The Winter Olympic Games, to be held in Vancouver, Canada, on February 12 to 28, are about a month away. Our athletes still have some time to fill the remaining Olympic vacancies and receive thorough training. Last Thursday the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and the Boskosport company displayed the new official uniform and sporting gear of the national Olympic team. It is the second Olympics (after the Beijing games in 2008) when the state has not spent a single penny for the athletes’ clothes.
It will be very easy to recognize our athletes among representatives of other countries: they will all be wearing an outfit in the Ukrainian national flag colors – blue and yellow, – and one of the uniform’s ornamental elements is an ear of wheat and a trident.
Athletes who took part in the last summer Olympic Games were the first to try on the new uniform. The point is that most of the Winter Olympics candidates are now outside Ukraine and are participating in competitions on different levels. According to Anna Bezsonova, the world all-around champion in rhythmic gymnastics, the winter uniform is as comfortable as the summer one. And, what is more, it is exclusive and expressive, which is also important for our Olympians to be remembered well.
“This is the first time the national team acquired a complete set: sport uniform, official uniform, and uniform for medal presentation,” Ukraine National Olympic Committee Chairman Serhii Bubka says. “At the Beijing Olympics our athletes also wore the Boskosport-made uniform: both the athletes and the fans were pleased, for the latter also tend to buy a similar outfit and wear it when they come to see a competition. Incidentally, in Beijing our uniform was among the top six uniforms of all the national teams. We have signed a contract now with sponsors on supplying athletes with sporting gear until 2016 for all competitions, including the Olympic Games, championships, and youth festivals. The NOC is thus going to get a $10-million-worth sponsors’ contribution, which will also include rewards for athletes.”
The Vancouver Olympics were expected to receive about 50 Ukrainian athletes: 44 have already won the right to take part in the 2010 Olympic Games and several more are contesting this right these days. According to Yurii Pavlenko, Minister for Family, Youth, and Sport, biathlon, Nordic skiing, freestyle skiing, and figure skating are traditionally the key Olympic events. Athletes will be vying for a total 86 sets of medals in Vancouver, and the whole sporting family hopes that the Ukrainians will win a part of them.
What can be an incentive of sorts for athletes is the increase of the state reward for a gold medal from 700,000 to a million hryvnias. Pavlenko says that the ministry has already submitted this decision to the Cabinet for approval.
