ODESA, MARCH, 12th, 2010, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE – Sportsmen of the Odesa Oblast are not participating in the Paralympics having started yesterday 11 March, as there are no conditions in the region for their training, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent reports.

Valentina Kolchak, Deputy Chief for Sports of the Odesa Regional State Administration.

According to Mrs Kolchak, sportsmen of the Oblast have never participated in the Winter Paralympics at all as there no winter Paralympics sportsmen in the Oblast.

“We don’t have either bases or anything else. It is not profitable to train them in Kyiv. We have Paralympic sportsmen but only for summer sports. For the near few years we are not even planning to train winter Paralympic sportsmen, as it is too complicated and expensive”, the official stressed.