Dagnis Vinogradovs is the lone paddler on the Latvian Olympic team heading for Athens. Vinogradovs, or “Vīnoga” as he is nicknamed, made the cut in May with a sixth-place finish in the European sprint canoe and kayak qualifications in Poznan, Poland. In Athens, he will race solo canoe (C-1) in the 500- and 1,000-metre competitions.

The 23-year-old athlete from Limbaži, a student at the Academy of Sports Education in Latvia, has been paddling for almost 10 years. He competed in several European and World junior championships before breaking into the adult circuit in 2002. During the 33rd International Canoe Federation’s Flatwater World Championships held in September in Gainesville, Ga., in the United States, Vinogradovs finished fourth in the B Final for the C-1 1,000-metre race. And on July 24 he placed first in the C-1 1,000-metre race in the European Under 23 (U-23) Championships in Poland.

“It is difficult to predict how well Dagnis will do at Athens,” said Viktors Zujevs, an assistant coach at the Latvian national paddling centre in Limbaži. “Dagnis is still young and inconsistent. He needs to mature in a sport where paddlers often compete well into their thirties.

“He has a lot of promise,” Zujevs continued. “A couple of years ago he beat world champion German paddler Andreas Ditmer in a race. On other occasions he has missed the finals. Dagnis could bring home a medal from Athens or just as easily end up empty-handed.”

Vinogradovs said he is mentally ready for the Olympics.

“Even though these will be my first Olympic games,” he said in an e-mail. “I don’t feel that they will be any different from the last World Championships or European Championships because there, too, it was a battle for life and death.”

To relax after the long and grueling hours spent training, Vinogradovs is trying his hand at fishing and just finished reading a crime novel.

In European countries like Germany, Hungary and Poland, sprint canoeing and kayaking is a huge spectator sport. Crowds of up to 50,000 attend international competitions in Hungary and ranked paddlers are national celebrities. While Canadian paddlers, and particularly women, have brought home medals, the sport is relatively unknown in Canada and even more so in the United States. It is often confused with whitewater paddling, which is a separate sport and Olympic discipline.

Olympic sprint canoe and kayak events include the 500- and 1,000-metre races, with the 200-metre added in national and world championships. Canoers and kayakers, or C-boaters and K-boaters as they are often called, race in solo (C-1 and K-1), two-person (C-2 and K-2) or four-person (C-4 and K-4) boats. The four-person canoe is not raced in the Olympics.

Sprint canoes and kayaks are built for speed. They are sleek and light. The K-1 or solo kayak weighs only 12 kilograms, while the C-1 or solo canoe in which inogradovs races weighs 16 kilograms. Even the K-4 is relatively light at 30 kilograms. Expect to see top Olympic times for 1,000-metre races of around 3’50” for the C-1 and 3’30” for the K-1.

Canoeing differs from kayaking. A canoer is on one knee and paddles to one side. A kayaker sits and paddles on both sides with a double bladed paddle. The canoe has no steering mechanism and is controlled through paddling technique, but a kayak has a rudder with foot controls.

Both have open cockpits. If a paddler tips, they get thrown out into the water and the race is over for them. Forget the Eskimo roll in sprint kayaking or canoeing.

Both men and women kayak, but only men canoe at the Olympics and most international competitions. While women canoers are common in Canada and only recently have been accepted in the United States, they are prevented from competing internationally by entrenched chauvinistic attitudes, particularly in the national federations of the big European paddling powers.

Sprint canoe and kayak traditions in Latvia date back to the Soviet occupation. Paddlers from Latvia who competed internationally under the Soviet banner include Aleksandrs Afdejevs, Juris Runcis and Sergejs Zaļupe. A former Soviet era world champion kayaker is Vilnis Baltiņš, the current president of the Latvian Olympic Committee. The most successful Olympic canoer from Latvia is Ivans Klementjevs, who won a gold for the Soviet Union in Seoul in 1998 and then followed with medals for Latvia—a silver in Barcelona in 1992 and a bronze in Atlanta in 1996.

About 500 canoers and kayakers are active in Latvia today, and of those 20-30 are competitive internationally. Clubs are found in Rīga, Ventspils, Jelgava, Saldus (Brocēni), Limbaži and Jūrmala. The national team is based and trains in Limbaži, 80 kilometres northeast of Rīga in Vidzeme province. Genadijs Zujevs is head coach and he will accompany Vinogradovs to Athens.

Vinogradovs is scheduled to compete Aug. 23-28 at the Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre east of Athens near Marathon.

K-4 kayak crew hopefuls Ronalds Stālmanis, Mārtiņš Upītis, Kristaps Zaļupe un Arnis Lazdinieks did not qualify for this summer’s games despite posting good results in international competitions the last two years.

The Latvian contingent in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, is expected to include at least 32 athletes in 14 disciplines, the Latvian Olympic Committee announced July 15.

The games open Aug. 13 with the opening ceremony and conclude Aug. 29. In all, 37 athletic disciplines will be represented in the 28 sports of the Summer Olympics, according to the official Web site of the games.

First up for Latvia on Aug. 14 will be Guntars Deičmans in the 400-meter medley swimming event, Jevgeņijs Saproņenko and Igors Vihrovs in the qualifier for the all-around in gymnastics, and Andris Naudužs and Romāns Vainšteins in the cycling road race.

Here’s a rundown of Latvian athletes, sorted by sport.

Aquatics

Guntars Deičmans, in his first time in the Olympics, competes in the 200- and 400-meter medley. Andrejs Dūda, another first-timer, will be in the 100-meter butterfly.

Valērijs Kalmikovs, a veteran of the 1996 and 2000 games and a star while at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, may compete in the 200-meter breaststroke. He earned 13th place in the event in 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. But at last report, he still had not decided if he will start in Athens.

Romans Miloslavskis, an Olympic first-timer, will race in the 400-meter freestyle and the 200-meter breaststroke. Pāvels Murāns, another first-timer, will be in the 100-meter breaststroke.

The only woman swimmer on the team is Agnese Ozoliņa, a veteran of the last two summer games. She will compete in the 100-meter breaststroke.

Swimming competition will take place Aug. 14-21 in the Olympic Aquatic Centre, part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. A total of 800 athletes are competing in swimming.

Athletics

The greatest number of Latvian athletes—14—are competing in various athletics events. They include a number of first-timers, as well as returning Olympics veterans.

Aigars Fadejevs competes in the 20-kilometer race walk, while Modris Liepiņš will join Fadejevs in the 50-kilometer event. Fadejevs took home the silver medal in the 50-kilometer race in 2000 in Sydney, while Liepiņš came in ninth.

First-timer Dace Ruskule competes in the women’s discus event.

Ineta Radēviča, who is a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has competed successfully in National Collegiate Athletic Association events on behalf of the Huskers, will participate in the triple jump. She and Olympics veteran Valentīna Gotovska also will compete in the long jump. Both are natives of Krāslava.

Ieva Zunda, in her first time in the Olympics, will be in the 400-meter hurdles event.

Dmitrijs Miļkevičs, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate, competes in the 800-meter race. It is his first time in the Olympics.

Jeļena Čelnova-Prokopčuka, a veteran of the 1996 and 2000 games, returns to compete in the 10,000-meter race.

Staņislavs Olijars, who participated in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, competes in the 110-meter hurdles.

Decathalonist Jānis Karlivāns also is a first-timer.

Three men and one woman will compete in the javelin event. The men are Voldemārs Lūsis, Ēriks Rags and Vadims Vasiļevskis. Lūsis earned 18th place and Rags got 26th in the Sydney Olympics. Vasiļevskis is in the Olympics for the first time. The woman apparently will be Inga Kožarenoka, who earned 30th place in 2000.

Most athletics events will take place in the Olympic Stadium, part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, and will run from Aug. 20-29.

Canoe

It is his first time ever in the Olympics for Dagnis Vinogradovs, and he is the only Latvian paddler who made it this time.

Vinogradovs, racing in the 500- and 1,000-meter events, is scheduled to compete Aug. 23-28 at the Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre east of Athens and near Marathon.

Cycling

The relatively unknown Andris Naudužs joins veteran Romāns Vainšteins to represent Latvia in cycling.

Naudužs did participate in the 2000 games, but did not finish. Vainšteins, who for several years has been a regular on the European cycling circuit, appeared in the 1996 in Atlanta. Both will compete Aug. 14 in the cycling road race through the historic center of Athens.

Gymnastics

Two men, veteran Igors Vihrovs and first-timer Jevgeņijs Saproņenko, will represent Latvia in gymnastics events. Vihrovs was the surprise gold medalist in floor exercise during the 2000 games in Sydney.

Artistic gymnastics events take place Aug. 14-23 in the Olympic Indoor Hall, part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. Vihrovs and Saproņenko join 96 other men in competition.

Judo

Vsevolods Zeļonijs is Latvia’s only entry in the judo competition. In the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, he brought home a bronze medal.

Judo competition will be held Aug. 14-20 in Ano Liossia Olympic Hall in northwest Athens. A total of 386 athletes are expected in the competition.

Modern pentathalon

Deniss Čerkovskis earned 18th place in Sydney and returns as Latvia’s only male competitor in the event. The only woman, Jeļena Rubļevska, earned eighth place in the women’s competition in Sydney and returns now to see if she can do better.

The modern pentathalon involves five different activities—shooting, fencing, swimming, horse riding and cross-country running—all in the course of a day.

The event will take place Aug. 26-27 in the Goudi Olympic Complex in Athens. Just 64 athletes are competing in the sport.

Sailing

Vita Matīse, who earned 22nd place in the 2000 games in Sydney, returns to the Olympics to sail in the Mistral class.

Sailing events are scheduled Aug. 14-28 at the Agios Kosmas Olympic Sailing Centre in Attica. Matīse is one of 400 athletes competing.

Shooting

Fifty-six-year-old Afanasijs Kuzmins is Latvia’s lone gunman in Athens. Among all the Latvian athletes, he has the most Olympic experience, having participated in the Summer Games as far back as 1976. He holds a gold medal from the 1988 games in Seoul and a silver medal from the 1992 games in Barcelona. In the six Olympics in which he has competed, he has never taken less than 10th place.

Shooting competition takes place from Aug. 14-22 in the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre in Athens. A total of 390 men and women will compete in the various shooting events.

Weighlifting

Another returning Latvian Olympian is Viktors Ščerbatihs. He earned 10th place in Atlanta and sixth place in Sydney, lifting 452 kilograms in the latter.

Weightlifting competition takes place from Aug. 14-25 in the Nikaia Olympic Weightlifting Hall in the Attica region. Ščerbatihs will be one of 260 athletes competing in the sport.

Wrestling

Greco-roman wrestler Igors Kostins is in the Olympics for the first time.

Wrestling competition will be held Aug. 22-29 in Ano Liossia Olympic Hall in northwest Athens. A total of 344 athletes are expected in the greco-roman and freestyle competitions.

(Editor’s note: Information for this compilation is based on a number of media sources, including the LETA news agency, the newspaper Diena and the Web site of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.)

A memorial to victims of communism is one step closer to being built in Washington, D.C., the Joint Baltic American National Committee has announced. The National Capital Memorial Commission on July 29 approved a site at the northeast corner of Maryland and Constitution avenues for the monument.

The bronze monument, which would resemble the “goddess of democracy” made famous in 1989 during the three-month Tiananmen Square protest in China, still needs approval from U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, both of which are to meet in September.

Cost of the project is estimated at between USD 300,000 and USD 500,000. California sculptor Thomas Marsh, who has created a similar statue in San Francisco, has been commissioned to create the monument, according to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Originally, the foundation wanted to build a museum at a cost estimated at USD 100 million. Instead, the foundation says it will now develop an online museum.

The memorial was authorized in 1993 with passage of the so-called FRIENDSHIP Act, post-Cold War federal legislation that changed or repealed various regulations with an aim to improving relations with Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. The very last section of the act authorized the National Captive Nations Committee to build and maintain in the District of Columbia a monument to the more than 100 million people worldwide killed under communist regimes. However, no federal funds are to be used for the monument.

The National Captive Nations Committee set up the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation to gather funding and build the memorial. JBANC’s Managing Director Karl Altau is a member of the foundation’s board.

Rep. John Shimkus, a Republican from Illinois, on July 22 introduced a resolution (H.Res. 752) in the U.S. House of Representatives offering continued support for the memorial. The resolution has been referred to the House Committee on Resources.