Athletes make final preparations for Sydney

TALLINN - With the Olympics less than a month away in Sydney, 33 of Estonia's finest athletes are getting ready to go down under for the Games.

Most agree that Estonia's best medal hope is Erki Nool, the powerhouse decathlete who currently ranks third in the world. Nool, who took home the silver at last month's Talence Decathlon in France, left Aug. 19 for Sydney. The rest of the team is arriving in intervals shortly thereafter, said Estonian Olympic Committee sports director Martti Raju.

Estonia's last medal at a summer Olympics was in Barcelona in 1992, when Erika Salumae - who is now a Center Party MP - blazed the track, cycling her way to a gold medal. Salumae also won a cycling gold in Seoul in 1988 under the Soviet flag. She finished sixth at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

For the first Olympics of the new millennium, which will take place Sept. 15 through Oct. 1, the 33 athletes chosen will compete in 11 different sports. Qualifying requirements for the events were set three years ago by the International Olympic Committee and other international sports federations.

In all events except for swimming and track and field, the qualifying criteria was raised because Estonia does not have enough inside competition to weed lesser athletes out, according to Raju. Criteria included attaining certain world rankings at important international competitions. However, since Estonian athletes number so few, chances for medals are slim, he said.

Aside from Nool, Raju predicted that fencer Kaeto Kaaderma and the entire Estonian fencing team are probably the country's best bet to snatch a medal. Estonia is also strong in cycling, judo and modern pentathlon, he said.

The athletes are getting to the Sydney not just on their own physical prowess, but with the financial help of the Estonian government. In 1997, the government incorporated into a law provisions to allocate 50 percent of gambling tax revenues from state lotteries to an Olympic fund.

The amount totaled approximately 400,000 kroons ($24,240) per year over four years for preparing about 20 of the country's elite athletes, including winter Olympic competitors. For those ranked a bit lower, funds were about four times smaller. Funds were strictly monitored, going straight to the national sports federations only for training and training-related costs, Raju said.

"They are in the final stages of preparation now," said Raju. "Some of the athletes like to improve their conditioning in competitions. Others take it easy and go away to quiet training camps."

Unlike many larger countries, Estonia has no national Olympic training center, and most of the athletes venture abroad to seek the world's top coaches, doctors and training facilities.