The 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing are officially over, but the excitement of the event has yet to die down. In fact, the spirit of the Games is carried on throughout the year in different countries. The Paralympic Games are taking place in Beijing at the moment, the Winter Olympics are just around the corner, and last weekend the Summer Diplomatic Olympic Games were held for the 10th year running.
The Diplomatic Olympic Games were first organized in 1998 by GlavUpDK; the Main Administration for Service to the Diplomatic Corps, which is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. GlavUpDK has always paid attention to the recreation and sports activities of foreign diplomats; operating vast recreation complexes such as Nakhabino and Zavidovo open to all members of various diplomatic corps located in Moscow. While Nakhabino is where golf tournaments and winter sports take place, Zavidovo is the prime location for the games of summer.
Zavidovo is located in the region of Tver, and the governor's office of Tver always takes an active part in organizing the Diplomatic Games. Vassily Toloko, the first deputy governor of Tver region, was among the officials opening the Games and spoke with great enthusiasm about the event. "This year's Games will be bigger and more spectacular that in 2007," Toloko told The Moscow News after the opening ceremony. "Sports competitions, such as basketball, volleyball, football, tennis, and even fishing, will be followed by a fashion show and a reception. The judging will be fair, as it is done by veterans of the Olympic movement."
All the sporting competitions were monitored by Olympic champions of past and present. What's more, the veteran judges of the Diplomatic Olympic Games, Galina Gorokhova and Ludmila Titova, were presented with commemorative medals honoring their contribution to the Diplomatic Games. However, the best prize is participation itself. "Here we get to recharge our batteries and meet new people," Gorokhova said upon receiving her award. "Each year our athletes get younger and we are getting younger with them."
There was no doubt as to the importance of the Diplomatic Olympic Games. Ivan Sergeyev, the head of GlavUpDK, stated that there can be only one attitude towards the Games - an extremely positive one. "Sport helps solve many of the world's problems," Sergeyev told The Moscow News, "Today you will see for yourself the excitement, competition and support that these sportsmen share, it's amazing."
Indeed, the main purpose of the Diplomatic Games is to make communication between countries easier. Daniel Chioban, first secretary of the Embassy of Romania, spoke to the Moscow News before taking part in cross competition. "It's a very interesting idea," Chioban said about the Games. "It's very useful because diplomats have the opportunity to meet each other in a very informal medium."
Still, political matters were cast aside by the excitement of sport. The highlights of the day were, of course, football and volleyball, where the fiercest competition took place and the strongest support of the fans was displayed. In the spirit of the Diplomatic Games, the fans of Kyrgyzstan were cheering for their team as well as for their opponents, proving that this event is all about support and cooperation. And it is that spirit, as well as previous training, that won Kyrgyzstan the first prize for team effort of this year's Diplomatic Olympic Games.
The fans also got a fair share of the workout. The Air Race, a sports and entertainment game, was held exclusively for the fans who took a break from cheering in order to compete for a trophy of their own. Each team had to select a captain, announce their motto and spend the first round of the contest competing alongside another team. Thus the teams got to work together, letting any remaining boundaries break away.
Other events of the day included family games, a dressage show by the Alfares horse riding club, a sport and glamour fashion show by Pincode FREDO and a fireworks display followed by a traditional Russian feast.
The official closing ceremony of the 10th Jubilee Diplomatic Olympic Games marked the end of one successful sporting event, and the beginning of the road to another, bigger one. "We have to start preparing for the Winter Olympic Games that are due to take place in Vancouver in 18 months," Viktor Khotochkin, first vice-president of the Olympics Committee, told The Moscow News, "No doubt that the experience of the Diplomatic Games, as well as the latest Olympic Games will help us in that matter. Sport is the art of the impossible, and diplomacy is the art of the possible. So today we made the impossible possible."
By Katya Vinogradova
