International Olympic Day

In January 1948, the International Olympic Committee approved the idea of Olympic Day to commemorate the creation of the IOC on 23 June 1894 in Paris at the 42nd IOC Session in St Moritz, Switzerland. Olympic Day was held for the first time on 23 June with a total of 9 National Olympic Committees hosting ceremonies in their respective countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland, Uruguay and Venezuela.

  The National Olympic committee of the Republic of Belarus traditionally organizes sport and official events to celebrate the International Olympic Day all over the country.

  This year the Sport Palace of Minsk became a so-called “ground zero” of the festive events in the capital of our country.

  The official part of the event was accompanied by welcome speeches of the Minsk City Executive Committee Chairman Nikolai Ladutko, First Vice President of the NOC Belarus Igor Zaichkov and 4-times Olympic Champion Elena Belova. Then the anthem of the International Olympic Committee was played and the International Olympiс Day was officially started.

  That day at the Sport Palace the competitions in volleyball, streetball, canoe/kayak, sailing, arm wrestling, tug-of-war, kettlebell were held. The best participants received prizes and gifts from Olympic Champions and honorable guests. The awarding ceremonies were held by Sergey Makarenko, Elena Belova, Leonid Taranenko, Alexandre Romankov, Tatyana Ledovskaya, Aleksandr Gazov etc.

  Besides a lot of exhibition performances in different sports were taking place apart from the competitions.

  The International Olympic Day is a festive day not only for the athletes. One of the proofs is the contest of Olympic arts that was held between the schools of Minsk. The Museum of Olympic Glory organized an Olympic quiz for the visitors. Besides, the visitors could interview the Olympic champion Tatyana Belopashko.