2003: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The world of sports: boxing's the top story

The year 2003 saw Ukrainian athletes competing on a variety of levels in a variety of different sports. There were historic bids to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat and news of a Ukrainian Canadian buying a National Hockey League team in Canada. The year saw diaspora Ukrainians in North America competing in tournaments and professional athletes setting world records. There was even news of a Ukrainian strong man from Lviv who might soon become the strongest man in the world.

In the world of boxing, South African Corrie Sanders knocked out Ukrainian Volodymyr Klitschko to take the World Boxing Organization title during a boxing match in Hannover, Germany, on March 8. The loss was Klitschko's second in his professional career and gave him a record of 40 wins and two losses.

Sanders, 37, stunned Klitschko, 27, with repeated punches throughout the short fight, knocking him to the mat twice in the first round and twice in the second round. The final blow came 27 seconds into the second round and shocked much of the boxing world as Klitshcko was widely expected to win.

On June 21 Lennox Lewis defeated Ukrainian Vitalii Klitschko to retain the World Boxing Council title after a ringside doctor stopped their fight prior to the start of the seventh round. While Lewis, 37, won the fight, it was Klitschko, 31, who surprised boxing experts and captured many of the 15,939 hearts at the Staples Center in Los Angeles with his performance. Klitschko, a 4-1 underdog going into the fight, left a strong impression on analysts and commentators working the fight. Several, including boxing great and former heavyweight champion George Foreman and HBO's Larry Merchant, called Klitschko the real winner in the fight and said that questions regarding Klitschko's heart were erased with the Ukrainian's performance.

Klitschko fought from the third round on with blood pouring over the left side of his face from five different cuts. Dr. Pearlman Hicks said in a telephone interview with The New York Times that 60 stitches were required to repair four cuts on Klitschko's face and one cut in his mouth.

Ringside doctor Paul Wallace ordered referee Lou Moret to stop the fight in between the sixth and seventh rounds prompting a strong reaction from Klitschko, who was winning, 58-56, on all three of the ringside judges' scorecards when the fight was stopped. Lewis, the reigning WBC champion, won the fight after six rounds by technical knockout. "Right now I feel like I am the people's champion," Klitschko said immediately after the bout, according to Reuters.

Then, on December 6, Vitalii Klitschko used only two rounds to knock out Canadian Kirk Johnson in front of 10,823 screaming fans at Madison Square Garden. Johnson, from North Preston, Nova Scotia, had lost only once previously and was a top contender going into the bout with Klitschko, but the Ukrainian never let him get into the fight. Johnson appeared tentative and hardly landed a punch as Klitschko pursued him relentlessly around the ring. Johnson's only previous defeat came at the hands of John Ruiz during a World Boxing Association title fight. Klitschko (33-2-0, 32 knockouts) had not fought since his June 21 bout, but he appeared well-prepared for the fight with Johnson. The win made Klitschko the official No. 1 heavyweight challenger for the WBC belt, and it also appeared to prove that his performance against Lewis was no fluke. There had been some speculation that a rematch between Lewis and Klitschko could net the aging 38-year-old British boxer nearly $20 million, although the Lewis camp continued to hint that Lewis might retire prior to a rematch.

Klitschko, who landed 55 punches to Johnson's nine, had much of the crowd's support behind him.

Klitschko was originally scheduled to fight Lewis on December 6, but the Briton backed out of the fight and the WBC decided to have an official elimination contest instead. Lewis said he wasn't ready to fight again in 2003 and needed time to think about whether he would ever fight again. Klitschko needed an opponent for the December 6 fight and he took what many regarded as a tough one in the once-beaten Johnson.

If Lewis does chose to retire in 2004, Klitschko could potentially fight Corrie Sanders, who beat Vitalii's younger brother Volodymyr earlier in 2003, for the vacant title.

In May The Weekly reported that billionaire Ukrainian Eugene N. Melnyk, the 44-year-old Toronto-born chairman and chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical giant Biovail Corp., received Ontario Superior Court approval to purchase the National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators. The Senators won their first Presidents' Trophy this year for finishing the regular season with the best overall record and made the Eastern Conference final against the New Jersey Devils - the closest the Senators have ever come to winning the Stanley Cup.

The $100 million (about $75 million U.S.) deal to purchase the nearly bankrupt 11-year-old NHL franchise, through Mr. Melnyk's company Capital Sports & Entertainment Inc., was to have closed by May 30. But the offer hinged on finalizing a transaction to buy the Corel Center, the team's home arena that defaulted on payments and was placed into receivership in May. On June 10, that deal, too, was finalized, though its details were not released.

Mr. Melnyk had offered $27.5 million to purchase the Corel Center - built for more than $220 million in 1996 - from Covanta Energy Corp., an insolvent New Jersey-based company that is owed $210 million for financing construction of the arena. The NHL's board of governors unanimously approved the purchase of the Ottawa Senators and the Corel Center by Mr. Melnyk on June 17.

On May 3, 29-year-old Vasyl Vyrastiuk of Lviv set a world record by moving five street cars weighing 101.5 tons each a distance of 17.9 meters (about 60 feet). The effort was duly recorded and is scheduled to become part of the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Mr. Vyrastiuk, who works as a filling station guard, has also set records in carrying two bags weighing 171 kilograms each (376 pounds each) and in pushing a line of 10 automobiles. He is regarded as the undisputed strongman of Ukraine and perhaps the world. He has won and successfully defended virtually every major strongman championship in Ukraine and within the region of the former Soviet Union.

On September 29 Vyrastiuk took a bronze medal in a World's Strongest Man Contest held in Zambia. The Weekly reported that the Ivano-Frankivsk native found that his natural gift lay in his ability to move train cars and tractor-trailers several hundred yards, usually several at a time, often weighing in excess of 60 tons. He found he was also pretty good at lifting suitcases filled with 120 kilograms (approximately 265 pounds) of concrete a piece, one in each hand, and carrying them 70 meters faster than anybody else in the world. In Zambia he did it in 24 seconds, a new world record. He also realized that he had an unusual ability to push a horse cart filled with a ton of salt 20 meters faster than anybody, to say nothing of carrying logs or lifting concrete spheres two meters or so in diameter onto a platform.

After winning the Ukrainian championship in 2000 and repeating the next two years, Vyrastiuk made his first mark on the world stage with his win in Zambia, where the Ukrainian federation competed for the first time as well. Even so, only Mariusz Pudzianovskii of Poland, who retained his title as the world's strongest man and Zhendrunos Zavytskas of Lithuania, who repeated in the second spot, bested the Ukrainian novice.

He called his experience in Zambia an important step in his quest to reach the top spot in a sport that is quickly gaining a worldwide audience. "It is my dream to be called the strongest man in the world, if God wills it," said Vyrastiuk. "After Zambia I know my strengths and understand what I need to work on."

The Weekly also reported that, following a two-year hiatus, Olympic gold medalist and world figure skating champion Oksana Baiul was planning a comeback into the realm of professional figure skating. Speaking with a Ukrainian Weekly correspondent by phone from Richmond, Va., Ms. Baiul sounded excited yet poised about the prospect of going out on the ice and thrilling fans again. "I'm working my butt off, I want to be as good as I can," she said, "and I've got my coach from 1994 - Valentin Nikolayev - supervising my training."

Ms. Baiul made a preliminary re-start in show business in April, when she shared the ice with Olympic champions Brian Boitano and Ekaterina Gordeeva and a large cast of champion figure skaters at the Mother's Day celebration sponsored by Hallmark Cards in Colorado. A portion of the live performance was televised on the CBS Network on May 3.

On July 6 at the World Open Chess Tournament in Philadelphia Nazar Firman, a young Ukrainian from Lviv, tied nine other grandmasters for first place in the tournament. Firman competed in the top group of 238 contenders, among them 40 grandmasters, which made Firman's achievement even more remarkable as he was the only non-grandmaster among the winners (he is an international master).

Firman is the champion of Ukraine in the under-20 category, and he was a member of the Lviv team at the 2003 European team championship.

Ukraine won a gold and a bronze medal at the 2003 Freestyle Wrestling World Championships in New York on September 12-14, and qualified six out of a possible 11 wrestlers for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Ukraine's Iryna Merleni (née Melnyk) won her third consecutive World Championship in the women's 48-kilogram (105.5 pound) division and will defend her title as the best in the world at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Merleni so dominated the competition in the opening round - earning 26 points in her first three matches while giving none up - that she also earned the title of top female wrestler for the 2003 World Championships.

In addition to Merleni, Ukraine's Liudmila Golovchenko qualified for the 2004 Olympics with a fourth-place finish in the women's 63-kilogram (138.75 pound) division. Both women will be part of history as women's wrestling will make its Olympic debut next year.

Ukraine's Vadym Tasoyev also earned a spot at the 2004 Summer Games with his eighth-place finish in the men's 96-kilogram (211.25-pound) division.

The Weekly also reported on November 9 that a former Ukrainian scientist had revealed portions of a secret Soviet research project that tested the effects of banned performance-enhancing steroids on athletes. The research report for that project seemed to support long-held suspicions that Soviet success in Olympic competition was based largely on state-sanctioned use of steroids.

Dr. Michael Kalinski, a former chair of the department of sport biochemistry at the State University of Physical Education and Sport in Kyiv, said the 39-page research report was "a clear recommendation-type document and it clearly recommended steroid use by athletes of different specializations," Dr. Kalinski told The Ukrainian Weekly during a series of telephone and e-mail interviews.

According to Dr. Kalinski, the document "Anabolic Steroids and Sport Capacity" presented data from secret studies performed at a premier Soviet sport research laboratory in 1971-1972 on the performance-enhancing effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids. The Soviet research document "contains a series of scientific reports providing the times and dosages for the administration of anabolic-androgenic steroids to human subjects (athletes) and data from and descriptions of experiments conducted at the ... State Central Institute of Physical Culture in Moscow," Dr. Kalinski wrote in an analysis that was shared with The Weekly.

During a press conference on June 20 at the Ukrainian Consulate in New York City Ukrainian Teodor Rezvoy announced his daring bid to become just the third person in the world to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean and back. Mr. Rezvoy, 35, of Odesa, Ukraine, completed the first leg of the journey, having rowed from Spain to the Barbados in just over 67 days, according to information compiled by the Ocean Rowing Society. That journey, which took place from October to December 2001 and covered a distance of 2,934 miles, made him the first man from the former Soviet Union to row across an ocean.

However, after only eight days at sea, Mr. Rezvoy's journey from New York to France ended abruptly on July 10. His $100,000 hi-tech rowboat, Ukraine, was temporarily lost, left drifting somewhere in the Atlantic, while Mr. Rezvoy was on land in the United States. Mr. Rezvoy, who planned to row 3,354 miles from New York City to Brest, France, over the course of approximately 80 days, had been battling bad weather, rough seas and westward winds that pushed him off course and behind schedule.

The General Consulate of Ukraine in New York City said Mr. Rezvoy also began to feel ill, and that there was some problem with his liver. Mr. Rezvoy continued to row for several days as rough seas repeatedly capsized his 2,000-pound boat. The consulate said Mr. Rezvoy did not send out the maritime distress signal SOS but that, after a U.S. Navy frigate appeared on his horizon, Mr. Rezvoy ended his quest for France on July 11 when he signaled for help.

The Navy found that Mr. Rezvoy was no threat and released the Ukrainian sailor, but damaged his boat when they attempted, but failed, to hoist the rowboat onto the deck of the USS Doyle for a closer inspection. Without a boat to row, the U.S. Navy deposited Mr. Rezvoy in Salem, Mass., later that same day.

Mr. Rezvoy had hoped to become only the third person ever to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean and back. He is planning a second attempt to reach Europe. At the moment he is hoping to depart New York City for France on June 6, 2004.

In March Tatyana Pozdnyakova, a 47-year-old Ukrainian, became the oldest woman to win a big-city marathon, finishing the race in Los Angeles in 2 hours, 29 minutes and 40 seconds. Lioudmila Kortchaguina of Russia took second place with a time of 2:30:18, and Zivile Balciunaite of Lithuania took third place with a time of 2:33:22. With her win Pozdnyakova received $28,000 plus a 2003 Honda Accord EX V-6.

On November 4 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization named Serhiy Bubka of Ukraine a UNESCO Champion for Sport during a ceremony at the organizations headquarters in Paris.

According to the UNESCO website, the award recognized "Bubka's role in the promotion of peace and tolerance through sport and the Olympic spirit, his humanitarian activities in favor of young people, his action to enable disadvantaged children to benefit from physical education and his dedication to the organization's ideas."

The Weekly also learned in 2003 that Jordin Tootoo, who became the first player of Inuit descent to play in a National Hockey League game when his Nashville Predators' took on the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on October 9, is part Ukrainian. According to the Canadian Press, Tootoo's father, Barney, is of Inuk heritage, while his mother, Rose, is Ukrainian. The Canadian news wire reported that the five-foot-nine, 20-year-old hails from Rankin Inlet, Nunavet, a town located just south of the Arctic Circle with a population of some 2,500.

On July 11, after 1,283 regular season games and another 175 in the playoffs with the New Jersey Devils, National Hockey League stalwart Ken Daneyko announced his retirement. Daneyko accepted a position with his team in community relations. The Weekly reported that the primary focus of his new position would be to campaign for a new arena to be built in Newark, N.J.

Only three players in NHL history have played more games all with one team than Daneyko. Alex Delvecchio is the all-time leader with 1,549 games, all as a Detroit Red Wing. He is followed by Stan Mikita (1,394 with the Chicago Blackhawks) and Steve Yzerman (1,375+ with Detroit). Daneyko debuted with the New Jersey Devils on October 5, 1983. National Hockey League franchises in Hartford, Quebec, Winnipeg and Minnesota (North Stars) came and went during Daneyko's NHL career. He has played during the terms of four U.S. presidents (Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) while being able to call some 220 fellow Devils his teammates. He has played for all 11 of New Jersey's head coaches.

"It has been very special to me," Daneyko said. "Sometimes I sit at home and think how it has gone by so quickly that I can't believe it. I've given my heart and soul to this team and I think they appreciate it, which is why I'm still here."

In diaspora sports, the Carpathian Ski Club (known by the Ukrainian-based acronym KLK) hosted its annual ski and snowboard races on Saturday, March 8, in Windham, N.Y., at Ski Windham. Close to 70 skiers and a handful of snowboarders competed in the 2003 races, which were notable for the participation of a growing number of young racers who arrived with their parents and siblings in tow.

The races were officially opened with the presentation of the American and Ukrainian flags held aloft by skiers as they took a symbolic run down the official NASTAR course. (NASTAR, the acronym for the National Standard Race, is the largest public recreational grass roots ski program in the world.) Each skier then got two runs down the course, with his or her best time counting in the official scoring.

That evening, an awards banquet attended by approximately 130 people - athletes of all ages, plus their families and friends - was held at nearby Hunter Mountain. Among those in attendance were VIP guests from the Embassy of Ukraine who traveled to upstate New York from Washington especially for the KLK races. Yurii Panasiuk, deputy trade representative, and Commander Serhiy O. Hyshtymult, naval attaché, were introduced to banquet participants and were invited to help present trophies and medals. Another special guest was a representative of KLK in Lviv, Marta Dubyk, who briefly addressed the gathering, extending greetings from KLK activists in Ukraine.

Trophies were awarded for first place in each age group; while second- and third-place finishers received medals. Special traveling trophies, which are passed on from year to year to each successive winner (no repeat winners are allowed), were presented for the fastest time posted among men and women competitors. KLK leader Erko Palydowycz, Orest Fedash and Zenon Stakhiv conducted the evening's program, assisted by Vera Popel and Christine Klufas.

On March 23 at Tryzubivka, in Horsham, Pa., the Ukrainian Nationals soccer club beat perennial rival, Vereinigte Erzgebirge (V/E), 3-2 to capture the Eastern Pennsylvania U.S. Amateur Soccer Association Open Cup. The game was won on a free kick, 18 yards from goal. Earlier in the game, V/E came back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the score 2-2.

During the winter 2003 season, the top men's amateur soccer teams of the Delaware Valley competed in an expanded indoor tournament in which the Ukrainian Nationals handily captured first place in their division with 19 total points (6 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss) and a goals-scored advantage of 40 vs. 24.

On July 27 the club soccer team Newark (N.J.) Chornomorska Sitch won the 2003 East Coast Cup soccer tournament held at the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) resort in Ellenville, N.Y. The tournament was sponsored by the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada (USCAK). The tournament included special guests Manchester (England) "Dynamo," a team of British Ukrainians touring the United States to raise awareness for the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) land mine charity (www.magclearsmines.org). Team Manager Slavko Mykosovski scheduled his team's trip to coincide with the U.S. tour of the English professional club soccer team, Manchester United.

The East Coast Cup tournament was formally opened on Saturday morning with comments from Tournament Director Mark Howansky, SUM resort Manager Peter Kosciolek, and Myron Stebelsky, president of the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada. Opening ceremonies then concluded with the playing of the American, British, and Ukrainian national anthems.

Yonkers Krylati played Newark Sitch in the championship match. After playing two scoreless halves and two scoreless overtime periods, the teams headed to penalty shots. The regular five-round shoot-out ended in a 4-4 tie. The last eligible shooters (the team goalies) shot and broke the deadlock. Sitch goalie Marcel Simon guessed correctly with his dive and stopped Bohdan Protas' shot. Then despite the extreme pressure, Simon swapped positions with Protas and proceeded to coolly sink his shot, giving Newark Sitch the tournament victory.

The Sunday afternoon awards ceremony was presided over by SUM National Board President Bohdan Harhaj and SUM National Board Sports Myron Pryjmak. Besides awarding trophies to the top three team finishers they also had the honor of presenting trophies to Alex Demianczuk of Manchester Dynamo for tournament's most valuable player, Christian Pardo of Newark Sitch for top goal scorer, and Vasyl Solomyn of Long Island Vatra for best goalie.

The Manchester (England) "Dynamo" club team, officially known as Dynamo FC, played a number of matches against local U.S. opposition soccer teams during their 2003 tour of the United States. Organizers of the supporters' trip hoped to raise awareness, not only for the landmine charity, but also for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Manchester Dynamo also took on a New Jersey team of Italians, Santa Croce SC, on Tuesday, July 29, as well as Philadelphia Tryzub on Saturday, August 2, in Horsham, Pa.

The Manchester United supporters team was made up of both semi-professionals and amateurs, who have been actively involved in fund-raising events and raising money for a children's hospital charity. The team gained recognition for its good endeavors and set an example as ambassadors of British-Ukrainian sporting heritage in the United Kingdom.

Over 50 swimmers participated in the 47th annual USCAK swimming championships held on Labor Day weekend at the Ukrainian National Association's Soyuzivka resort in Kerhonkson, N.Y. Chornomorska Sitch recaptured the championship title with 178 points, while SUM scored 156 points. Tryzub followed with 53, and Plast had 5 points. Three new records were broken.

After the races, medals, trophies and ribbons donated by the UNA were distributed to the winners. Christine Kozak, UNA national secretary, congratulated the swimmers and welcomed them to return next year.

Also at Soyuzivka over the Labor Day weekend, the traditional USCAK national tennis tournament was held. Dr. George Charuk of Chicago won the men's final and 14-year-old Maryana Milchutske won the women's final. During the opening ceremonies on Saturday UNA treasurer, Roma Lisovich, officially opened the tennis event. Brief addresses were also delivered by Myron Stebelsky, USCAK's president, Roman Rakoczy, honorary member, and George Popel representing the host club, the Carpathian Ski Club (KLK). George Sawchak, tennis tournament director, assisted by Mr. Popel, and George Hrabec, conducted the tournament.

As in previous years, John Hynansky, entrepreneur, philanthropist and owner of the Winner Group from Wilmington, Del., sponsored the financial stipends for the men's, women's and junior groups in the amount of $3,500. Since the tournament's inception in 1956, the UNA has also sponsored the tournament by providing the trophy awards.

In addition, special awards were presented to the winners of various groups: Bohdan Rak Trophy, Dr. Wolodymyr Huk Trophy, Jaroslaw Rubel Trophy, Constantyn Ben Trophy, and the Dr. Petro Charuk Trophy.

In November a soccer team representing USCAK traveled to Stockport, England, to compete in the 2003 Peter Madytsch Memorial Five-a-Side Tournament. "USCAK Select" joined 14 other teams in the competition and was represented by players from three clubs: Levko Holubec (Lviv Ukrainian American Sports Club, Ohio), Mark Howansky and Lena Howansky (Krylati) and Roman Holowinsky, Hryts Serheev and Andrij Panas (Chornomorska Sitch, New Jersey).

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 11, 2004, No. 2, Vol. LXXII

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