Latvia will field at least 50 athletes in 11 different sports during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Latvian Olympic Committee has announced. The number of athletes is the most ever in Latvia’s history of competing in the summer games, topping the previous record of 48 during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Track and field athletes make up the largest contingent, and Latvia’s women’s basketball squad will be the country’s first team in the Olympics in nearly three quarters of a century. Other sports represented will be judo, the modern pentathlon, swimming, cycling, kayak and canoe rowing, weightlifting, shooting, tennis and beach volleyball.

The number of athletes could increase yet in track and field events, for which qualifying continues through July, Latvian Olympic Committee President Aldons Vrubļevskis said in a July 18 press release.

Latvia’s Olympic delegation will be supported by 46 coaches, technicians, doctors and administrators.

Beijing will be the first Olympic Games in which a Latvian women’s basketball team competes, as well as the first in which Latvian BMX racers and beach volleyball players appear, said Einars Fogelis, chairman of the Latvian Olympic Committee.

Athletes from Latvia heading to the Beijing Olympics include:

• The women’s basketball team consisting of Elīna Babkina, Gunta Baško, Aija Brumermane, Zane Eglīte, Anda Eibele, Liene Jansone, Anete Jēkabsone-Žogota, Ieva Kubliņa, Dita Krūmberga, Aija Putniņa, Zane Tamane and Ieva Tāre.
• Judo competitors Jevgeņijs Borodavko and Vsevolods Zeļonijs.
• Modern pentathlon competitors Deniss Čerkovskis and Jeļena Rubļevska.
• Swimmers Andrejs Dūda and Romāns Miloslavskis.
• Track cyclists Raivis Belohvoščiks and Gatis Smukulis, as well as BMX racers Ivo Lakučs, Artūrs Matisons and Māris Štrombergs.
• Kayak competitors Krists Straume and Kristaps Zaļupe, as well as canoe athlete Miķelis Ežmalis.
• Weightlifter Viktors Ščerbatihs.
• Shooting competitor Afanasijs Kuzmins.
• Tennis player Ernests Gulbis.
• Track and field athletes Ronalds Arājs (200 meter), Jolanta Dukure (20 kilometer walking), Aiga Grabuste (heptathlon), Ingus Janevics (50 kilometer walking), Jānis Karlivāns (decathlon), Igors Kazakevičs (50 kilometer walking), Ainārs Kovals (javelin), Dmitrijs Miļkevičs (800 meter distance), Staņislavs Olijars (110 meter hurdles), Sinta Ozoliņa (javelin), Inna Poluškina (3,000 meter steeple), Jeļena Prokopčuka (marathon), Ineta Radeviča (long jump), Ēriks Rags (javelin), Igors Sokolovs (hammer throw), Māris Urtāns (shot put), Vadims Vasiļevskis (javelin), Valērijs Žolnerovičs (3,000 meter steeple) and Ieva Zunda (400 meter hurdles).
• Beach volleyball competitors Mārtiņš Pļaviņš and Aleksandrs Samoilovs.

Three of the athletes earned silver medals in the 2004 Olympics: weightlifter Ščerbatihs, modern pentathalon athlete Rubļevska and javelin thrower Vasiļevskis. Among the better known professionals athletes are tennis player Gulbis and marathon runner Prokopčuka.

The women’s basketball team is the first Latvian squad to qualify for the Olympics since the men’s basketball team competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

The greatest number of Latvian athletes ever in either the winter or summer Olympics was 58 in the 2006 Turin Olympics.

The Beijing Olympics are scheduled Aug. 8-24.

Dual citizenship could be allowed for children born outside Latvia, but only until they reach the age of majority, Minister of Justice Gaidis Bērziņš has told representatives of the World Federation of Free Latvians (Pasaules brīvo latviešu apvienība, or PBLA).

In a July 9 meeting in Rīga, the justice minister also told the PBLA a broader discussion of the dual citizenship question is needed among members of the ruling government coalition before Latvia’s citizenship law can be changed, according to a Ministry of Justice press release.

The meeting with PBLA Chairman Mārtiņš Sausiņš and other federation representatives was focused on the question of dual citizenship for World War II refugees and their descendants, Jānis Andersons, head of the PBLA’s office in Rīga, said via e-mail. However, the justice ministry’s press release makes no mention of that discussion. Inga Saleniece, Bērziņš’ press secretary, said in an e-mail that the discussion focused on children, but the question of dual citizenship for refugees and their descendants was raised.

Sausiņš told the minister that when children born abroad are not able to get Latvian citizenship, the nation loses loyal citizens.

One option, Bērziņš said, could be to allow dual citizenship for children until they legally are adults. At that point, they would have to decide which citizenship to keep and which to drop.

“Amending the citizenship law is a sensitive question,” Bērziņš said, according to the ministry’s press release, “and that is why clear support is needed from all coalition partners. Amendments have to be prepared with great thought and reason, by analyzing the current situation and considering the changes.”

Because the citizenship law has already been amended several times, Bērziņš told the PBLA representatives, the better option would be to rewrite the law rather than to amend it again.

Members of three coalition parties—the People’s Party (Tautas partija), For Fatherland and Freedom (Tēvzemei un Brīvībai / LNNK), and the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zaļo un Zemnieku savieniba) —in May announced that they did not support legislation proposed in March to amend the citizenship law. The amendments would have made it possible for chidren born to Latvian citizens abroad to claim dual citizenship, while also renewing the opportunity for World War II refugees and their descendants to regain Latvian citizenship without giving up the citizenship of their host country.

Under the current law, dual citizenship is no longer allowed. World War II refugees and their descendants had until July 1995 to reclaim their Latvian citizenship while keeping the citizenship of their host country.

The proposed amendments came from the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration Affairs after a task force spent several months studying how to encourage repatriation. Integration Minister Oskars Kastēns, a member of the First Party of Latvia (Latvijas Pirmā partija), said he was surprised by the opposition from coalition partners.

The government at some point likely will tackle the citizenship law and the integration secretariat will be sure to remind officials of the need for dual citizenship, Dana Heiberga, head of the secretariat’s section in support of Latvians living abroad, told Latvians Online in a June e-mail.

The Lithuanian parliament in June approved amendments to that country’s citizenship law to allow dual citizenship for several groups of people, among which are those who live in European Union or NATO defense alliance members states, as well as World War II refugees and their descendants. Lithuanian law previously allowed dual citizenship, but in 2006 the country’s Constitutional Court ruled those provisions unconstitutional.

Just three weeks after voters get to decide if they should have the constitutional right to call for the dismissal of Latvia’s parliament, they will be sent back to the polls to decide whether state pensions should be higher.

The Central Election Commission has announced that a referendum on boosting state pensions will take place Aug. 23. The July 4 decision came after the Saeima rejected a citizen initiative calling for the higher pensions. The parliament on July 3 defeated Bill 751 on a 44-6 vote—but 46 lawmakers abstained.

The bill was submitted by President Valdis Zatlers on June 6 after a citizen initiative gathered more than 177,000 signatures in support of amending the state law on pensions. (Of those, 378 signatures were gathered abroad, according to the election commission. The honorary consulate in Adelaide, Australia, accounted for 100 signatures—the highest number in any location outside Latvia.) Because the Saeima rejected the bill, under Latvia’s law on initiative and referendum the legislation must now be put to a vote of the people.

The amendment would boost state pensions to no less than three times the state welfare payment, which would bring the retirement benefit to at least LVL 135 per month. The minimum state pension now is LVL 49.50 per month. Latvia’s living wage stood at LVL 159.55 in May, according to the Central Statistical Bureau.

Although the Saeima rejected the proposed amendment, it already on June 19 acted to boost pension payments. Beginning in 2009, pensions will increase at least 70 santīms for every year worked up to Dec. 31, 1995. In addition, starting October 2009 pensions will be indexed on an annual basis, according to the Ministry of Welfare.

With Latvia’s slowing economy, government officials have expressed concern about where they would the find money in the state budget if voters approve the referendum and pensions suddenly more than double.

The Aug. 23 referendum on the pension law will follow the Aug. 2 referendum on a constitutional amendment to allow citizens to initiate a recall of the Saeima. The constitutional amendment also was proposed by a citizen initiative and, as with the pension law amendment, was rejected by parliament.

For the pension law referendum to count, at least 453,730 voters—half the number who participated in the last Saeima election—must cast ballots on Aug. 23. A majority of those must vote in favor of the amendment for the new pension level to take effect.

Details on where and how to vote in Latvia and abroad will be available on the Web site of the Central Election Commission, www.cvk.lv.