Belarusian Sport Olympus 2017 winners announced

    Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko has signed the decree to bestow the special prizes Belarusian Sport Olympus for last year’s accomplishments.

    The awardees include the chief coach of the Belarusian national trampoline team Olga Vlasova. She has worked hard to train the country’s top athletes, winners of Olympics, world and European championships. Her charges included a number of trampoliners such as the 2016 Olympics champion Vladislav Goncharov and several winners and prize takers of world and European championships.

    Vladimir Novitsky, a reporter of the TV channel Belarus Five, is on the Belarusian Sport Olympus awardees list, too. He is one of the most famous sport commentators in Belarus, one of the most experienced employees of the Belarusian Television and Radio Company, a member of several sport federations, a co-author and a host of a weekly talk show on elite sport and the special project Overtime: KHL. Vladimir Novitsky was awarded for his considerable personal contribution to encouraging a healthy lifestyle, popularizing physical training and sports among Belarusians.

    A master of the track and field athletics sport, the triple jumper Violetta Skvortsova is on the awardees list, too. She was awarded for successful performance at multiple international competitions and for demonstrating her active civic position and a respectful attitude to Belarus’ national symbols. During an award ceremony held as part of the U20 European Track and Field Championships she walked off the field because some other country’s anthem was played instead of Belarus’. The YouTube video of this occurrence had 8.3 million views and some 17,000 comments.