Olympic team makes its bid for glory in the snow

[MosJan]

Olympic team makes its bid for glory in the snow

By Michael Harutiunian

ArmeniaWeek reporter

Seven Armenian competitors (three who live in Armenia) are among 3,000 men and women due to participate at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games today in Salt Lake City, USA.

 

Arsen Harutiunian, a 33-year-old veteran taking part in his third Winter Olympics, will carry Armenia's national flag during the opening ceremony at Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium.

 

He and his six colleagues will represent Armenia in four of the 15 disciplines at the XVIII Winter Olympics - alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, bobsled and figure skating.

 

A 25-strong Olympic delegation left Armenia in two parties on February 4 and 6 for the Games, which are due to last 16 days. Ishkhan Zakarian, President of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia, heads the delegation.

 

Harutiunian from Tsakhkadzor and French-born Vanessa Rakedjian will represent Armenia in the alpine skiing competitions. Rakedjian, 25, will compete in the slalom and giant slalom disciplines. Harutiunian qualified only for the slalom.

 

Harutiunian will start his bid for Olympic glory at the Deer Valley Resort on February 23. Rakedjian, who is determined to win a medal for Armenia, will be in action on February 20 in the Women's Slalom at Deer Valley Resort and on February 22 in the Giant Slalom at Park City Mountain Resort.

 

Rakedjian is not the only Diasporan Armenian to represent the republic at the Olympics. The bobsled team has already earned widespread publicity in the United States for its achievements in qualifying for the Games.

 

The team comprises Dan Janjigian, an Armenian-American from San Jose, California and Yorgo Alexandrou, a Greek-American. The pair, both 29, use a second-hand sled and train in the streets of San Jose by pushing it along on specially designed roller skates.

 

Armenia's National Olympic Committee helped Janjigian to obtain dual citizenship and Alexandrou residence status to enable them to compete for the country at the Olympics.

 

They will compete in the two-man bobsled competition on February 16 and 17 at Utah Olympic Park. The event consists of four runs timed to the nearest one-hundredth of a second, with bobsled speeds often approaching 90 miles per hour.

 

The winner of the event is the sled with the lowest combined time after all four runs.

 

Russian skater Julia Lebedeva, 23, is Armenia's entrant in the women's figure skating contest. Lebedeva, who skated for her native country until 1999, is currently ranked 111th (out of 195) in the International Skating Union standings.

 

She finished 22nd in the 2002 European Figure Skating Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland last month.

 

Lebedeva will perform on February 19 in the short program and on February 21 in the free program at Salt Lake Ice Center. The free program is the most important of the two stages, counting for two-thirds of the overall score.

 

In all figure skating events, competitors receive two sets of scores from a panel of judges. The technical marks are based on the difficulty of the routine and the execution of required movements. The artistic quality is judged on the presentation of the routine.

 

Two skiers from Gyumri - Aram Hajian and Margarit Nikolian - will represent Armenia in the cross-country event. There are five men's and women's categories in all, and the competition will take place over nine days at the Soldier's Hollow venue.

 

Medals are awarded for different distances and in two different disciplines - classical and freestyle.

 

Classical was the popular style until the early 1980s - skiers pushed or stepped with one ski, then the other, using their poles to help move forward.

 

Freestyle, introduced in the 1980s and accepted as an Olympic event in 1988, allows the competitors to use their own style of skiing. The most popular is a technique similar to skating where skiers push off the inside edge of one ski and glide forward on the other.

 

Armenia's skiers will compete in both classical and freestyle.

Photos Courtesy of AIM & Armenian Ski Federation