, in arguably one of her strongest events, the 7.5-kilometer sprint, missed an uncharacteristic four out of 10 targets.
Sources close to the NOC-Ukraine said that team leader Bondaruk was released due to his ultimate responsibility for the poor performance of the biathlon squad. According to these sources, who wished to remain anonymous, Mr. Karlenko gave team leaders a general preparation plan for the 19th Winter Olympiad and only those team leaders, sources said, who meandered from the plan did not perform well and, therefore, were released.
Asked to comment, the chair of the State Sports Committee of Ukraine, Maria Bulatova, and the president of the NOC-Ukraine, Ivan Fedorenko, both refused to comment, saying only that they would hold any remarks for a press conference upon their return to Kyiv.
In other biathlon news, Nina Lemesh, Petrova and Zubrylova all sat out the women's 10-kilometer pursuit event. Delegation officials stated that the three missed the competition so they could be well rested for the women's 4x7.5-kilometer relay.
Other Ukrainian results
In the women's aerials competition, Ukrainian hopeful and 1998 Nagano fourth-place finisher Tetiana Kozachenko did not qualify for the finals after blowing out her knee. The 21-year-old Rivne native finished the event in 15th place.
Dmytro Dmytrenko took 18th place in the men's figure skating program, while first-time Olympian Halyna Maniachenko and 1998 Nagano ninth-place finisher Olena Liashenko, took 15th and 16th places, respectively, after the short program in ladies figure skating.
In ice dancing Olena Hrushyna and Ruslan Honcharov took a respectable ninth place ahead of 21st-place finishers Yulia Holovina and Oleh Voiko.
In women's speedskating Ukrainian Olena Miahkykh took 38th place in the 1,500 meters and a 35th place finish in the 1,000 meters while men's speedskater Andrii Fomin finished the 1,000 in 37th and the 1,500 in 43rd.
In the men's doubles luge competition the team of Oleh Avdeyev and Danylo Panchenko took 11th place, while the two-man bobsled team of six-foot, 216-pound Oleksander Ivanyshyn and six-foot-two-inch, 205-pound Oleksander Streltsov took 34th place.
In the women's 10-kilometer biathlon pursuit, 29-year-old Tetiana Vodopianova finished in 26th place, missing four total targets; in the men's 12.5-kilometer biathlon pursuit Viacheslav Derkach missed three targets and took 40th place.
The women's 4x7.5-kilometer biathlon relay team of Zubrylova, Petrova, Lemesh and Vodopianova earned a strong 10th place finish behind the shooting of Zubrylova, who did not miss any targets and whose time of 22:04.0 put her only 31.6 seconds behind the day's best time.
On the men's 4x7.5-kilometer biathlon relay, the group of Derkach, Oleksander Bilanenko, Roman Pryma and Ruslan Lysenko finished in a very strong and respectable seventh place.
In cross-country skiing news, Ivano-Frankivsk resident Roman Leibiuk took 12th place in the 10-kilometer cross-country pursuit, featuring both freestyle and classical legs, in a field of 83 competitors.
In the women's 5-kilometer cross-country pursuit Iryna Terelia finished in 12th and Valentyna Shevchenko took 23rd, after both legs of the event, while teammates Olena Rodina and Maryna Pestriakova took 58th and 59th places, respectively, in the classical leg, failing to qualify for the freestyle leg.
In skiing news, Lviv native Mykola Skriabin took 29th place in the men's super-G and 25th in the combined events (downhill and slalom), while 21-year-old Yulia Siparenko of Kyiv took 30th in the women's slalom.
Stanley Haba of the Canadian Friends of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine said of Ukraine's Olympic performance to date, "It's a shame Ukraine has yet to win a medal. But [even] if Ukraine were not to win a medal, we should remember that it's competing as an independent country under the blue-and-yellow national colors."
Mr. Haba, whose Canadian Friends of the NOC-Ukraine raised over $40,000 for the biathlon and cross-country teams, urged the Ukrainian diaspora communities to donate what they could to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. He cited poor funding as a major reason for a disappointing Ukrainian performance at the Salt Lake City Games.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 24, 2002, No. 8, Vol. LXX
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