Olympics 2024: Tsikhantsou’s bronze to wrap up Paris Games

Belarusian athletes completed their performance at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. On 10 August, our athletes competed for medals in freestyle wrestling, canoe sprint, and achieved the greatest success in weightlifting.

Yauheni Tsikhantsou, the World Weightlifting Championships bronze medalist and European champion, competed at the 2024 Paris Games in the 102kg weight category. The Belarusian started his performance with an unsuccessful attempt to lift 176kg in the snatch. Then he cleared his 178kg and 183kg attempts. Following the first exercise the Belarusian athlete was fourth, 2kg away from the third place and 3kg – from the first one.

In the clean and jerk Yauheni Tsikhantsou cleared his 214kg and 219kg attempts, but failed to lift 228kg. A total of 402kg was enough for the Belarusian to surpass Armenia’s Garik Karapetyan and claim bronze. The Olympic champion title went to China’s Liu Huanhua (406kg). Silver was collected by Akbar Djuraev of Uzbekistan (404kg).

“I want to express deep gratitude to everyone who rooted for me. This is our common victory. My coaching staff and I have come a long and hard way to achieve today's result and get a medal. We are not going to stop there. We will continue preparing for the next Olympics. We hope that we will be able to win gold,” Yauheni Tsikhantsou said. “Three years ago in Tokyo I was overwhelmed with emotions. After all, that Olympics was my first one. Everything was different today. Today is a great day for me. I feel great. It was nice to feel the support of the fans. Everything worked out well.”

Wasn’t there any excitement?
“No, there wasn’t. I have already learned to control my emotions. My preparation for the Paris Olympics was a little different. I worked really well with my team. Both physically and mentally.”

Will you assess your performance, which started with a failed first attempt in the snatch?

“There was nothing terrible about the first attempt going blank. My coach and I controlled the situation. The reason was purely technical. We conducted an analysis before the second attempt, and everything turned out just fine.”

You lifted 219kg in the clean and jerk. Is this your best result in this exercise?

“No, it isn’t. At the 2019 European Weightlifting Championships in Batumi I lifted 222kg.”

If we go back to June 2024, when the Olympic entry lists were decided, did you believe that you would go to the Paris Games and win a medal?

Yes, I had an inner feeling that everything would be fine. That's why I trained hard to perform well here.

The Gomselmash children and youth Olympic school, where you started your training, is probably rejoicing today?

“I hope so.”
Whom did you dedicate your bronze medal to?

“To my son Timofei, of course. He is only seven months old, but I felt his support and that of my wife Angelina during my performance. That gave me strength.

Head coach Valery Sizenok commented the performance of Yauheni Tsikhantsou and Siuzanna Valodzka at the Olympic Games:



“The opponents were very strong. There were two Olympic champions in this weight category (102kg). The competition was tight. The main thing is that Yauheni coped with the weight,” Valery Sizenok said. “There was a chance to compete for Olympic gold. We will leave it for the next Games. As for the tactics... There are moments, anyone can make mistakes, but we used the tactics right. We could have surpassed the Uzbek athlete. We did out best to realize the full potential of our athlete.

I am glad for all of us, for the country, that Belarus supported us. We worked well. Yauheni Tsikhantsou's medal is the fourth one for the country. Now we will continue getting ready for the next important competitions.



On the rowing canal in the Paris suburbs, Uladzislau Kravets tried hard to show his best in the men’s K-1 1000m final.

Kravets was the last to go at the 250m mark. He moved up to the sixth in the middle of the distance, was fifth at 250m mark before the finish, and eventually ended the race fourth, clocking 3:28.10.



Uladzislau Kravets finished 2.5 seconds behind the bronze-medal place. The Olympic champion title went to Jozef Dostal of the Czech Republic. Adam Varga of Hungary claimed silver, with fellow Hungarian Balint Kopasz collecting the bronze.

Yuliya Trushkina finished fifth in the Women's C-1 200m with a time of 44.83 sec. Yuliya was half a second behind the third placed Yarisleidis Cirilo of Cuba. Katie Vincent of Canada won the gold medal with a time of 44.12 beating U.S. Nevin Harrison, the Tokyo Games champion, by just one hundredth of a second.

“During this Olympic cycle, we had a lot of uncertainties. I am inclined to believe that we must do our best to ignore them. We need to go out as warriors and win. The license selection that we had was, as I call it ‘selection – underselection’. The K1 1000m is a difficult distance. This must be either a super-capable young athlete or a gray-haired experienced one. An athlete must be prepared mentally. Today we saw how it all came together for our young athlete Uladzislau Kravets. But I would say that his golden days are still ahead of him. As for Yuliya Trushkina, we will analyze her race. These are sprint races. But coordination and plasticity of movements are the components that need a lot of work. Psychologically she has matured, she needs to add in quality. She is a very capable and talented athlete," senior rowing coach Vladimir Shantarovich said.

In freestyle wrestling Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau, despite a leg injury, won the opening bout against Tajmuraz Salkazanov in the repechage tournament but then could not get past Chermen Valiev and finished his performance.



Team Belarus included 17 athletes and won a total of four medals: one gold, two silver and one bronze. Two medals were brought to Belarus by trampoline jumpers. Ivan Litvinovich won Olympic gold while Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya claimed silver. Yauheni Zalaty collected silver in the men’s single sculls. Bronze was clinched by weightlifter Yauheni Tsikhantsou.

Press service of the NOC of Belarus

Photos by the NOC of Belarus