Roland Garros Shock
As you can see, Eurosport editors put up the national white-red-white flag (!) next to the name of the Belarusan tennis player Anastassia Yakimova who was playing against Belgian star Henin-Hardenne today on the main court of Roland Garros. The white-red-white flag was banned by Alexander Lukashenka in 1996. Since then he forbid using it and made the revamped Soviet-era BSSR flag our state symbol again. You can be beaten up or arrested by police in Belarus if you publicly display a white-red-white flag. Kudos to Eurosport for using this flag today! This is really an amazing “mistake.” The national flag was banned by the dictator more than 10 years ago, so I’m pretty sure it’s not an accidental mistake of the Eurosport editors and the “good” flag was chosen on purpose.
This might seem like a meaningless trifle, but this caused an amazing excitement in the Belarusian blogosphere. Dozens of bloggers wrote about it today (some also in English).
June 2nd, 2006 at 5:15 am
Wow… thats amazing… I missed that im affraid :( I’m surprised they even knew this flag existed. Btw she made it till the quarter finals where she got beat by Michaella Krajicek.
http://www.eurosport.com/tennis/wta-istanbul/2006/draw_gnd2.shtml
June 2nd, 2006 at 6:40 am
As I have mentioned, it’s not the Eurosport editors who put the flag, it’s Roland Garros editors.
You can see dosens of other competitions on Eurosport with red-green flag.
June 2nd, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Eurosport has an inflitrated Belarusian spy! :)
June 2nd, 2006 at 12:52 pm
RTR: The Belarusian spy must run for his life before he’s hunted down by the Byelorussian spy …
June 2nd, 2006 at 6:41 pm
lol nice play of words aharoni :) It was also mentioned in today’s newspaper. The match that is, not about the flag. Mebe they put in the white red white flag by Anastassia Yakimova’s request?
June 3rd, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Let it be a reminder to Mr. Lukashenka: no matter what you do, red-white-red will chase Ya in one way or another.
June 3rd, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Islander: Being an avid sports fan, Lukashenka was probably watching it on Eurosport. I remember how he came to a Davis Cup tennis match and was hugging Voltchkov and Mirnyi. I was there, watching how he turned a sport event into a personal PR stunt.
June 3rd, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Islander:
“Let it be a reminder to Mr. Lukashenka: no matter what you do, red-white-red will chase Ya in one way or another.”
LOL :D So true :)
Administrator:
I remember how he came to a Davis Cup tennis match and was hugging Voltchkov and Mirnyi. I was there, watching how he turned a sport event into a personal PR stunt.
Poor players… poor anyone… to be used like that :( You do something good, another uses your achievements for his own goal.
June 3rd, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Btw.. I found out she won almost $200.000 dollars in her career… not bad for someone who’s just 20 years old :)
June 3rd, 2006 at 7:40 pm
By tennis standards she’s still dirty poor. :))
June 4th, 2006 at 9:45 am
By Belarusian (and mine) standards she’s millionaire :D
October 27th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Wow!
December 22nd, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Yes same thing happened with Alexander Hleb. In the 2005/06 Premiership Book the TRUE Belarusian flag of white-red-white was shown beside his place of origin(Belarus) so funny.
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Thanks for sharing
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