The various ministries, departments and organizations that represent athletics, sport and culture around the region of Astyria decided that it would be in the best interests of all involved Astyrian nations to band together and put forth a unified delegation in their first venture into the Winter Olympics. In some cases, even nations that were recently in dispute with each other have deigned to put aside their differences in order to represent the greater ideal of sport and the cultural exchange that comes through friendly International competition. While bringing some national pride, these athletes ultimately stand as one under the purple and gold flag of Astyria. A new dawn has broken as Astyria looks to the future and casts aside old political divides to advance the region as a whole in the International arena, and come together simply as human brothers and sisters.
The Astyrian Unified Olympic Team (AST) Delegation To The XI Winter Olympics
ASTYRIAN MEN'S HOCKEY TEAM
COACHING STAFF:Head Coach: Nevin Le Houne (NEG)
Assistant Coach: Geoffrey Siegler (AQU)
Head Trainer: Dimitri Lazarev (FLK)
Assistant Trainer: Samuel Deseaux (NEG)
Line/Pair/GK OneGK Rostislav "Rossy" Pyanykh (FLK)
RD Christian Tiehaufer (KKR)
LD Julien LeTranc (NEG)
LW Ivan Nikonov (KKR)
RW Jean Luc Marchal (GUL)
C Vladimir Kusko (FLK)
Line/Pair/GK TwoGK Calvino Bassati (NEG)
RD Pavel "Pasha" Nechayev (FLK)
LD Kasper Radovsky (KKR)
LW Alain Coupin (GUL)
RW Primo Delmasso (NEG)
C Bojan Gavnic (NEG)
Line/Pair/GK ThreeGK Guillaume Brunet (GUL)
RD Arno Reimsel (NEG)
LD Yevgeniy "Zhenya" Nechayev (FLK)
RW Luka Görstler (KKR)
LW Alex Weissbaum (NEG)
C Anton Markusson (KKR)
Line/Pair/GK FourGK Vincent Gaspard (NEG)
RD David Mastroni (NEG)
LD Siegfried Kemmelz (NEG)
RW Andre Manon (NEG)
LW Henri Guilbert (GUL)
C Maurice Terfram (NEG)
Line/Pair/GK FiveG - Pascal Soltis (NEG)
RD Bertrand Carreau (GUL)
LD Karsten Ruggiero (NEG)
RW Thierry Sameaux (NEG)
LW Remy Velper (NEG)
C Ernst Volkzein (NEG)
Nation Name: The Incorporated States of the Blackhelm Confederacy
Trigram: BKC
National anthem: Cantio Foederate
Flag bearer: Petrus Redcover
Colours: Red, White, and green
THE BENEVOLENT DICTATORSHIP OF FALKASIAFalkasia is a predominately Nordic and sub-Nordic nation, containing within it a diverse variety of peoples, landscapes, and climates. The majesty of this land extends from the frozen wastes of the northern Falkasian Gulf, down through the central grassy steppes and forests of the Falkasian heartland, and into the craggy scrubland of the Border Region with neighboring Gragastavia. While prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Falkasia was frequently represented by many accomplished athletes as part of a combined Russian/Falkasian delegation, no athletes from an independent Falkasia have yet been sent to compete for international fame and glory. In combination with its neighbors and friends within the region of Astyria, the opportunity is nigh to break this trend, and set precedent for future generations that the Falkasian spirit cannot, and will not, ever be dominated.
Bobsleigh
Yule Skoog (26)Full-time commercial fisherman with the Falkasian Crab fleet in the Falkasian Gulf, Skoog has always been an active member in the Falkasian bobsled circuit since he was a child. Skoog hails from the icy island village of Reynir, located just a few degrees below the Arctic Circle. His father is Falkasian, but his mother is Yellosian (
Yellow Star Republic), from just over the northern border.
He spent much of his childhood with friends sledding on the various static icebergs surrounding the island. As with any self-respecting Falkasian, Yule cut his teeth playing organized youth hockey throughout the northern-most province of Volskaya. Despite being an accomplished skater and offense-man, he found that ice hockey lacked the adrenaline rush free-form sledding had given him as a child. A self-described "speed freak," Skoog is the Pilot for both the Falkasian Two-Man and Four-Man bobsled teams. In recent years, especially with the announcement that Falkasia would again send a delegation to the Winter Olympics, he has taken time off from work and focused on training. Ironically, his team has no formal facility to conduct practice runs. Instead, they ride the same icebergs he grew up with as a child.
Karl Svensson (25)Son of a baker, Svensson was born in the central Falkasian town of Vilzen; population 257 plus several dogs. As a child, he tended to avoid organized sports and instead preferred to explore the rolling hills and valleys surrounding his home with his childhood companion, a fluffy collie named Sasha. Karl's disinterest didn't matter much however, as the city of Vilzen was only able to afford a small ice rink, and only during the winter. Svensson's adventures fostered within the young man a strong sense of independence and determination, which ultimately led him to school to study business. While studying at University of Ekaterine, he was approached by a member of the Falkasian Olympic Committee, Dimitri Romanov, who ultimately recruited the begrudging, headstrong young man as their Two Four-man Sled Brakeman. Presently, when he is not training with his two and four-man bobsled teams, Svensson runs a small chain of Falkasian pastry shops, know as Pryanikis, throughout Vilzen and the surrounding hamlets.
Dimitri "Rossiya" Romanov (57)Known as "Old Man" by his enemies and "Rossiya" by his friends and teammates, Dimitri is the oldest member and contingent captain for Team Falkasia. He is also the oldest ever athlete sent by Falkasia to attend an Olympic Games. However, don't let age fool you. Every one of his 57 years is backed up by twice as many in experience. In fact, Dimitri has participated in several Olympics previously as a Falkasian appointee to the Russian Delegation. He was slated to take part in the Four-Man Bobsleigh during the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, but was prohibited from doing so due to political problems back home in Falkasia. Outside of this, Romanov is directly responsible for re-establishing the Falkasian Olympic Committee and putting together delegations for competition overseas. Officially, Dimitri is retired and lives in a modest town-home on Ulansky Street with his wife, within sight of the Tretiak Arena. Unofficially, he works as the FOC Chairman. In his own words; "This is my dream job."
Jan Holtgren (19)Young and ambitious, Jan strives to be the best. "Strives," however, is likely an inappropriate word choice. Brash and unrestrained, likely on account of his age, Holtgren did not start out as a Bobsledder. Rather, as a child he played competitive ice hockey for the Crab Kings, a youth professional sports club based out of Volsk. The circuit took him throughout Falkasia, as well as neighboring Gragastavia and briefly into the Yellow Star Republic. Despite what he may say, Holtgren was a C player at best, and was often resigned to the grinder/enforcer role on the Fourth Line. As he said it, being at the bottom meant "he could see his path straight to the top." However, the ladder fell out from under him following an off-ice altercation with members of an opposing team, alongside two on-ice officials who attempted to intervene. He was promptly sanctioned by the Falkasian Youth Hockey Association, and after a similar altercation with several of his own teammates a week later, was permanently suspended from the league. Almost as if by chance, he was approached by a Falkasian Olympic Committee official who was able to offer the youngster a fresh-start. As the team quickly learned, his enormous size, youth, and hockey conditioning allow him to accelerate his sled as a Pusher at breakneck speeds. Outside of the sport, Holtgren does odd jobs to support himself. He aspires to become a Falkasian Marine Raider some day, but acknowledges that neither "[his] academic performance [nor] attitude would allow him to do well."
Truen Gunnarsson (25)A true trendsetter, 6'6" Truen (Troon) was the first woman to pilot a bobsled to victory in Falkasia. Rather, she was the first woman to enter herself as a competitor in a Men's Bobsledding League and win. Her victory opened up the path for other women, much like herself, to form their own parallel organization for female bobsledding within the country. Born in Provno, a suburb outside of Ekaterine, her first sport was actually basketball. Given her height, this was a natural choice, despite the fact there are virtual no basketball courts anywhere in Falkasia. It presented a problem, and when she and her parents were forced to move north to Volsk, she abandoned her pursuit for other options. Bobsledding, ironically, was not a sport she actively pursued as she grew into adulthood. Her first foray was as a substitute Pilot for a men's Four-man Team, after which she became hooked. While attending technical school in Volsk, she and her friends formed the city's first female-only bobsled team and were frequently seen rocketing through downtown streets against rival teams during winter. Currently, her team trains in combination with the men's team on Reynir Island, but more recently she has been attempting to petition the local government for funds to construct a track in-town. In her off-season, Truen is a registered EMT and frequently works to support helicopter evacuations over the Falkasian Gulf.
Johanna Dahlin (23)Like Svensson, Dahlin is also a member of the 257 individuals who call Vilzen home. She and Karl were distant friends as children, not so much because they had common interests, but rather because there were so few children around. As such, both share a variety of similar experiences that has created a very strong bond between both of them. Despite only being two-years younger, Johanna tends to regard Karl as her older brother and the two can be frequently seen teasing each other about their relative love interests. She is a fully educated and accredited Mining Engineer, the result of an extensive six-year education at the technical university in Volsk. During her time there, she was approached by her dormitory mate Truen and persuaded to join their team as the Brakewoman.
Selja Heino (25)Unlike her teammates, Selja grew up with bobsledding as her family's past-time. Her father, a native of the city of Atley in the Falkasian ice fjords, participated in a variety of winter sports in his free time. While ice hockey and skiing were among his favorites, there was always a special place in the man's heart for his small, ramshackle two-man sled. Selja, once she was of age, would frequently go out with her father on some of his less exhilarating runs. From him, she learned every skill a sledder would require in to become competitive. By the time she was a teenager, her and her three sisters had built their own ramshackle four-man sled and were competing against other local children for the title of "King of the Mountain." Many of the tracks she and her friends built over the years have since been framed and turned into actual runs, although the facilities to maintain them have yet to be constructed. Grown up now, she still resides in Atley alongside much of her family and trains sled dogs for a living.
Leyla and Yildirim Sezen (20)Leyla and her brother Yildirim are fraternal twins, born and raised in the chaotic and oftentimes dangerous city of Stana in the southern border region of Falkasia. Their parents, a Gragastavian father and Falkasian mother, were both career military officers serving as the region's security liaison between their respective governments. Given the city's notorious reputation for being a center of terrorist and separatist activity, the Sezen parents decided that it might be better to raise their children in a safer environment. Both of the Sezen twins might have spent much of their childhood growing up in one of the wealthier districts of the Gragastavian capitol of Al Duhaba, but instead a GLO suicide bomb attack killed their father shortly after the decision was made. A week later, their mother requested re-assignment, and the family was spirited away to Ekaterine. Devastated by the death of their father, both Sezen children channeled their grief into release outlets. Aside from being an accomplished painter and singer, Leyla quickly became enamored with the sport of bobsledding after a one-time boyfriend introduced her to the sport. Ironically, Leyla regards fellow teammate Truen Gunnarsson as her idol, having watched her compete in the early days of the sport in Falkasia. It was this same idol who would eventually recruit Leyla to the team.
Unlike his sister, Yildirim had a more difficult time coping with the death of his father. While neither of them frequently saw eye-to-eye, his father was the primary driving force behind his passion. Stana, being a craggy landscape of scrubland, washes, and jagged cliffs, rarely ever got snow. Yet, his father was a strong supporter of his early interests in ice hockey and would actively dodge duty to watch his son play. Unable to separate the thought of his father with the game of hockey, Yildirim quit playing and has yet to step onto a hockey rink since. Instead, he poured his efforts into school and hoped to one day become an accomplished lawyer. Instead, his twin sister dragged him into the sport of bobsledding. At least initially, Yildirim thought of it as a soft sport with hardly any skill involved. Skeleton, a parallel sport often broadcast in accompaniment of bobsledding, captured his attention and held on. When interviewed about this defining moment, he replied, "I like the intensity. It's just you and the sled and nothing else. The purity of it all calls to me. Reminds me if how I felt before my father died." Unlike his sister and the bobsled teams, Yildirim actually trains overseas in
Neu Engollon, where he studies International Law at Burgunden University.
Liljan Mogen (34)An accomplished skier and sledder, Liljan is the very definition of a backwoods outdoorswoman. Born in the mountainous region of Ikovskaya, her family lived in a homestead with three of her uncles, aunts, and their families. There was no running water, and many of the houses had dirt floors on their lowest levels. Her father was a lumberjack and game hunter, but outside of the occasional elk or deer he brought home, all of his earnings went to pay for family expenses and his own drinking problem. Despite his addiction, Liljan's father was as supportive as he could be of his only child, and encouraged her to come out hunting with him once she came of age. In a bit of homestead ingenuity, he would have her sled between the trees and stir out any critters into the open. Surprisingly, this strategy didn't work at all, but it left a lasting impression on the young girl.
As she grew, the sled was abandoned as she and her father would trek out together on hunting trips, for which her father made sure to pass her some spending money. Lacking a formal education, she poured her funds into books and taught herself a hodge-podge of subjects ranging from literature to mathematics. Sledding however, had returned to the forefront of her life. The nearest town, an Army installation known as Camp Ikov, began offering competitions for local sledders to compete. The soldiers there, having little to do during the winter months outside of watching TV and eating food, offered cash prizes. It took very little time before they came to regret their decision, as Liljan quickly bankrupted most of the camp's population. Due to this, and despite her homestead's remoteness, Liljan is fairly well-known and respected by the region's community as a whole. This was partly the reason why she was approached by the Falkasian Olympic Committee, hoping that by having her compete would draw popular support for the fledgling organization. However, as Chairman Romanov mentioned to a reporter, her fame was considerably less important than her exceptional skill at skiing and shooting. "She's just that good," he said, "You can quote me on that too." Currently, Liljan is engaged doing the same trades she's done her whole life; hunting and wrecking financial ruin on bored soldiers.
Valerian Larashenko (41)A literal translation of the "Most Interesting Man in the World," Valerian has pretty much seen and done it all. Born in Al Duhaba to Falkasian parents, he was a curious youngster who frequently got himself into trouble. So much so, that the local FSIS bureau used to rig him with a tiny listening device to counter-act insurgency movements. Nothing is really ever off-limits, especially in
Gragastavia. As a child, his parents traveled the world as official sanctioned diplomats of Falkasia. Over the course of his life, he resided in over 30 countries. As a result, Valerian speaks 9 different languages. It was during his late teens, while his parents were posted to the Falkasian Embassy in
Salzland, that he discovered skiing.
He had in the past dabbled in a variety of traditional and local sports, but the nature of his parents' work meant that he could never stay around long enough to fully enjoy them. Illegal drugs were also proving an issue for the young man, so when his parents saw his interest, the quickly jumped on the opportunity and forced him in. While hardly a natural, the more he practiced the more he realized he loved skiing. "It's a sense of control I never had as a kid," he would later reflect to a reporter, "You're in charge of where you go. So long as there's snow, where ever you go is the right place to be." He served briefly in the Falkasian Navy as a gunboat captain in the Falkasian Gulf, where he had several run-ins with smugglers. The ships he commanded, three in total, were all sunk at one time or another with him on board.
Three times each he was fished from the frozen water, ready to jump aboard the next boat to finish what he started. He has stared in a variety of local commercials, held political office as mayor of an Ekaterine suburb, built a successful international alcohol distribution company, and even went undercover as part of an FSIS and Precinct 19 sting operation on a cell of Cardwithian drug kingpins. Currently, his job is skiing. He has devoted himself full-time to practicing his sport in preparation for the upcoming Olympic Games, for which he also has a minority investment stake in, and travels the world on his own money to ski the greatest mountains known to mankind.
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:40 am
