MINSK, 22 March (BelTA) – On 22 March 2021 the National Olympic Committee marks its 30th anniversary. On this day 30 years ago, the National Olympic Committee of the Byelorussian SSR was set up at the founding conference in Minsk. After Belarus proclaimed independence, the committee was renamed into the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus, BelTA learned from the press service of the organization.
According to archive documents, 268 delegates heard out a report of the steering committee. Chairman of the Council on Physical Culture and Sports of the BSSR Vladimir Ryzhenkov was elected first president of the NOC of Belarus. Three-time Olympic champion in wrestling freestyle Aleksandr Medved was elected first vice president. Deputy Chairman of the Council on Physical Culture and Sports of the BSSR Viktor Putkov and Chairman of the Belarusian Council of the Dynamo sports association K. Platonov became vice presidents.
Vice President of the NOC of Belarus Viktor Putkov recalled: the paperwork needed to register the new sports organization had to be done from scratch. The Council on Physical Culture and Sports of the BSSR recruited any help it could find to translate the Charter from English. Unfamiliar terms, legal subtleties – that was only a small part of the huge work towards the establishment of the NOC of Belarus.
On 9 March 1992, the NOC of Belarus was granted temporary membership at the International Olympic Committee. Less than a month later, on 6 April President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Juan Antonio Samaranch arrived in Minsk on a visit.
The 101st session of the IOC, which took place in Monaco on 21-25 September 1993, was another important milestone for Belarusian sports. At this session, the NOC of Belarus was recognized a full member of the international Olympic family. The Republic of Belarus got the right to send its national team to the Olympic Games!
Belarusian athletes debuted as an independent team at the 1994 Olympic Games. This historic event took place at the Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. Belarusian athletes won two silver medals: in speed skating (Igor Zhelezovsky) and biathlon (Svetlana Paramygina).
Ekaterina Karsten (Khodotovich) won the first Olympic gold in the history of independent Belarus. It happened in Atlanta, USA on 28 July 1996.
Since the founding of the National Olympic Committee, the country's athletes have competed at 13 Olympic Games - 7 Winter Games and 6 Summer Games. A total of 128 Belarusian athletes became champions and medalists of the Games. They won 96 Olympic medals: 20 gold, 32 silver and 44 bronze. Belarus is rightly one of the world's leading sports powers.
An important milestone in the development of Belarusian sports was the election of Aleksandr Lukashenko as president of the NOC. It happened on 15 May 1997.
"I was driven by the desire to preserve all the best things that the country had accumulated in sport during the years of its participation in the international Olympic movement," the president said later.
With the election of Aleksandr Lukashenko to this post, sports life in the country received a new powerful impetus. The infrastructure has been modernized. Central stadiums and Olympic complexes have been reconstructed. The president's scholarships have been instituted.
Belarus has promoted such Olympic sports as ice hockey, biathlon, football, athletics, box, rowing, tennis, weightlifting, and other sports. The country has created conditions for the development of mass sport, children's and youth sport, and for professional growth of Belarusian athletes.
Aleksandr Lukashenko was presented with two special prizes of the International Olympic Committee for his services to sport and the Olympic movement as the president of the Belarusian NOC.
In 2013, the National Olympic Committee of Belarus moved into a new headquarters. This building has a very interesting architectural concept. Since 2014, this building has hosted ceremonies to see off Belarusian athletes to the Olympic Games.
During the 30 years since the establishment of the NOC, Belarus' network of sports facilities has expanded and improved significantly. There are more than 23,000 sports facilities in the country.
Professional and amateur athletes have access to world-class sports infrastructure: the national Olympic stadium Dinamo, the multifunctional sports and entertainment complex Minsk Arena, the multifunctional cultural, sports, and entertainment complex Chizhovka Arena, the Olympic complexes Raubichi and Staiki, the Uruchye sports center, the national Olympic training center for rowing in Zaslavl, the regatta course in Brest, the national Olympic training center for equestrian sports and horse breeding in Ratomka, the Timoshenko Shooting Center, and many more.
A technical center for national football teams and a freestyle training center with a sports and recuperation facility have been commissioned in Minsk in recent years. Every regional center is home to sports centers and indoor ice rinks. There are new sports and recuperation facilities in Berezino, Brest, Borisov, Volozhin, Kostyukovichi, Stolbtsy, Stolin, Cherven, Ushachi, Raubichi, and Krasnopolye. A new sports complex for team sports featuring a ski track opened in Orsha, new stadiums were built in Baranovichi, Lida, Borisov, Ivatsevichi, and an ice arena was commissioned in Shklov.
