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Emanuela Karastoyanova

Vivi Christodoulopoulu and Yannis Papavasiliou are the athletes which will represent Greece during the Winter Olympic Games from March 12^th to March 21^st in Vancouver. Vivi is a skier from only two years and as she says herself: “May be I am the oldest participant in the games, however the life and the dreams have no age”. She is the first woman to represent Greece during the Winter Olympic Games. Yannis Papavasiliou is also a skier from very recently. He started practicing this sport only a year and a half ago, however he still promises to give his best to present well Greece.

The coach of the two athletes Konstantinos Zindzovas commented his work in the Greek Para Olympic commission and federation as particularly exciting. “I have been dealing with coaching for a very long time, I have participated in Olympic Games, I was a coach of the ski federation for 8 years. However the sport under the circumstances of being handicapped really touched me.” According to the words of Zindzovas in spite of the short winter season which is typical for the country the winter Para Olympic Games are becoming more and more popular.

Canada became host of the Para Olympic Games for the second time. The first games (summer) it organized in 1976 and this year’s games have already scored a record – a total of 600 athletes from 44 countries will take part. The participation of Greece in the games in Vancouver is the third time the country takes part in winter Para Olympic Games. Its first participation is in 2002 in Salt Lake City, the second is in Turin in 2006. The most successful participation of the country in the games was in Beijing in 2008. Then the country won a total of 24 medals (out of 69 participants), which took it to the 20^th place in the world chart of the Para Olympic medals.

In the winter Para Olympic Games in Vancouver will also take part and Bulgaria. This year the country sends three athletes – Alexander Stoyanov, Yoanna Ermenkova and Ivailo Vatov. Alexander Stoyanov and Ivailo Vatov have been preparing for their participation in the discipline cross country skiing by taking part in the National students games for children with visual problems (held in the Jundola area).

Bulgaria is not taking part in Para Olympic Games for the first time. During the Winter Para Olympic Games in Turin in 2006 the country sent four athletes in cross country skiing – Alexander Tsokanev, Blagovesta Koleva, Ivan Ivanov and Alexander Stoyanov.

During the summer Para Olympic Games in Beijing the Bulgarian track and field athlete Stela Eneva won the gold medal in discus throwing. Bulgaria received another 6 medals. In the games in Beijing took part Radoslav Zlatanov (200m sprint), Daniela Todorova (javelin throw), Radostina Ivanova (long jump and 100m run), Ivanka Koleva (discus, shot and weight lifting), Dechko Ovcharov (javelin and discus) and Spas Spasov (weight lifting).

The first Summer Para Olympic Games were held in Rome in 1960 and the winter ones were held in 1976. Bulgaria makes its debut in the Para Olympic Games in 1988 in Seoul. There the country takes two gold medals received by Doncho Sakelarov. He wins a title also in Barcelona 4 years later and in Sydney in the year 200 Ivanka Koleva comes back with the gold medal.