They follow their dream

Our athletes are ready to fight for the awards of the Paralympic Games in Beijing

Our Paralympic athletes went to Beijing, where their main competition of the four years will start on March 4th. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus hosted a solemn farewell ceremony for the national team the day before. 
Chairman of the Paralympic Committee of Belarus Oleg Shepel told about the preparation of athletes for the Paralympic Games, “Everything that the coaches, athletes, and medical staff have planned has been one hundred percent fulfilled. These include training camps, necessary pharmacology, and the participation of our athletes in the World Cup stages. A huge amount of work has been done, and I think it will produce results.”
Our Paralympic team hoped to win about ten spaces for the main event of the four years. The target was exceeded — 12 athletes and four leaders who will accompany athletes with visual impairments on the track will take part in the competition.
“Our team includes both experienced athletes and young ones. Yury Holub and Sviatlana Sakhanenka are ready for the starts, Vasily Shapteboy also has got a lot to prove. Roman Sviridenko and Vladislav Kandratov will make their debut at this level. The guys are not yet 20 years old, so we are considering them rather for the future: now they need to see what the Paralympic Games are, to catch fire with this event. This is necessary so that the guys continue to play sports and lead those who are on the way to the Paralympic team.”


Sviatlana Sakhanenka’s performance in Pyeongchang was outstanding. Our athlete won three gold and one bronze medal. Recalling those Games, she says: such results were partly unexpected. Speaking about the upcoming starts, she does not hide that it will be much more difficult to repeat such a success, “However, we are ready. We will do our best. The main thing is that luck is on our side. It was important for us to adapt to new conditions, to see the track in the first days of our stay in Beijing, because we did not have the opportunity to train on it before...”
Paralympic athletes are ready for the fact that they will have to compete in Beijing in very difficult conditions. The competition will be held in the same arenas that hosted the Olympic Games. Two-time bronze medallist of the Games — 2018 Lidia Loban (maid name — Grafeeva) says, “During the preparation, we also talked with guys from other teams, especially with those who work with the Chinese team. We learned about the difficulties that would await us, clarified what kind of terrain the slopes had, and tried to train on similar areas. In general, I am satisfied with the way the training went. We visited all the training camps, took part in all competitions — this calms us down. During the Olympics, we followed all the races, made notes.”
It should be noted that yet this time it is much more difficult for an athlete to fly away than before. A lot has changed in the family of Lidia and Dmitry Loban in the four years that have passed since the Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang. Now they had a son David — he is already three years old, but, despite the great distance, the mother’s heart will be with the baby.”
“I will do my best to show good results!” assures Lidia Loban. “I will compete in five races. The schedule is very tight — there will be only two days off, so it will not be easy. In recent years, competition has developed very strongly. The Chinese team, coached by multiple Paralympic champion Roman Petushkov, has noticeably improved. In addition, they trained on the track where the competitions will take place, so they have a certain advantage...”
Belarusian athletes won 12 medals at the Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang — four gold, silver, and bronze. Oleg Shepel said that it is almost impossible to repeat the result in Beijing and he explains why,“The strongest Russian team did not compete at the last Paralympic Games, but today it is number one in winter sports. However, that doesn’t mean we already gave up. 

Of course, we have a small team, but if everything goes well, we will claim 5-7 awards. 

Medals are great, but for me, it will be an even greater success if the results of our athletes would motivate other disabled people to go out of their houses. We see that after the Paralympic Games, the number of telephone calls increases: people find out where they can train, how to join the training centres. Let not everyone become Paralympic, but the fact that disabled people start to lead a healthy lifestyle is worth a lot.”

Our line-up
Yury Holub, Vladimir Chepelin, Sviatlana Sakhanenka, Dzmitry Budzilovich, Valiantsina Shyts, Vasily Shapteboy, Nikita Maslovsky, Nikita Ladesov, Mikhail Semyonov, Dmitry Loban, Lidia Loban, Ekaterina Shastina-Komar, Arkady Shikut, Daria Fedkovich, Roman Sviridenko, Vladislav Kandartov

By Tatiana Pastushenko
Photo by BELTA