The modern Olympic Games are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories, participating. By default, the Games generally substitute for any world championships during the year in which they take place. The Olympic Games are held every four years. Since 1994, they have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year Olympiad.
Athletes from Belarus began their Olympic participation at the 1952 Summer Games in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991, Belarus, along with four of the other fourteen former Soviet republics, competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics as the Unified Team. Later in 1992, Belarus joined eleven republics to compete as the Unified Team at the Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain. Two years later, Belarus competed for the first time as an independent nation in the 1994 Winter Olympics, held in Lillehammer, Norway.
The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus is one of many national Olympic committees that make up the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Created in 1991, the NOC RB, was charged with selecting athletes to represent Belarus in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, enforcing anti-doping laws and promoting sporting activity inside Belarus. The current president of the NOC RB is Victor Lukashenko, the son of the current President of Belarus.
The most popular sport in Russia is soccer. According to Yandex search analysis results rating of the most popular sports among Russians: "Football topped the list of the most popular sports in Russia" with 5 to 10 million requests. Ice hockey came in second with handball, basketball, futsal, boxing, auto racing, volleyball, athletics, tennis, and chess rounding out the top ten rankings. Other popular sports include bandy, biathlon, figure skating, weightlifting, gymnastics, wrestling, martial arts, rugby union, and skiing.
Randhir Singh Sidhu is an Indian sports administrator and former sports shooter. Singh is one of India's most influential sports administrators and is noted for his wide-ranging international connections. He has held several positions in both Indian and international sports governing bodies, and also had a successful shooting career before retiring from the sport in 1994. Singh began his sports administration career in 1984, while he was still competing as a shooter.
Russia has competed at the Paralympic Games as different teams in its history. The nation competed as part of the Soviet Union at the 1988 Summer and Winter Games, while after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia competed as part of the Unified Team in 1992. The nation competed for a first time as Russia at the 1994 Winter Paralympics, and after that participated in every summer and winter edition up until the 2014 Winter Paralympics.
The 2022 Winter Paralympics, commonly known as Beijing 2022, were an international winter multi-sport parasports event held in Beijing, China from 4 to 13 March 2022. This was the 13th Winter Paralympic Games, as administered by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The 2019 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival was held in Sarajevo & Istočno Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 10 to 15 February 2019.
Athletes have competed as Independent Paralympians at the Paralympic Games for various reasons, including political transition, international sanctions, suspensions of National Paralympic Committees and compassion.
The 2022 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival was held in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, between 24 and 30 July 2022.
The 2023 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival or simply EYOF 2023, also known as Maribor 2023, was the 17th edition of the European Youth Summer Olympic Festival, held from 23 to 29 July 2023 in Maribor, Slovenia. The festival was originally supposed to take place in Koper, Slovenia. In June 2021, Maribor was announced as the new host city after Koper withdrew its candidacy.
The 2022 Russian Figure Skating Championships were held from 21 to 26 December 2021 in Saint Petersburg. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, women's singles, pairs, and ice dance. The results were among the criteria used to select Russia's teams to the 2022 European Championships and 2022 Winter Olympics.
Ice hockey at the 2022 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival comprised two ice hockey tournaments in the under-17 competition class – a boys' tournament and a girls' tournament – during the Vuokatti 2022 edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF). The boys' tournament was held from 13 to 17 December 2021 and, following the postponement of the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the girls' tournament was played from 21 to 25 March 2022. Both tournaments were played at the Kajaanin jäähalli in Kajaani, Finland. The girls' tournament marked the first time women's ice hockey was included in the programme of a European Youth Olympic Festival.
Figure skating at the 2022 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival was held from 20 to 25 March 2022 at the Vuokatti Arena in Vuokatti, Finland. Medals were awarded in boys' and girls' singles. To be eligible, skaters must have been born between 1 July 2004 and 30 June 2006.
Short track speed skating at the 2022 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival was held from 21 to 25 March at Vuokatti Arena in Vuokatti, Finland.
Cross-country skiing at the 2022 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival was held from 21 to 25 March at Vuokatti Sport Biathlon Stadium in Vuokatti, Finland.
The 2023 Russian Figure Skating Championships were held from 20 to 25 December 2022 in Krasnoyarsk. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, women's singles, pairs, and ice dance.
Figure skating at the 2023 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival was held from 25 to 27 January 2023 at the Ice Stadium "Claudio Vuerich" in Pontebba, Italy. Medals were awarded in boys' and girls' singles. To be eligible, skaters must have been born between 1 July 2006 and 30 June 2008.
The 2022 German Figure Skating Championships were held on December 9–11, 2021 at the Eissporthalle Neuss in Neuss. Skaters competed in the disciplines of men's singles and ladies' singles on the senior level and pair skating and ice dance on the senior, junior, and novice levels. Single skating competitions on the junior and novice levels were held on December 17–19, 2021 at the Eissportzentrum Westfalen in Dortmund. The results of the national championships were among the criteria used to choose the German teams for the 2022 European Championships, 2022 Winter Olympics, 2022 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival, 2022 World Championships and 2022 Junior World Championships.
Individual Neutral Athletes is the name used to represent approved individual Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned those nations' previous designations due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that is still ongoing as of 2024. The IOC country code is AIN, from the French Athlètes Individuels Neutres.
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