After 12 years, Cyprus will once again be represented by two athletes (one male and one female) at the 25th Winter Olympic Games in Milan – Cortina 2026, which will take place from February 6 to 22 in Italy, as announced during the presentation of the Cypriot delegation held on Monday at the Olympic Hall, in the presence of, among others, the Italian Ambassador to Cyprus, Antonella Cavallari.
The two athletes are Yiannos Kouyioumdjian, who will compete in the Giant Slalom (February 14) and Technical Slalom (February 16) in Livigno/Bormio, and Andrea Loizidou, who will compete in the Technical Downhill (February 18) in Cortina. The members of the delegation will depart for Italy on February 4.
The team competing in Livigno/Bormio will travel via Larnaca-Athens-Milan, and the team competing in Cortina will travel via Larnaca-Vienna-Venice. Coach Andreas Pantelides will travel by road from Thessaloniki to Venice on the same day.
Speaking at a press conference, the President of the Cyprus Olympic Committee (COC), Georgios Chrysostomou, said that “it is a special honour and a great success for the Cyprus Ski Federation and, by extension, for the Cyprus Olympic Committee to be able to participate with one male and one female athlete in the Winter Olympic Games.
He noted that Cyprus is participating with two athletes for the first time in 12 years, which “demonstrates the work being done by the Federation, the Board of Directors, the President of the Federation, Dinos Lefkaritis, the coaches, the technical advisors, and the Federation’s officials.
The COC President wished every success to the athletes, coaches, their companions, and the Federation in general, who will represent the whole of Cyprus.
“Our athletes are going to the Games with qualification, which is of particular importance and a huge success,” he stressed.
He noted that the athletes were already included in the Olympic Committee’s programmes in collaboration with Olympic Solidarity and the International Olympic Committee.
“This is very important for us because they are included in the programmes long before they qualify for the Winter Olympics,” he said, adding that this “demonstrates, highlights, and confirms our strategy of equal opportunities for all athletes, in all sports, our trust in all athletes, but also the support we give to the Federations, in this case the Ski Federation, for their choices.”
Regarding the total cost of participating in the games, Chrysostomou said that it “is around €30,000 for only two athletes,” while referring to the “difficult task that the Ski Federation has to perform in terms of finances.”
For her part, the Italian Ambassador congratulated the two Cypriot athletes on qualifying for the games and expressed her confidence that they “will achieve a very good position” in the games.
“I know how difficult your sport is and I really admire you a lot, especially because you come from a country where training is not so easy,” she said, adding that “Cyprus is not known as a country with snow.”
“So really, you are very admirable,” said Cavallari.
The President of the Cyprus Ski Federation, Dinos Lefkaritis, said that it will be an excellent experience for the two athletes and added that “a large part of the success of the two athletes” comes from their parents.
Lefkaritis also thanked the COC for its support and added that “together we can achieve a lot.”
“Cyprus is a small country, but we manage to do extraordinary things in sports and in many other areas,” he emphasized.
Andrea Loizidou, who is an athlete with the Limassol Ski Club and will be participating in the Winter Olympics for the first time, said she feels “great honour and excitement” to represent her country at the biggest sporting event and added that this “is the reward for many years of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice.”
Yiannos Kouyioumdjian, who is an athlete with the Nicosia Ski Club and a member of the National Team since 2008, returning to the world’s biggest sporting stage for his second consecutive Olympic appearance after Beijing 2022, expressed his gratitude to the Ski Federation “for the excellent work done in recent years, from President Dinos Lefkaritis to the coaches and staff of the Federation.”
