Armenian skiers qualify for Winter Olympics

[MosJan]

Armenian skiers qualify for Winter Olympics http://www.armeniaweek.com/current/photos/sports_1_s.jpg

Armenian skiers qualify for Winter Olympics

By Michael Harutiunian

ArmeniaWeek reporter

Two Armenian skiers have qualified for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in the United States.

 

Vanessa Rakedjian (pictured) and Arsen Harutiunian will represent Armenia in alpine skiing competitions at the Games which open in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 8.

 

Alfred Vardanian, President of the Armenian Ski Federation, said the pair gained the necessary qualification points ahead of November's deadline to secure their places.

 

Rakedjian, 25, will compete in the slalom and giant slalom disciplines. Harutiunian qualified only for the slalom.

 

A third Armenian, Aram Hajian from Gyumri, still has a chance to qualify for the Cross-Country skiing event.

 

Rakejian was born in Marseille, France, moving to the Alpine town of Briancon when she was 13. After showing promise on the slopes, she was admitted to a special summer school for high level skiers in Albertville.

 

She took part in various European tournaments and finished the 1995 season among the top 80 youngsters in the world.

 

But she suddenly chose to end her career after performing poorly at the World Junior Championships in Norway in 1995, despite being selected to join the French alpine ski team.

 

After working for eight months in England as an au-pair, then studying for four years at university, she decided to resume skiing.

 

Rakejian competed at regional level competitions in France and finished first senior at the Marseille regional championships.

 

In 2000, she declared a wish to compete for Armenia, the land of Vanessa's origins on her father's side, at the 2002 Olympics.

 

The Armenian Ski Federation took up her request and appealed to President Robert Kocharian to grant Rakelian citizenship.

 

Under Armenia's Constitution dual nationality is barred. But the President makes exceptions for famous or talented Diasporans and he granted Armenian citizenship to Rakejian.

 

Arsen Harutiunian, 33, is a veteran of many international competitions. Vardanian says federation chiefs regard him as the skier they "brought up" and trained themselves.

 

"Arsen has already been the best among Armenian skiers for 10 years and even though he's nearly 34, he's in good shape and still the best in Armenia," Vardanian says.

 

This will be Harutiunian's third Winter Olympics. He previously qualified for Lillehammer in 1994 and Nagano in 1998, where he finished 27th out of 68 competitors.

 

He has also taken part in four skiing World Cups: He came 35th in Spain in 1996, 36th in Italy in 1997, was forced to drop out through injury at the US World Cup in 1999, returning in Austria earlier this year, where he finished 42nd.

 

Vardanian says the development of winter sports in Armenia has been hampered by a lack of government support dating back to Soviet times.

 

Equipment is expensive - a professional skier can easily spend $2,500-$3,000 on the basics- and 30 per cent of success in competitions depends on good quality kit.

 

Finally, despite winter snows, Armenia lacks a proper training site. Skiiing facilities at Tsakhadzor (see below), 50km north of Yerevan, once used to train the Soviet national team, have fallen so badly into disrepair that they are now fit only for beginners.

 

Armenia's professionals must instead go to countries such as Austria, Italy, and Switzerland to train with specialist coaches each winter. They receive financial help from the Solidarite organization, part of the International Olympic Committee.

 

At the Nagano Games in 1998, there were seven Armenian competitors: Arsen Harutiunian (Alpine skiing); Alla Mikhayelian (Cross Country Skiing); Armen Rafaelian (Freestyle Skiing); Samvel Gezalian, Aleksander Chestnikh, Mariya Krastiltseva, and Xenia Smetanenko (Figure Skating).

 

An Armenian woman, Victoria Movsessian, was also picked for the US ice hockey team which won the gold medal at the Games.

 

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Tsakhkadzor

 

Tsakhkadzor ("Valley of flowers") is a popular destination for regional tourists. Its sports facilities were built to provide the main training center for the Soviet Olympic Team ahead of the 1968 summer Games in Mexico City.

 

The complex has two Olympic-sized swimming pools, four sports halls, restaurants, bars, cafes and a 738-room hotel compound.

 

The key reason for choosing Tsakhadzor was altitude - it was approximately at the same height above sea level as the Mexican capital (2,240m) and allowed the Soviet sportsmen to acclimatize to the conditions they would face at the Games.

 

Later, it was used by Soviet skiers in the winter to prepare for competitions. Currently, only about 10 per cent of Tsakhadzor's facilities are in use.

 

Chess

 

Armenia's Grandmasters were all eliminated before the fourth round of the World Chess Championships for men and women, which began in Moscow November 25.

 

Both of Armenia's women players, Lilit Mkrtchian and Eline Danielian, got through the first round comfortably. Mkrtchian defeated Monika Socko from Poland (1-0, 1-0) and Danielian beat the Russian Tatiana Shumiakina (1-0, 1-0).

 

Not all of Armenia's four male entrants could say the same. Karen Asrian lost a hard-fought match against Igor Khenkin from Germany, which went to six games (0.5, 0.5, tie-break, 0.5, 0.5, 0-1, 0.5).

 

Ashot Anastasian defeated Alexei Fedorov from Belarus (1-0, 0.5), Smbat Lputian saw off Michal Krasenkow from Poland (1-0, 1-0) and Rafael Vaganian beat Slim Belkhojia from Tunisia (1-0, 0.5).

 

The biggest sensation of the first round came with the exit of the 12th Chess World Champion Anatoly Karpov, defeated by the Chinese player Zhang Pengxiang (ranked 349th by FIDE).

 

The second round became a graveyard for Armenian hopes, with only Ashot Anastasian making it through. He beat Peter Leko from Hungary in four games (0.5, 0.5, tie-break, 1-0, 0.5).

 

Mkrtchian went out to Russia's Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (0.5, 0-1) and Danielian lost to China's Xu Yuhua (0-1, 0.5).

 

Among the men, Vaganian was defeated after four games by Mikhail Gurevich representing Belgium (0.5, 0.5, tie-break, 0-1, 0.5) and Smbat Lputian lost to Loek Van Wely from the Netherlands (0-1, 0-1).

 

Anastasian, the lowest ranked of all the Armenian entrants, did not last much longer, however. He went out in the third round to Predrag Nikolic from Bosnia-Herzegovina (0.5, 0-1).

 

The last 16 men and eight women, from an original entry of 128 men and 64 women, are continuing to battle it out for their respective titles. The women's championship final will take place later this month and the men's January 16-26.

Photo by Armenpress & Courtesy of Armenian Ski Federation

 

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