RIO DE JANEIRO, 22 August (BelTA) – The Belarusian team did well in Rio despite all the troubles prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics, First Vice President of the National Olympic Committee Maksim Ryzhenkov told media as he commented on the performance of the Belarusian athletes in Rio, BelTA has learned.
Maksim Ryzhenkov stressed that all necessary conditions were created for the national teams to prepare for the Olympics. “Training camps, pharmacology, additional financing, re-equipment of sport centers and gyms – everything was done to ensure smooth training. Ahead of the Games both the National Olympic Committee and the Sport and Tourism Ministry said that the 2016 Olympics were going to be very difficult and the athletes needed to perform to the top of their abilities so that the Belarusian people could be proud of them. In my opinion, taking into account all the problems many Belarusian athletes ran into not through their fault ahead the Summer Olympics in Brazil, Team Belarus did well,” he said.
According to the First Vice President of the National Olympic Committee, Belarusians trampoliners, wrestlers and the women's K4 team showed great results. “Trampoliners proved that the Belarusian trampolining school is among the best in the world. Vladislav Goncharov made the whole country happy. Everything was great in the women's trampolining competition as well. But for the mistakes of our girls, we would be talking about several medals in this sport. I am also happy with the bronze medal of our women's K4 team,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.
The First Vice President of the National Olympic Committee added that he had a phone conversation with Head of the Belarus President's Administration Alexander Kosinets. “He wished the team a good trip home and said that both the authorities and fans view the performance of the Belarusian athletes at the 2016 Olympics as good, given all the factors prior to the Games,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.
Belarus won nine medals at the 31st Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro: gold by trampoliner Vladislav Goncharov, silver medals by Darya Naumova, Vadim Streltsov (weightlifting), Maria Mamoshuk (freestyle wrestling), Ivan Tikhon (athletics), and bronze medals by Aleksandra Gerasimenya (swimming), Javid Hamzatov (Greco-Roman wrestling), Ibragim Saidov (freestyle wrestling) and the women's K4 team.
