MINSK, 9 February (BelTA) – The 23rd Winter Olympic Games will kick off in PyeongChang, South Korea on 9 February, BelTA informs.
Belarusian athletes have already arrived in South Korea and held a number of training sessions at the Olympic venues. Thirty-two Belarusian Olympians will compete in six sports: biathlon, aerials, speed skating, short track, cross country skiing and Alpine skiing.
The medal hopes of the Belarusian fans are, first of all, related to the women's biathlon team. Leader of the Belarusian biathlon national team, three-time Olympic champion in Sochi Darya Domracheva is ready for her next Olympics. Since the 2014 Games, Darya Domracheva has married Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, gave birth to daughter Xenia and made her come back to the sport. The recent IBU World Cup competitions demonstrated that Darya Domracheva is in a good physical form. Other representatives of the national biathlon team are also capable of showing good results in PyeongChang.
The Belarusian freestyle skiers (aerials) won medals in each of the five previous Olympic games. In PyeongChang Belarus will field both its experienced athletes, Olympic champions Anton Kushnir and Alla Tsuper, and young promising athletes Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya and Hanna Huskova. According to Nikolai Kozeko, head coach of the Belarusian freestyle skiing national team, the final training stage gives high hopes for good results at the upcoming Olympics. Belarusian fans will also cheer on skaters Ignat Golovatsiuk, Maryna Zuyeva, skier Sergei Dolidovich who will compete in his seventh Olympics, and Alpine skiers Yuri Danilochkin and Maria Shkanova.
The opening ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang will start at 14.00 Minsk time on 9 February. Alla Tsuper (freestyle skiing) will carry the flag for Team Belarus. Belarus 1 TV Channel will broadcast the 2018 Olympics opening ceremony live. The recorded version will be shown on Belarus 5 at 21.50. The Games will feature 102 medal events in 15 sports.
