Noisy, bright and crowded

A large-scale sports festival — Olympic Day — was held on the venue near the Sports Palace on Minsk City Day and featured over 20 sports and entertainment locations. Hundreds of boys and girls with their parents and friends came to participate in various activities and have fun.

Olympic Day in Minsk

President of Belarus’ National Olympic Committee Viktor Lukashenko congratulated Minsk residents on Minsk City Day and launched the Olympic Day in Minsk, “Children together with their parents can visit our sports grounds and watch all kinds of sports represented there. If someone has not yet decided on a sports direction, there they can choose what they like. It may be today that someone will take the first step towards their future Olympic heights.” 
Minister of Sports and Tourism Sergei Kovalchuk noted that over the past 30 years, a great number of state-of-the-art sports facilities appeared in the country, for which we should be grateful to our state, “Thanks to the availability of these facilities, we were able to hold two multimedia events in the country. The 2nd European Games, the 2nd CIS Games, as well as the match between the teams of Europe and the USA in track-and-field athletics were held. All this is thanks to the presence of such infrastructure. I am sure that the construction of a national football stadium and a world-class swimming pool will give a new impetus to the development of these sports and attract hundreds of thousands children to these sports. It is great that so many initiatives are being implemented in our country today for people and a healthy lifestyle, which is the policy of our state.” 
The playground at the Sports Palace was crowded. Participants from three to 14 years old had an opportunity to try themselves in judo, wrestling, football, basketball, tennis, archery, boxing, rowing and many other sports — in total, the Olympic Quest included 32 disciplines. Darina Zhurova, 9 years old, and Milana Zhurova, 6 years old, tried each of them. Together with their mother Natalya, the girls did not waste time, “Last year, we also participated in sports locations and won wireless headphones. Today’s Olympic Day has impressed us even more with a variety of activities. This is a good chance for kids to test themselves, and maybe even fall in love with some kind of sport. My daughters really liked rowing — they did not want to leave those simulators. I think now, they will have another hobby in addition to dancing and drawing.” 
For completing challenges, young participants received stamps corresponding to the result shown: gold, silver or bronze. At the end of the quest, the largest number of stamps of the same colour corresponded to a certain prize — a smartwatch for the first places, a Bluetooth speaker for the second, a powerbank for the third. 12-year-old Artyom, along with friends Makar and Nikita, were not left without prizes. The boys won smartwatches and Bluetooth speakers, “We are volleyball players and play in the Minsk national team. We have played several games on the volleyball court, played football, and even shot bows! It is a cool day! Our parents did not believe at first when we came to them with gifts. We really liked it, cool prizes and fun activities — we love Olympic Day for that.” 
More people take part in the holiday every year. The organisers do not lag behind the trends and come up with new entertainments to attract children to sports. In addition to exciting sports challenges, children were pleased with masterclasses from top Belarusian athletes and an intellectual tournament. This time, Olympic champions and prize-winners of the Olympic Games in Paris took part in the Olympic Day. Champion of the Paris Olympics Ivan Litvinovich and prize-winners Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, Yauheni Zalaty and Yauheni Tsikhantsou started the holiday and then moved to their sports locations to conduct masterclasses. Belarusian football legend Aleksandr Hleb, outstanding handball player and Belarusian Tennis Federation Chairman Sergei Rutenko also took part in the event. Everyone was able to approach them, chat, ask questions and take a photo. Daniil Lipsky, a striker of Dinamo Minsk HC, visited one of the largest locations organised by the Belarusian Hockey Federation together with Dinamo Minsk.
Viktoria and Aleksei Statsevich came from Lithuania to attend Minsk City Day. The woman shared her impressions, “We had a great time! This is the third time we celebrate the City Day with Minsk residents and every year we are impressed by the scale — we have not seen anything like that in Lithuania. There are definitely a lot of activities for children here. Our son Maksim started asking about Olympic Day a few months ago. Even at the age of four, he found a lot of activities for himself here. We also introduce our younger son, Dominik, to sports. Sports locations are very popular with people. The queues are huge, but children want to try everything. There is no time to be bored here. My sons also like live performances, and your fireworks are just super!”

By Irina Lukashik