Balts mark Olympic anniversary

VILNIUS - The three Baltic countries commemorated the 10th anniversary of the reintegration of their National Olympic Committees into the International Olympic Committee in Vilnius City Hall on Sept. 21. The presidents of all three institutions were there, as well as the vice-president of the European Olympic Committee, Patrick Hickey.

The Olympic committees of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were recreated in Nov. 1988, almost three years before independence. However, it took the IOC nearly three years and six meetings to officially recognize them.

It was not until Sept. 18, 1991 in Berlin that the International Olympic Committee finally decided to reinstate the three Baltic committees.

On Nov. 11, 1991, they were officially recognized and given formal invitations to the 1992 Winter Olympics in Alberville, France and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said the Olympic movement was one of the primary ways for his country to channel its aspirations for independence in those critical years.

Hickey, who is also president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, used the occasion to give the highest Olympic award, the Olympic Order, to basketball megastar Arvydas Sabonis and first general secretary of the Lithuanian Olympic Committee Janis Grinbergas.

Sabonis, who played basketball in the NBA and who won a gold medal as part of the Soviet team in 1988 and bronze twice for Lithuania, accepted the honor with a hearty smile as he towered above the media and press frenzy.

The much smaller Grinbergas could hardly be seen among the throng of reporters when he received his medal.

In a statement after the ceremony at a reception at the President's Palace, Adamkus said, "The Olympic movement stimulates patriotism for young people and a devotion for higher ideals."