Ukraine earns its first medal at Torino Games (02/19/06)

Ukraine earns its first medal at Torino Games

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Six days into the competition at the Winter Olympics in Torino (a.k.a. Turin), Italy, Ukraine earned its first medal of the Games: a bronze won on Thursday, February 16, by biathlete Lilia Efremova in the women's 7.5 kilometer sprint.

The next highest finish for Team Ukraine was a sixth place earned by Liliya Ludan in the women's singles of the luge competition on Tuesday, February 14.

Her teammate Natalia Yakushenko, who was ranked seventh in the World Cup standings, crashed during one of her runs and did not finish the competition.

Ms. Yakushenko's crash came on a portion of the track that has daunted lugers, including several of world-class caliber. Six women lugers were not able to finish their races and one did not start after crashing during training.

In the luge men's doubles, the duo of Oleg Zherebetskyy and Roman Yazvinskyy suffered a serious crash that eliminated them from the competition. Fellow Ukrainian lugers Andriy Kis and Yuriy Hayduk placed 12th in the men's doubles.

The pairs figure skating competition on Monday, February 13, saw Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov place 12th. The duo of Julia Beloglazova and Andrei Bekh came in 19th.

Other events in which Ukraine's athletes placed in the top 20 were: biathlon - men's 20-kilometer individual, where Ruslan Lysenko placed 18th; and cross-country skiing - ladies' 15-kilometer pursuit, where Valentina Shevchenko was in 14th place. (A complete list of Team Ukraine's results appears on the right.)

Ukraine's presence in Torino began with the raising of the Ukrainian national flag on February 9. The Ukrainian team, consisting of 53 athletes, is participating in 10 sports in the 20th Winter Olympics.

Vice Prime Minister Viacheslav Kyrylenko told Ukrainian news media that Ukraine hopes for medals at least in four or five sports. He noted that he had flown to Torino in order to visit the athletes at the Olympic villages where they are staying. "I rubbed shoulders with our athletes. They are all in a good mood and are all seeking success," Mr. Kyrylenko commented.

During the Torino Games' opening ceremonies on Friday, February 10, Ms. Yakushenko, 33, a native of Kyiv who is competing in her third Winder Olympics, carried the Ukrainian flag.

Ukraine's biggest European celebrity, soccer star Andrii Shevchenko of AC Milan, had the honor of carrying the Olympic torch through a tight corridor of sports fans who shouted, "She-va!" Just before the Milan's main square, Duomo, he passed the torch to Italian gymnast and Athens gold medalist Igor Cassini.

Vice Prime Minister Kyrylenko and Minister of Family, Youth and Sports Yurii Pavlenko represented the Ukrainian government at the opening ceremonies, as well as the raising of the Ukrainian flag. Serhii Bubka, chair of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, also attended.

Ukraine's government delegation to Torino was sharply reduced to about a dozen officials this year after the Summer Olympics in Athens resulted in scandal. More than 200 representatives attended those Olympics, far outnumbering those on the Ukrainian Olympic team.

Mr. Kyrylenko noted that "Italy has a huge amount of experience organizing such competitions, winter sports in particular." He added, "Ukraine lacks this kind of experience. So we're also here to learn from the gains made in Europe and the world. I think that our managers, representatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, directors of the National Olympic Committee and sports federations deeply hope in their hearts that this experience and these observations will be applied to organization of competition in Ukraine on a large scale."

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