EDITORIAL: Ukraine's third Winter Olympics (02/10/02)

EDITORIAL

Ukraine's third Winter Olympics

By the time you read these lines, Ukraine's 70 athletes will have marched into the Olympic stadium in Salt Lake City, and competition will be well under way in what for Ukraine is its third appearance at the Winter Olympics.

But, as these lines are being written, there was nothing more than anticipation as Ukrainians worldwide focused their thoughts, and crossed their fingers, hoping for a good showing by Ukraine. For the next two-plus weeks, most of us will be glued to our TV sets and scanning our daily newspapers for news of Ukraine's results. We are lucky also to have our own correspondent on the scene. Our editorial staffer Andrew Nynka has already filed his first reports from Ukraine's official training site in Sun Valley, Idaho; next week his dateline will read "Salt Lake City, Utah."

Though Ukraine is not known as a powerhouse in winter sports, there is evidence to indicate that its Winter Olympic team is getting progressively stronger. Take, for example, the number of athletes on the team. Just for comparison, note that in 1998 a team of 56 athletes competed in 10 sports, while in 1994 the number was even smaller: 37 athletes (also in 10 sports). Now there are 70 athletes in 11 sports.

Eight years ago Ukraine made its Olympic debut in Lillehammer, Norway, where its athletes earned two medals. The first - the first Winter Olympic medal ever won by Ukraine - was a bronze earned by biathlete Valentyna Tserba-Nesina. There was also a gold-medal performance in figure skating by a teenager from Odesa, Oksana Baiul, that was nothing short of remarkable.

Four years ago in Nagano, Japan, Ukraine returned with a lone medal - a silver earned in the biathlon by Olena Petrova, but there were several very strong finishes that left Ukraine's athletes just out of the medals. Good news for the future, we reasoned at the time.

And, here it is four years later. Some of the top athletes from 1998 are back, most notably Ms. Petrova and her fellow biathletes Olena Zubrylova, Tetiana Vodopianova, Nina Lemesh, Andrii Deryzemlia (who carried the Ukrainian flag during both the opening and closing ceremonies in Nagano), Viacheslav Derkach and Ruslan Lysenko; cross-country skiers Iryna Terelia (who had two fourth-place finishes in 1998), Valentyna Shevchenko and Maryna Pestriakova; and freestyle skiers Tetiana Kozachenko (who just missed a bronze four years ago) and Stanislav Kravchuk, Other veterans are figure skaters Olena Liashenko and Dmytro Dmytrenko; the ice dancing pair of Olena Hrushyna and Ruslan Honcharov; alpine skier Mykola Skriabin; ski jumper Volodymyr Hlyvka; lugers Lilia Ludan, Oleh Avdeyev and Danylo Panchenko; and bobsledder Oleh Polyvach.

But there are new faces as well, like figure skater Halyna Maniachenko, fresh from a fourth place finish at the European Championship, and of course, Ukraine's ice hockey team, which has qualified for Olympic competition for the first time ever (a hint to Olympics junkies: look for Ukraine's hockey games on CNBC).

It's a team that has trained hard and well, and expectations are that Ukraine will do better than ever in the Winter Games. We bid all of Ukraine's champions good luck as they proudly represent Ukraine at the 19th Winter Olympics.

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