On 28 June First Lady Andra Levite, who is also the Patroness of the Paralympic Movement in Latvia, visited the Equestrian Sports Club (ESC) ‘Temperaments’, a training facility where Paralympian Rihards Snikus who will represent Latvia at this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo spends his days training, and met with the athlete.
Together with his horse King of the Dance, Rihards Snikus greeted Madam Levite with a dressage routine that he will present at Tokyo Games. Mrs Levite was then given a tour of ESC ‘Temperaments’ horse stables and introduced to riding coach Daria Tihomirova with whom she discussed the achievements of Paralympians and challenging sides of the training process. Mrs Tihomirova also presented the plan for construction of stables for the Paralympians.
Meeting with Daiga Dadzīte, President of the Latvian Paralympic Committee (LPC), Liene Apine, LPC Secretary-General, and Dins Šmits from ‘Mēness aptieka’, the official partner of the LPC, focused on Madam Levite’s meeting with Luca Pankalli, President of the Italian Paralympic Committee, in Rome this May. Andra Levite said the Italian Paralympic Committee praised the LPC idea to build a dedicated Paralympics Centre, especially the dormitories that will make training easier for athletes and make the stay of their family members and care-taking assistants more pleasant. Andra Levite also passed Luca Pankalli’s greetings to Latvian Paralympic Committee and his best wishes to stay strong and calm and keep firmly focused on the goal. Paralympic facility is important for better training and result, and it will have major influence on future results. Mrs Levite also referred to Italian experience, which shows how important it is to raise the public awareness and support for Paralympic movements.
LPC officials thanked Andra Levite for valuable insights into meeting with President Pankalli and underlined that Paralympic Centre is an absolute necessity if we want to help Latvian athletes reach international level and compete in the Olympics. Mrs Dadzīte underlined that interest on the part of athletes has started to wane due to lack of dedicated training facility; this might prevent Latvia from qualifying for the Olympics. Paralympic centre would not only help improve athlete results in many different ways, but it would also keep young people motivated and confident in their ability to lead a fulfilling life.
One of the last points discussed during the meeting was how Latvian athletes are preparing for the Olympic Games in Tokyo and how Olympic Village will be affected by pandemic. 6 Latvian athletes have already qualified for the Games in Tokyo: track and field athletes Aigars Apinis, Diāna Dadzīte, Edgars Bergs and Dmitrijs Silovs, swimmer Jurijs Semjonovs and Paralympic equestrian star Rihards Snikus. Ieva Melle and Gints Jonasts (archery), Oļegs Garkuls-Gurēvičs (wheelchair fencing) and Oskars Gailišs (road cycling) will have their chance to qualify for the Paralympics in July. Latvia might bring a bigger team to Tokyo Games if LPC is awarded special wild cards, with Baiba Rorbaha (women’s club throw), Ingus Labanovs (javelin), and mixed rowing team Krists Mickēvičs and Žanna Cvečkovska among the potential contenders for the Olympics.