Olympic Games Armenia...

[DominO123]

...Is there any Armenian hope this year for a medal?

[Azat]

Yes. I hear the Xash and Xashlam teams are particularly strong this year.

[Vanetsi]

hahahaha

 

hee hee

[Arpa]

TURIN

 

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7. ARMINFO. Armenian Olympic team has arrived in

Turin (Italy) today to take part in the Winter Olympic Games.

 

In an interview with ARMINFO, Deputy Head of the Governmental

Committee for Physical Culture and Sport, the person in charge of the

preparation of the Armenian team for the Winter Olympiad in Turin,

Mikael Ispiryan said 5 sportsmen will participate in the forthcoming

Olympiad, in particular, figure skaters Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen

Azroyan, mountain-skier Abram Sarkakhyan and short-distance skiers

Edmond Khachatryan and Hovhanness Sargsyan. The Armenian delegation

comprises also Head of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia,

parliamentarian Gagik Tsaroukyan and Executive Secretary of NOC Armen

Grigoryan and others (15-20 people in total). Live broadcasting of

the Winter Olympic Games in Yerevan is fixed for 8:00 PM local time.

[Zartonk]

We won one in Salt Lake..

[skhara]

We won one in Salt Lake..

 

What was it? The freestyle snowboard jumping?

[Zartonk]

I think it was Ski jumping.

[MosJan]

VAZGEN AZROYAN ARMENIA'S FLAG BEARER IN TURIN

 

*

 

Figure skater Vazgen Azroyan will hold Armenian tricolor during the opening ceremony of the 20th Winter Olympic Games launching on 10 February in Turin, Italy. Armenian sportsmen left for Turin on 6 February. The most experienced of all 5 Armenian participants are Anastasia Grebyonkina and Vazgen Azroyan. This couple of figure skaters took part in numerous international contests and has just returned from the European championship of figure skaters ranking 14th. Last year the couple had a successful performance at a Grand Prix contest in Japan winning bronze medals.

 

Secretary general of the Armenian Federation of Skiing, Gagik Sargsian, will head the Armenian delegation at the Olympiad. Gagik Tsarukian, head of the Armenian Olympic Organization, and Ishkhan Zakarian, chairman of the State Committee will head for Turin today.

[Vanetsi]

Here's a list of our athletes' statistics.

 

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino...tes?country=arm

[MosJan]

Team Armenia in Turin: At least nobody died

By Suren Musayelyan

ArmeniaNow reporter

Winter Olympics

 

Armenian ice dancing pair Anastasia Grebenkina-Vazgen Azroyan finished just outside the top 20 as a result of three ice-dancing events in the Winter Olympics in Turin (Italy) on February 17, 19 and 20 in which 24 pairs took part. After the compulsory dance last Friday, the Armenian pair was in 22nd place with 24.28 points, after the second event – original dance – the Armenians were in 20th place with 43.83 points. However, as a result of the last event – free dance – they managed to finish only 21st overall, with a score of 69.88.

 

Meanwhile, skiers Edmond Khachatryan and Hovhannes Sargsyan took part in cross-country individual sprint qualifications (1300 meters) on Wednesday. Only the top 30 of 80 skiers participating in the qualifications would progress to the finals. The Armenian skiers crossed the finish line in the 79th (Sargsyan, 2:47.68) and 80th (Khachatryan, 2:49.98) places, 34.15 and 36.45 seconds respectively behind the top finisher. The Armenians, respectively, were 27.23 and 29.53 seconds out of the qualification zone.

 

The last of the Armenian athletes to perform in Turin will be alpine skier Abraham Sarkakhyan. The 19-year-old athlete from Tsaghkadzor will compete in slalom and giant slalom on the penultimate day of the Olympics – February 25. (For Sarkakhyan’s results log on to http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/IDF/X05_20060225.html on Saturday).

 

Chess

 

In the fifth round of the international super tournament in Linares (Spain) Armenia’s Levon Aronyan beat leader Pyotr Svidler (Russia) and is currently in the 3rd spot with 3 points.

 

The leaders after the fifth round are Peter Leko (Hungary) and Pyotr Svidler (Russia). Aronyan is playing Leko with whites in the sixth round on February 26.

 

Aronyan’s results in each of the five rounds are as follows:

 

Round1 19-Feb: Levon Aronyan v Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 1-0

 

Round2 20-Feb: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukaine) v Levon Aronyan 1-0

 

Round3 21-Feb: Levon Aronyan v Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) ½:½

 

Round4 23-Feb: Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain) v Levon Aronyan ½:½

 

Round5 24-Feb: Levon Aronyan v Pyotr Svidler (Russia) 1-0

 

Ratings and standing after Round 5

 

1. Leko, Peter (HUN 2740) 4 points

2. Svidler, Pyotr (RUS 2765) 3.5

3. Aronyan, Levon (ARM 2752) 3

4. Ivanchuk, Vassily (UKR 2729) 2

5. Bacrot, Etienne (FRA 2717) 2

6. Radjabov, Teimour (AZE 2700) 2

7. Topalov, Veselin (BUL 2801) 2

8. Vallejo Pons, Francisco (ESP 2650) 1.5.

 

Women: FIDE has published the pairings of the World Women’s Chess Championship 2006.

 

In Round 1 Lilit Mkrtchyan (Armenia) plays with Ruan Lufei (China), Elina Danielyan (Armenia) with Christina-Adele Foisor (Romania), Almira Skripchenko (France) with Jovanka Houska (England), Natalia Khoudgarian (Canada) with Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia). (www.armchess.am)

 

Meanwhile, during a recent official visit to Baku FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov met with top representatives of the Azeri Chess Federation.

 

During one of the meetings Ilyumzhinov reportedly stated that FIDE does not recognize and will not recognize in the future the results of international chess tournaments held in Nagorno-Karabakh. “The tournaments in Karabakh are not held under FIDE’s aegis, which means that their results are not taken into account and are not reflected in the players’ ratings, because we had rejected the bid of the Armenian side to organize tournaments there,” A1 Plus quoted Ilyumzhinov as declaring in Baku.

 

An international chess tournament that draws chess-players from Armenia, the United States, Russia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Moldova and other countries was held in the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert, for the past two years. By the rating of players participating in the Karabakh tournament it is considered the strongest ever held in the Caucasus.

 

Wrestling

 

Three Armenian Greco-Roman wrestlers – Roman Amoyan (Aragatsotn marz, 55 kg), Karen Mnatsakanyan (Yerevan, 60 kg) and Vahram Hunanyan (Yerevan, 66 kg) became winners in a major international tournament that recently ended in Paris, France.

 

Coached by Olympic Champion Levon Julfalakyan, the Armenian national team then held a friendly fight with France’s national team of Greco-Roman wrestlers in Paris. Winning five out of eight fights with Frenchmen, the Armenian wrestlers registered a brilliant victory overall. Among the winners were Roman Amoyan, Robert Petrosyan, Mkhitar Hunanyan, Artak Harutyunyan and Vahram Hunanyan, whose coaches are Levon Julfalakyan and Eduard Sahakyan. (Armenpress)

[ED]

There is a saying about Olympics, there are no loosers, just the fact Armenia sent 6 athlets I'm proud of them

[Zartonk]

I know this might be random, but did anyone see the Georgian female sketer last night?

 

Did anyone hear her music..?!

 

Did anyone else hear the commentator call Ara Gevorgian's Artsakh "a nice representation of her Georgian culture".....?!!!

Edited February 24, 2006 by Zartonk

[Zartonk]

Team Armenia in Turin: At least nobody died

 

....And What is up with this headline?!!

Edited February 24, 2006 by Zartonk

[MosJan]

....And What is up with this headline?!!

 

 

 

At least nobody died - was the part that interest me

[Zartonk]

Really funny, yet painfully truthful..

 

 

Curl This: Olympic Committee neglecting chance to use natural resources

By John Hughes

ArmeniaNow editor

 

I’m just trying to be helpful; to pay back some of the hospitality that this country has extended to me in my unexpectedly protracted stay here. So:

Dear Olympic Committee of Armenia:

 

Through the blessed presence of Eurosport Television and my own addiction to any bit of sport I can find in a language I can understand, the recently-concluded Turin Games confirmed what might have been suspected:

 

Your National Team sucks.

 

(Okay, maybe that doesn’t apply to the 20th-placed ice dancers – never mind that one of them doesn’t live here.)

 

This, though, is not time to beat a dead skier, so let us positively consider 2010.

 

I applaud your desire to find a sport in which Armenia might excel (or be the only contender) for the next Winter Games (see our sports report for details).

 

In your busy schedule of relaxing after the enormous effort it must have taken to finish at the bottom of most events in Italy these last days, allow me to offer a couple suggestions.

 

First: I’m in full agreement with statements by your Secretary General Mr. Grigoryan, reflecting an interest in having Armenia form a biathlon team.

 

We have a slight problem in this connection, however, considering that the sport involves cross-country skiing – a sport in which Team Armenia placed 79th and 80th in the Men’s Sprint. Need I point out that there were 80 entrants? (To be generous, let us recall that Armenia fared better in the 15-kilometer race – placing 89th out of 99, and beating out such competitors as Kenya and Nepal.)

 

Minor matters. Four years of prep should produce some strapping lad in this country who’d be willing to put in the proper training time for a chance to ski his nation to glory (and then immigrate to some European country for a lot of money, like all the rest of the good Armenian sportsmen).

 

But: The biathlon also involves marksmanship. And in this, Armenia is presented with a timely opportunity. Pardon the pun, but there’s a window of opportunity for killing two birds with one stone (bullet).

 

Last week the director of the Yerevan Zoo ordered a zoo crew to fire warning shots at migratory birds, presumably flying here on flu-infected wings from those disease-ridden neighbors, Turkey.

 

(Armenia, being a bastion of perfect health prevention, authorities assure, has no “official” account of the H5whatever. While all around others suffer, miraculously, Armenia is safe because: “Everything possible is done to prevent penetration of the virus to Armenia”.)

 

Here’s my suggestion. Drag a couple of Army conscripts from their posts where they’re likely to get the heck beat out of them by fellow unwilling patriots, and arm them as Swan Snipers/Biathletes in Training. And just so they get used to the sport, let them ski around the zoo, while plucking off ne’er-do-well crows attempting to penetrate Armenian air space.

 

Everybody wins. The Olympic Team gets free training, the Ministry of Defense can justifiably call it a national security issue, and the big cats in lockdown at the zoo get fresh foul for an afternoon snack.

 

Second. Curling. Have you taken a good look at this “sport”?

 

Look again. What do those “athletes” do that old women in this country aren’t doing every morning, noon, and evening?

 

1.Tote a tea kettle. 2. Slide on ice. 3. Stoop over a short broom and push it. 4. Yell at anybody who gets in the way.

 

 

Again, it’s a winner all way around: The cleaning babushkas would no doubt clean up medals in Vancouver, they’re already in training, and are at low-level risk of betraying the Team by escaping to other countries, no matter how clean they are.

 

Like I said: I’m just trying to help. And, I’d enjoy looking for results of Team Armenia by not starting at the bottom of the list.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Zartonk

[MosJan]

Olympic Gold: After poor showing in Turin, Armenian athletes get cash incentives

Siranouish Gevorgyan

Special to ArmeniaNow

Armenians didn’t bring a single medal home from the Winter Olympic Games in Turin this year, but many athletes are already preparing for the Summer Olympics that will take place in Beijing 2008.

 

To encourage Armenian athletes and their coaches, the president of Armenia’s National Olympic Committee, Gagik Tsarukyan, has assigned monthly stipends to about 100 of the country’s best athletes in summer sports.

 

They are divided into three groups. The best 12 will get $1,000, the second group will get $500, and third group will get $100. Coaches of these athletes will also get a monthly stipend -- half of the sum assigned to their trainees.

 

The overall sum of stipends, which began being paid on April 1, is $30,000 per month.

 

Tsarukyan wants the athletes to train well and raise the Armenian flag in Beijing.

 

However, the Armenian athletes have not made their fans happy with victories in big international competitions recently.

 

During Soviet times, Armenia had Olympic champions such as Hrant Shahinyan (gymnastics), Vladimir Yengibaryan (boxing), Yury Vardanyan (weightlifting), Albert Azaryan (gymnastics), Ogsen Mirzoyan (weightlifting), Levon Julfalakyan (wrestling) and others.

 

“We were getting tired of writing, say, about Yuri Vardanyan because wherever he’d go, he’d win,” says Yuri Alexanyan, a former sports reporter and now the president of Sport Reporters’ Federation.

 

Many coaches who worked during Soviet times say that the reason for their achievements were the financial support, the discipline, experienced coaches, sufficient sports equipment and facilities, rich competition experience and also the major interest in sports during that period.

 

“Now teenagers prefer to sell things in the market rather than go for in sports especially when they have to pay monthly fees to the sport schools,” says Alexanyan.

 

The rector of Yerevan State Institute of Physical Culture, Vahram Arakelyan, also mentions that in the Soviet era, Armenian athletes were training with representatives of 50 nations from 15 Soviet republics.

 

“They were able to gain big competition experience. Now it is sometimes even hard to gather 20 athletes during training periods,” he says.

 

Finances play major role

 

The independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union and the economic crises that followed have greatly affected sports, too.

 

The Armenian government budgets 1.2 billion drams (about $2.6 million) for sports, which goes to the National Committee of Physical Education and Sports, a government-appointed body.

 

Money is also donated by various businessmen who are interested in sports, such as Tsarukyan himself, (who in addition to be president of the NOC is a member of National Assembly), and Samvel Alexanyan, president of the Wrestling Federation and also a member of National Assembly.

 

Finding money is especially hard for those athletes who train abroad but compete under the flag of Armenia, such as the ice skaters Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azroyan. They train at Odintsovo Skate Center in Moscow. They finished 20th in the Winter Olympics in Turin out of 24 pairs.

 

“What we need each year in order to prepare and compete normally is approximately $100,000 at minimum. For example, the complete set of new costumes alone can easily amount to $20,000. What we do get today is another story. Certainly, the Armenian Federation is not capable of covering even the small part of the costs; nevertheless, we are very thankful for whatever help the Federation sporadically provides,” Grebenkina and Azroyan said in an e-mail.

 

A figure skating pair competing internationally has expenses that include ice rink rental, choreography, costume design, coaching fees and soundtracks. There are also expenses for consultations, travel for coaches, medical expenses and purchase of equipment.

 

Other athletes do not have to deal with expenses such as choreography, costume design or soundtracks, but the overall expenses are similar. Not many athletes like to talk about their financial expenses. For example, popular super heavyweight lifter Ashot Danielyan, who is currently competing for Armenia, refused to talk about that.

 

Another weightlifter, Tigran Martirosyan, says that any highly qualified athlete usually gets an amount of money that is enough to live on if he wins international competitions.

 

“I got $100 from Sports Committee and $300 from the mayor of Gyumri when I won the 3rd prize in the Weightlifting Cup competitions this year,” he says.

 

Martirosyan is in the second group for the new Olympic stipends and will get $500 per month.

 

“I am going to order some expensive vitamins from abroad because they are not available in Armenia and that sum will hardly cover those expenses,” he said.

 

Another problem is that many good athletes prefer to work in other countries because of higher payments from those countries.

 

“About five years ago, we had more than 20 athletes leaving Armenia every year. But now this problem is not that sharp,” says the rector of Physical Culture Institute.

 

Big stipends for good athletes:

National Olympic Committee of Armenia assigned monthly stipends to encourage Armenian athletes and their coaches. Are money incentives alone enough to mould sportsmen into Olympic champions? Join the discussion in ArmeniaNow’s forums.

But still a lot of qualified athletes compete for other countries, such as Vic Darchinyan (boxer, competing for Australia), and Arthur and Alexan Abrahams (boxers, competing for Germany). Bringing them back to Armenia may be very difficult.

 

Small salaries for coaches

 

The salary of an ordinary coach in Armenia is 23,000 drams ($50) monthly. Those who have experience and have produced champions get about 50,000 ($100) drams.

 

Mostly because of the low salaries, now there is need for qualified coaches.

 

“Many highly qualified coaches from Soviet school have died, others have left the country. We still don’t have good coaches because of these difficult years,” said Arakelyan, the rector of the Physical Culture Institute.

 

In developed countries usually three coaches -- technical coach, tactical coach and physical preparedness coach -- plus a psychologist and a doctor work with each athlete.

 

“In our country only one coach does the work of these three people and sometimes ridiculous situations happen,” said sports reporter and entry-level football referee Varazdat Ghazaryan.

 

“For example, if a football player says that he has hurt his leg and if his coach knows nothing about medicine, he will probably think that the player wants just to skip the training. So in two days the player is going to have health problems,” Ghazaryan said.

 

Rebuilding process

 

During the last year, 16 sports schools have been rebuilt and furnished with new equipment in Yerevan and in the regions for a total cost of 857 million drams ($1.9 million). The rebuilding of the regional schools was financed by the Armenian government. The Lincy Foundation rebuilt the Yerevan schools.

 

A new ski lift in Tsaghkadzor gives fresh opportunities for developing winter sports. It takes skiers up to a 12.5-kilometer ski run. It cost 4.2 billion drams ($9.3 million). The major part of the money was given by Kajaran Copper-molybdenum factory and the rest from Hayastan Pan-Armenian Foundation and Hye Yerkatughi Company.

 

For a training period held in Tsaghkadzor, the government spends 15,000 drams ($33) daily for each athlete.

 

The Physical Culture Institute every year accepts about 2,000 students. The departments of boxing, wrestling and weightlifting have the most students. The departments that have the least students are gymnastics, fencing and sport journalism.

 

Arakelyan believes that Armenia will have Olympic champions in the 2016 Olympic Games, because by that time, he says, the work of new coaches and their influence on their trainees will be seen.

 

 

Siranouish Gevorgyan is a journalism student at Yerevan State University and participates in a training program sponsored by the International Center for Journalists (www.icfj.org) and supported by ArmeniaNow.