Belarus' NOC president meets with Belarusian cosmonaut candidates

01.09.2023

MINSK, 1 September (BelTA) - Future space explorers Marina Vasilevskaya and Anastasia Lenkova, who are getting ready for the upcoming flight in March 2024, paid a visit to the headquarters of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Belarus to get familiar with the museum exposition, attend an Olympic lesson and meet with President of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus Viktor Lukashenko, BelTA has learned.

The flight of the crew featuring a Belarusian cosmonaut is scheduled for March 2024. Marina Vasilevskaya makes part of the main crew, which also comprises Oleg Novitsky and Tracy Dyson. The crew is expected to stay on the ISS for 12 days. Belarusian Anastasia Lenkova together with Ivan Vagner and Donald Pettit makes up the backup crew.

Anastasia Lenkova and Marina Vasilevskaya

During the tour around the hall telling the story of the Olympic movement development, Viktoryia Mennanava, Head of the Communications Department - Press Secretary of the National Olympic Committee, showed a number of unique exhibits to the future cosmonauts. These were fair play awards of outstanding Belarusian athletes - freestyle wrestler, two-time Olympic champion Alexander Medved, four-time Olympic champion in foil fencing Elena Belova, great handball coach Spartak Mironovich. The future cosmonauts were also shown the wreath of Belarus' “white lightning” Yulia Nesterenko, the 1980 Olympics torch carried by wrestler Alexander Medved at the Dinamo Stadium in the Belarusian capital, the Olympic bronze of rhythmic gymnast Alina Harnasko, the Olympic outfit of gymnast Liubou Charkashyna, and the “gold” ski of Sochi Olympic champion Anton Kushnir.

“We are honored to receive such high and interesting guests today. We decided to get our future cosmonauts familiar not only with the committee itself but also with the history of the Olympic movement development, to tell them about the achievements of the Belarusian Olympians of the Soviet and sovereign periods. The Belarusian future cosmonauts listened very attentively and asked questions. We could see that they were familiar with sports and even helped us sometimes during the excursion. I hope that Marina and Anastasia got some new knowledge today. We will be looking forward to meet them here after their return from space next year. We have an extensive exposition, and perhaps it will get a unique exhibit from space,” Viktoryia Mennanava said.

After the excursion, Marina Vasilevskaya and Anastasia Lenkova attended the National Olympic Lesson 2023. Making part of the teams of school students from Partizansky and Sovetsky districts of the Belarusian capital, the cosmonaut candidates answered tricky questions of the Olympic quiz.

After the quiz the future Belarusian cosmonauts were given the NOC flag, which had been taken to the highest point of Europe - Mount Elbrus (5,642 m). Just yesterday the rare exhibit was handed over to the NOC museum by Chairman of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation, Olympic champion Aliaksandr Bahdanovich. In 2024 the Belarusian cosmonaut will take the NOC flag on board the ISS, thus confirming the prestige and authority of the national sport.

President of the National Olympic Committee Viktor Lukashenko said that the future cosmonauts got an opportunity to learn a lot of interesting information about both the national and the world Olympic movement during their visit to the NOC. “Working and communicating with our athletes, I know what hard work is needed to achieve high results, how difficult it really is to win any medal at high-level competitions. You, candidates for a space flight and work on the ISS, must also be in a very good physical shape and have great endurance. It can be said with certainty: the Olympic movement and space flights have a lot in common,” the NOC head said.

Marina Vasilevskaya said that she has always had a positive attitude to sports. The future cosmonaut has done ballroom dancing for 15 years, regularly visited swimming pool, played tennis and badminton as an amateur. “This is our first time at the NOC. We are honored to be here today. There was an opportunity to learn more about sports as well. We will proudly wear the sports outfits, which we got from you today, in Zvezdnyi Gorodok so that everyone could see what country we represent,” the main cosmonaut candidate Marina Vasilevskaya promised.

According to Anastasia Lenkova, a lot of time and attention was paid to physical training of future cosmonauts. We are doing excellent, the young woman stressed. In general, physical training for a space flight includes different disciplines: running and swimming, both long and short distances, diving, trampolining. “There are requirements, the same for men and women, that we have to meet before the end of the training. For me, the hardest ones are pull-ups and push-ups. I have never done professional sports, but I have always maintained a healthy lifestyle,” cosmonaut candidate Anastasia Lenkova said.

The young woman was really happy to take part in the Olympic quiz. Anastasia noted that she would like to participate in such events in the future. It is very important for school students to know the names of their country's heroes. “This is a great idea,” Anastasia Lenkova added.

The future cosmonauts were presented with sets of IROS uniforms, the official outfitter of the national Olympic team. By the way, IROS Space One, the brand's space-themed collection, is expected to be released this autumn.