Turning the pages back... July 1-4, 2000 (06/27/04)

Turning the pages back...

July 1-4, 2000

Four years ago, The Ukrainian Weekly reported that nearly 500 athletes - ranging in age from elementary school kids to seniors - competed in six sports during the Ukrainian Diaspora Olympiad 2000 on July 1-4 at and near the Ukrainian Sports Center Tryzub in Horsham, Pa.

The participating organizations included the sports clubs Tryzub-Philadelphia, Chornomorska Sitch-Newark, N.J., Levy (Lions)-Chicago, Chernyk-Detroit, Lviv-Cleveland, Ukrainian Sports Club-New York, Ukraina-Toronto and the Ukrainian Soccer Club-Yonkers, N.Y., as well as the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization. In addition, many independent athletes also competed in individual sports events.

The largest number of athletes - nearly 250 - were registered for the soccer events; the next most popular sport in terms of the number of registrants was volleyball. Other sports included swimming, tennis, golf and chess.

Among the notables in attendance were Vice Prime Minister Zhulynskyi, and Myron Stebelsky, president of the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada, who welcomed all the athletes and spectators.

The Ukrainian Diaspora Olympiad 2000 was the third such mega-meet organized by Ukrainian sports enthusiasts of North America. It is notable that all three were held in the Philadelphia area.

The First Ukrainian American Olympiad, as it was billed, was held in 1936 on Labor Day in Philadelphia. Representatives of various youth clubs in Philadelphia formed an organizing committee to plan and conduct this sports gathering to be held in conjunction with the Fourth Ukrainian Youth Congress. More than 150 Ukrainian youths competed; also participating as guest competitors were some 100 non-Ukrainian athletes. Sponsors included the Ukrainian Youth League of North America, the Ukrainian National Association and the Ukrainian Workingmen's Association (today the Ukrainian Fraternal Association).

The second games, dubbed the Ukrainian American Millennium Olympiad and Youth Rally, took place over the Memorial Day weekend in 1988. The Olympiad was held in cooperation with the National Committee to Commemorate the Millennium of Christianity in Ukraine and under the sponsorship of the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada. More than 700 athletes participated in diverse sports events.

Source: "500 athletes compete in Ukrainian Diaspora Olympiad," by Roman Stelmach and Roma Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, August 13, 2000, Vol. LXVIII, No. 33.

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