| Belarus at the 2004 Summer Olympics | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| IOC code | BLR |
| NOC | Belarus Olympic Committee |
| Website | www |
| in Athens | |
| Competitors | 151 in 22 sports |
| Flag bearer | Alexander Medved (coach)[1] |
| Medals Ranked 26th |
|
| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |
| Other related appearances | |
 Russian Empire (1900–1912) Poland (1924–1936) Soviet Union (1952–1988) Unified Team (1992) Individual Neutral Athletes (2024) | |
Belarus competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's fifth appearance at the Summer Olympics in the post-Soviet era. The Belarus Olympic Committee sent a total of 151 athletes to the Games, 82 men and 69 women, to compete in 22 sports.
The Belarusian team featured two defending Olympic champions: discus thrower Ellina Zvereva and single sculls rower Ekaterina Karsten. Along with Zvereva and Karsten, shooters Sergei Martynov, Kanstantsin Lukashyk, and Igor Basinski, and married couple Iryna Yatchenko and Igor Astapkovich competed at their fourth Olympic Games, although they first appeared as part of either the Soviet Union (Martynov and Basinski in 1988) or the Unified Team (Astapkovich, Yatchenko, Lukashyk, and Karsten in 1992). Notable Belarusian athletes featured professional tennis player Max Mirnyi, table tennis star Vladimir Samsonov, gymnast Ivan Ivankov, Russian-born judoka Anatoly Laryukov, and Greco-Roman wrestler Siarhei Lishtvan. Three-time Olympic champion and wrestling coach Alexander Medved became the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.[1]
Belarus left Athens with a total of 13 Olympic medals (2 gold, 5 silver, and 6 bronze), failing only one gold short of the total achieved in Sydney.[2] Three of these medals were awarded to the athletes in weightlifting, and two each in rowing and boxing for the first time. Five Belarusian athletes set the nation's historical record to win Olympic medals for the first time, including judoka Ihar Makarau in the men's half-heavyweight division, track cyclist Natallia Tsylinskaya in the women's time trial, and sprinter Yulia Nestsiarenka, who became the first non-American to claim the Olympic title in the women's 100 metres since 1980.[3]
Originally, Belarus had won a total of fifteen medals at these Games to match its record with Atlanta. On December 5, 2012, hammer thrower Ivan Tsikhan and discus thrower Iryna Yatchenko stripped off their silver and bronze medals respectively as being ordered by the International Olympic Committee, after drug re-testings of their samples were found positive.[4]
- ^ a b "2004 Athens: Flag Bearers for the Opening Ceremony". Olympics. 13 August 2004. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
- ^ "2004 Athens: Medal Tally". USA Today. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
- ^ "Nesterenko takes women's 100m gold". CNN. 21 August 2004. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
- ^ "IOC disqualifies four medallists from Athens 2004 following further analysis of stored samples". Olympics. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2014.