Over the course of Olympic history Belarusian athletes have won 156 Olympic medals, including 80 gold ones. At the Barcelona Olympics (1992) the National team of Belarus won 17 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze medals. The gymnast Vitaly Scherbo, who won 6 gold medals, became the national sports hero. The traditions of brilliant performances were laid by Mikhail Krivonosov, the first Belarusian won a silver Olympic medal in Melbourne (1952) in hammer throwing, and by women-gymnasts Larisa Petrik, Olga Korbut, Tamara Lazakovich, Nelli Kim. The names of Alexander Medved, the first ever triple Olympic champion in wrestling, Igor Zhelezovski, 6 times world champion in skating, Tatiana Samusenko and Elena Belova, masters of fencing and many others, - became legendary. Today the athletes known in the world live in Belarus. They are Alexander Kurlovich & Leonid Taranenko weight lifters.

Belarusian Athletes in Athens 2004 Olympiad

These are few NBC screen shots of Belarusian Olympic delegation at Athens 2004 Olympiad opening. The flag is carried by  Alexander Medved - the first man who had won gold medal in three consecutive Olympiads - 1964, 1968, 1972.

153 athletes arrived from Belarus to compete in Athens 2004 Olympiad. Read more about Belarusian team from Olympiad website. You can read short biographies of Belarusian athletes participating in Athens 2004 Olympiad here.

Belarusian Athletes in Sydney Olympics 2000

The 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney are over. Belarusian athletes have won 17 medals in Olympic games in Sydney

Belarusian team had won silver medal in Women's Rhythmic Gymnastics Group All-Around despite the fact that they had the same score as golden medallist - Russia. Russia had the higher score in the final presentation, but the same total score. Some of these Olympic Games rules are down right nasty.

Yulia Raskina had won a silver medal in Women's Rhythmic Gymnastics Individual All-Around
Irina Yatchenko won bronze in Women's Athletics Discus Throw

Yanina Korolchik won a golden medal in Women's Athletics Shot Put

Pavel Dovgal won bronze in Men's Modern Pentathlon Modern Pentathlon
Igor BASINSKY won the silver medal in Men's 50m Pistol and the bronze medal in Men's 10m Air Pistol
Dmitry Debelka took bronze in Men's Wrestling Greco-Roman 130kg
Natalya Sazanovich won bronze in Women's Athletics Heptathlon.

Ellina Zvereva took gold in Women's Athletics Discus Throw
Anatoly Lariukov had won bronze in Men's Judo Lightweight 73kg
Sergei Lavrenov won bronze in Men's Weight Lifting 69kg
Gennady Oleschuk won bronze in Men's Weight Lifting 62kg

Ekaterina Kartsen won a golden medal in Women's Single Scull Rowing.
Igor Astapkovich won bronze medal in Men's Athletics Hammer Throw
Lolita Evglevskaya - bronze in Women's 25m Pistol
Sergei Martynov - bronze in Men's 50m Rifle Prone

Belarus is  #15 in medal count. It's not bad - we are ahead of countries like Canada, Sweden, Spain, Czech, Poland. We were # 18 in Atlanta Olympic games with 1 golden,  6 silver and 8 bronze medals - total of 15. But we have definitely under performed in many sports in Sydney, especially in gymnastics and weight lifting. Such, two-time World champion in Men's Gymnastics - Ivan Ivankov - was the forth in Sydney. In 1992 we were #1 in Barcelona as a United Team, for the last time after USSR breakdown with a total of 112 medals. Then again, counting medal rankings is not exactly in Olympic spirit.

Currently there are 482 sports schools for children and youth, including 120 Olympic Reserve specialized sports schools, 13 schools of higher sports training, 8 Olympic Reserve colleges.

Personal pages about outstanding sportsmen of Belarus

• Olga Korbut + more on Olga
• Olga Korbut school of gymnastics in Phoenix, AZ
• Vitaly Scherbo school of gymnastics in Las Vegas, NV
• Vitaly Scherbo wife's near-fatal accident
  "I remember his face," Irina says. "I saw that he was in love only with me, and that was the totality of his emotion. I tell you, that pulled me back to life."
• Nelli Kim bio
• Vitali Scherbo
• Natasha Zvereva
• Alexander Kurlovich
• Leanid Taranenka
• Svetlana Boguinskaia
• Max Mirnyi fan-club and more here
• Yekaterina Khodotovich
• Yelena Piskun

Belarusian sports links:

• Olympic movement in Belarus

  The National Olympic Committee of Belarus (NOC) was founded in 1991. NOC unites 74 organizations including 30 Olympic summer sports federations, 5 Olympic winter sports federations, 21 non-Olympic sports federations, 18 regional sports organizations. NOC Representations have been established in all regional centers of the country.

• Belarus football federation (soccer) http://www.bff.by/  
  Also here: http://vof.by.ru/

• Belarus Ice Hockey Federation http://www.bihf.org/
  More in eurohockey.net http://www.eurohockey.net/by/

• Belarus Olympic center for tennis and table tennis: http://tennis.bsu.by/main.asp

• Belarus Federation of Radio-amateurs and Radio-sportsmen: http://www.bfrr.net/

• Belarusian Athletes in a Variety of Sports by A Belarus Miscellany (English)
• Belarusian Federation of Mountain Skiing and Snowboarding. (English / Russian).
• Culture and Sports in Belarus (English)
• Belarusian Basketball (English).
• FEESMG (First East European Sports Management Group) in Belarus (English)
• Belarusian Football by T. Zinoueu (in Russian)
• Soccer in Belarus - Scores, teams, related information (English)
• Belarusian ice hockey players from Nagano Olympic Games.

• Belarusian Post Stamps commemorating Olympic games:

• Belarusian Olympic Coins