The 10th annual award ceremony of the EOC Olympic Laurels took place in Minsk on the occasion of the 45th General Assembly.

This year six sports leaders – five men and one woman – who greatly contributed to the promotion of Olympic values and ideals within their NOC and in Europe were honoured by their peers:

-.Mr Constantinos MICHAELIDES (CYPRUS ) President of the Cyprus Olympic Committee, active in sports for over 50 years. A distinguished athlete in several sports at elite level, holder of several national records in athletics, he contributed to the development of sport in his country and abroad, the promotion and dissemination of Olympism through different positions of athlete, sports administration, coach and writer. He also was:
• Head of the organization of a plethora sports events and was head of mission for the Cyprus National Teams – from 1985 until today
• Head of the organization of the Games of the Small States of Europe in Cyprus in 1989 and 2009
• Member of the International Commission of Mediterranean Games’ Technical Commission from 2013 to 2015
• President of the Cyprus National Olympic Academy from 2012

-Mr Kakhi KAKHIASHVILI (GEORGIA), President of the Georgian Weightlifting Federation, is:
• A distinguished sports leader and Olympic Champion
• President of the Georgian Olympic Club
• Winner of three consecutive gold medals in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000

Under his leadership the Georgian weightlifting athletes won a bronze and a gold at the Rio Olympic Games
Olympic Champion.

-Mr Nicola PIETRANGELI (ITALY), outstanding tennis player:
• Ranked 5 times in the World’s Top Ten – position 3 in 1959 and 1960
• He was the leading all-time Davis Cup player both in singles and doubles of his time
• He participated in the Davis Cup 164 times and won 120
• In 1976 he was captain for the Italian team for Italy’s victorious Davis Cup
• Currently Italian Tennis Federation Ambassador for International programs

– Mr Arvydas JUOZAITIS (LITHUANIA) Vice President of the National Olympic Committee of Lithuania and former swimmer:
• 1974-1977 Multiple Lithuanian champion and record holder
• Olympian and bronze medallist at the Montreal Olympic Games
• Chairperson of the Ethics Commission
• President of the Fair Play Committee

– Arvydas Juoazaitis has dedicated a great part of his life to promoting and developing the Olympic Movement in Lithuania. He is also a philosopher, writer and lecturer.

– Mr Zdenko KRIZ (SLOVAKIA) is President of the Slovak Table Tennis Association, with 13 elections, with a valuable member of the Slovak Olympic and Sport movement for more than 30 years with long record of achievements towards improvements in professional sport as well as sport for all.
• Chef de Mission of the Slovak delegation at two EYOF events
• Secretary General of the Slovak Sport Confederation
• 19 years on the Slovak Olympic Committee Executive Board

– Ms Svitlana SAIDOVA (UKRAINE) has been an outstanding Ukrainian Synchronized swimming coach since 1982, and is currently head coach.
• First Vice President of the Ukrainian Synchronized Swimming Federation
• Member of the LEN and FINA Technical Synchronized Swimming Committees
• Contributed to the development and popularisation of her discipline in Ukraine and beyond
• Under her leadership her athletes became prize-winners at European and World championships and the synchronized swimming team belongs to the three-top teams in Europe, and among the four strongest teams in the world

The awardees received from the EOC Troika – Vice President Janez Kocijančič, Secretary General Raffaele Pagnozzi, and Treasurer Kikis Lazarides – the awards, now in parchment with the new logo.