By Stanislav Lipsky: The 2019 European Games are 649 days away, yet Minsk is already preparing to host the competitions and solving a wide range of technical issues – from catering to security.
The large-scale event is expected to bring together over 4,000 athletes, and several thousand coaches from 50 countries, as well as a great number of journalists and VIP guests from around the world, not to mention sports fans. As President of Belarus noted earlier, this holiday of sport is called upon to consolidate the Belarusian nation and unite Europe.
Among the upsides of Minsk hosting the European Games are the advantageous geographical location and readiness of most of the sports facilities and infrastructure, which means the country will not need to invest a lot of money in the construction of new facilities. All in all, Belarus is planning to spend about 40 million euros. In contrast, the host of the first Games, Azerbaijan, spent about 5 billion dollars.
Minsk also relies on the friendly atmosphere of the tournament that will reflect the best qualities of the Belarusian people.
The example of the 2014 IIHF World Championship and other competitions convinced everyone that Belarus can host tournaments at the highest level and create an atmosphere in which everyone – both athletes and fans – feels comfortable.
The competitions will include 15 kinds of sports – badminton, 3x3 basketball, boxing, wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, canoeing, kayaking, karate, athletics, sambo, archery, pistol and rifles, table tennis, and beach soccer. Ten of them will become qualification competitions for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. In total, athletes will compete for 189 sets of awards.
Bright Year, Bright You is the slogan of the 2019 European Games. Belteleradiocompany has already begun shooting image videos for the tournament. 15-second promo videos will feature both famous Belarusian athletes and Olympic champions and ordinary Belarusians.
All in all, the 2019 European Games are expected to be the largest sporting event in the history of independent Belarus.
