YOG 2016. Farewell ceremony for the Belarusian sport delegation.

According to the press service of NOC Belarus, on February 5, Olympic Hall of Fame of NOC Belarus held a farewell ceremony for the Belarusian sport delegation at the second Winter Youth Olympic Games.

Among the participants there were members of sport delegation, the officials of NOC Belarus, Sports and Tourism Ministry of the Republic of Belarus, Paralympic Committee, sports federations, general sponsors of NOC Belarus – JSC Belargroprombank, JSC Belaruskali, UNICEF and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss19ygmKnpY

The ceremony started with Maksim Ryzhenkov, the Assistant to the President of the Republic of Belarus on physical culture, sport and tourism, First Vice-President of NOC Belarus, wishing the athletes good results at the competitions.

Lillehammer 1994 were the first Olympic Games where Belarus took part in as an independent team. Belarus won 2 medals: silver by Svetlana Paramygina in biathlon and silver by Igor Zhelezovsky in speed skating.
Svetlana Paramygina, Merited Master of Sports, silver medalist of 1994 Winter Olympics, three-times World champion, 1993/1994 World Cup winner, said farewell words to the young Olympic athletes.

And now Lillehammer once again awaits our Belarusian athletes who will compete for medals at the II Winter Youth Olympic Games that will take place on February 12 – 21, 2016.

More than a thousand athletes aged from 15 to 18, representing 70 countries, will compete with each other in 15 sport disciplines. Lillehammer offers young athletes a great variety of fun and interactive activities that will help them to know more about Olympic values and world cultures as well as foster their skills to develop sport in future.

16 Belarusian athletes (8 M / 8 W) will contest in 7 sport disciplines: biathlon, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, speed skating, snowboard (slopestyle), figure skating (ice dance), ice hockey (skills challenge).
On the IOC invitation, the Republic of Belarus will be represented by young ambassador Anastasia Lesik and young reporter Polina Golovina (Ignatenko).

It is to be recalled that at the I Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck (Austria) the Belarusian National Team was composed of 16 athletes competing in 8 sports. In the unofficial medal count Belarus took 24th place scoring 2 medals: one gold medal and one silver medal. Eugenia Tkachenko and Yuri Gulitski (figure skating) took the gold in mixed team. Roman Dubovik won silver medal in speed skating.

II Winter Youth Olympic Games official website http://lillehammer2016.com/