ATHLETES FROM FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS WILL FORM 1 TEAM

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992                   TAG: 9201260103
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium
ATHLETES FROM FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS WILL FORM 1 TEAM
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, reached an agreement Saturday that will allow athletes of the former Soviet Union to compete at the Winter and Summer Olympics.
Samaranch told a news conference that athletes from the five former Soviet republics that are sending competitors would form a single united team in the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
After the Winter Games, he said he expected the National Olympic Committees of the 12 former Soviet republics to be fully recognized at a meeting of the IOC before the Barcelona Olympics.
Samaranch, who met with Yeltsin in the Kremlin, said he and the Russian leader shared one goal: "To protect the athletes, to help the athletes take part in the main competition, in this case the Winter Games in Albertville and the Summer Games in Barcelona."
Under the agreement, athletes from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will compete in the Winter Games as a unified team, Samaranch said.
"If the team is a winner, we will raise the Olympic flag and play the Olympic anthem," he said. "If an individual is the winner, the same thing, but after mentioning the name of the athlete belonging to the united team, we will also mention the name of the republic where he comes from."
He said the team members would wear the same uniform, except for a small emblem on the arm indicating the athlete's home republic.
After the Winter Games, Samaranch said the IOC would meet March 9 in Lausanne, Switzerland, to discuss recognition of the national committees of the 12 former Soviet republics.
"I think, I hope we will be in a condition to recognize all the national committees of the different republics asking for recognition," Samaranch said.
After recognition, he said, the rules would change slightly for the Summer Games.
"If there is a team, we will raise the Olympic flag and play the Olympic anthem," he said. "If the winner is an individual, we will raise the flag of the national Olympic Committee of the athlete's country, and we will play the anthem of this republic."
Samaranch said he agreed with a Yeltsin proposal that the former Soviet National Olympic Committee, headed by Vital Smirnov, become the Russian National Committee.
He said that as of Jan. 1, 1993, the former Soviet republics would have full and equal rights with other Olympic national committees, under one condition. "During the year 1992, all the republics have to take part not only in the Olympic Games, but in all major sports competitions around the world as a unified team," Samaranch said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB