On December 24, the National Olympic Committee held a solemn ceremony to present its awards to athletes and coaches recognized as the best in five nominations.
Alina Harnasko, recognized as the best female athlete of Belarus 2025
In the "Best Male Athlete" nomination, biathlete Anton Smolski won.
This year, for the second time in his career, he won the Commonwealth Cup, and also secured four gold medals at the home Strongest Athletes Cup. In addition, Anton has numerous medals from the Russian Championship and stages of the Russian Cup. It should be noted that Belarusian biathletes have been suspended from participating in prestigious international competitions since 2022, so all their medals are actually won only in Belarusian-Russian competitions.
Smolski's competitors were trampolinist Ivan Litvinovich and rower Yauhen Zalaty. In 2025, Litvinovich won the overall World Cup standings and became world champion in synchronized jumps, while Zalaty won the European Championship and took bronze at the World Championship.
In the "Best Female Athlete" nomination, the leader of the national rhythmic gymnastics team, Alina Harnasko, won.
In 2025, she won gold at the Universiade in Germany, secured a host of awards at World Cup and Challenge Cup stages, became the best at prestigious international tournaments in Minsk, Moscow, Dubai, and Beijing, and also won at club championships in France and Spain.
Besides her, tennis player Aryna Sabalenka and synchronized swimmer Vasilina Khandoshka also vied for the main prize in this category. This year, Sabalenka won the US Open and finished the year as the world's number one tennis player, while Khandoshka won silver and bronze at the World Championship.
In the "Best Coach" nomination, Olga Ulasava, head coach of the Belarusian trampoline gymnastics team, won for the second year in a row.
This year, her trainees won three top-tier medals at the World Championship in Spain and six gold awards at the III CIS Games in Azerbaijan. Belarusian trampolinists also became medalists at World Cup stages, and Ivan Litvinovich won the overall tournament standings.
Also nominated in this category were Nicholas Alvarado, who led the Belarusian national beach soccer team to silver at the World Championship, and Vitaly Bely, head coach of the Belarusian national rowing team, whose proteges became medalists at world and continental forums.
In the "Best Team" nomination, the Belarusian national trampoline gymnastics team, led by the aforementioned Olga Ulasava, was recognized as the best.
The top 3 best teams of the year also included hockey club "Dinamo" and the Belarusian national beach soccer team. The Minsk Dinamo players reached the second round of the Gagarin Cup playoffs for the first time in history, and the beach soccer players took silver at the World Championship.
Finally, the performance of Minsk "Dinamo" in the Kontinental Hockey League was recognized as the "Breakthrough of the Year".
In the 2024/25 KHL season, Dmitry Kvartalnov's proteges achieved their highest-ever fourth place in the Western Conference standings at the end of the regular championship and broke club records for points and wins in a championship. The "bisons" also reached the quarterfinals of the Gagarin Cup for the first time in history.
The hockey players faced competition from swimmer Alina Zmushka and the pair of Tatiana Klimovich and Elena Furman (rowing). The Belarusian athletes won bronze medals at world forums in their respective sports.
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