Balkans Send More than 100 Athletes to Olympics

From Albania, Erjon Tola, 23, will be competing in alpine skiing. Christopher Papamichalopoulos, 21, and Sophia Papamichalopoulou, 19, will represent Cyprus in the same event.

There are 10 Serbian athletes participating in the games. Slobodan Matijevic, Milanko Petrovic,  Vuk Radjenovic, Igor Sarcevic and Milos Savic will compete in bobsledding. Jelena Lolovic, 28, and Nevena Ignjatovic, 19 are listed as the countries alpine skiers. Amar Garibovic, 18 and Belma Smrkovic, 19, are set to take on the cross-county skiing competition.

Five competitors have traveled from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and four of them will hit the slopes. Tanja Karisik, 18, Maja Klepic, 21, Zana Novakovic, 24, and Marko Rudic, 20, are the nation’s top alpine skiers, while Mladen Plakalovic will represent his country in cross-country skiing.

Croatia has a total of 18 athletes in the winter games, competing in four different sports. The alpine skiers include Natko Zrncic-Dim, 23, Dalibor Samsal, 24, Ivan Ratkic, 23, Tea Palic, 18, Sofija Novoselic, 20, Danko Marinelli, 22, Ivica Kostelic, 30, Ana Jelusic, 23, Nika Fleiss, 25, and Matea Ferk, 22. Ivica Kostelic took home a silver at the 2006 winter games, and there is hope that he will capture a gold in Vancouver.

Cross-country skiers from Croatia are Andrej Buric, 21 and Nina Broznic, 18. Bobsledders include Mate Mezulic, 28, Igor Maric, 27, Slaven Krajacic, 29 and Ivan Sola, 48, who is one of the oldest competitors in this year’s games. For the biathlon event, Jakov Fak, 22, and Andrijana Stipanicic, 28, will be competing for Croatia.

Bulgaria also has 18 athletes competing in what marks the nation's 18^th appearance at the Winter Olympics. Bulgaria has claimed one gold and five other medals in the past.

Bojan Kosic, 19, is the sole competitor from Montenegro. He will compete in alpine skiing events.

Macedonia has sent three cross-country and one alpine skier to the games. This year's Olympics represent Macedonia's fourth trip to the winter games since becoming an independent state.

Romania has the most athletes competing compared to the other Balkan states. 32 of its top athletes will be participating in Vancouver. It is Romania’s 19th trip to the Winter Olympics.

Kosovo is the only Southeast European country that will not be represented at the Vancouver Olympics.