Sochi 2014: Arman Serebrakian 42nd in Giant Slalom

As the rest of the U.S. rightfully watches Ted Ligety dominate the Men's Giant Slalom, WASB had its eyes trained on Arman Serebrakian around 1:00 a.m. Western United States time!

Due to intense IOC restrictions, WASB cannot upload a video of Arman's first run, which saw him finish 54th of 109 skiers. In his second run, he improved his time by about 3 seconds to finish 42nd overall. Again, even though WASB's video cannot be uploaded, it must have been an amazing feeling when Arman crossed the finish line to cheers from a strong Armenian contingency in Sochi, leading the BBC announcer to exclaim, "He's getting warmly welcomed in the foot of the course!"

Congratulations to Arman, he represented Armenia with utmost pride!

Winter Olympics Special: Team Armenia (Part 4)

Our fourth and final athlete is the only Diasporan of the team: Arman Serebrakian. Arman hails from Novato, CA (near San Francisco). Here is a great link from Team Armenia's official Sochi 2014 page giving us some background on Arman:

Arman Background

He will be competing in the slalom and giant slalom. Arman even has a website, where donations are welcome to support him in his journey to Sochi. At the time of this post, he has already raied $51,000 USD!

Here is the link to Arman's fundraising website:

http://armanserebrakian.com/

Here is Arman:

And here is a link to a video with Arman:

Arman Video

GOOD LUCK TO ARMAN AND THE ENTIRE TEAM ARMENIA!!!

Winter Olympics Special: Team Armenia (Part 3)

Artur Yeghoyan is Armenia's third athlete in the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

He will be also be competing in the 15 km classical, 30 km skiathlon, and 50 km freestyle. He is coached by Artur Mikayelyan (who serves double duty as teammate Sergey Mikayelyan's coach/father).

Here again is the link to Armenia's Sochi 2014 team page:

Sochi 2014 Team Armenia

GOOD LUCK TO ARTUR!!!!
 

Winter Olympic Special: Team Armenia (Part 2)

Tonight's athlete, Katya Galstyan, is the only female competitor for Armenia in this year's Sochi Olympics. She will be competing in the women's 10 km classical. Katya hails from Gyumri, Armenia, and is coached by Slava Sargsyan.

Here is Katya in action:

Here is the link to Armenia's page on the official Sochi 2014 website:

Sochi 2014 Team Armenia

Good luck to Katya!!!

Winter Olympic Special: Team Armenia

Armenia will be competing in its 6th Winter Olympics since independence, and it will be sending delegation of four athletes in two sports: alpine and cross country-skiing.

Here is the official Sochi 2014 link to team Armenia:

2014 Sochi Olympics: Team Armenia

Tonight, we feature our first athlete, Sergey Mikayelyan, who will be competing in the men's 15 km classical, 30 km skiathlon, and 50 km freestyle.

Sergey was born in 1992, and even represented Armenia in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

GOOD LUCK TO SERGEY!!!