Sarunas Marciulionis’s visit marks the start of “Great Champions” project

“Great Champions” project was launched upon the initiative of Mediamax media company and with the support of VivaCell-MTS.

Mediamax Director Ara Tadevosyan said today that legendary athletes of other sport types in which young people and children are engaged will arrive in Armenia within the project.

Upon the recommendation of the Embassy of Lithuania in Armenia the first “hero” of the project is legendary basketball player, Olympic Champion Sarunas Marciulionis.

“Since Lithuania declared independence, Sarunas was the first to establish a Basketball Academy in Lithuania. Of course, there was tough competition. To develop basketball in Lithuania, he mainly focused on children”, said Ambassador of Lithuania to Armenia Erikas Petrikas.

VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian said that the project is the Armenian youth in particular.

“Our youth needs such champions to get inspired and feel more determined and obviously draw lessons from them. And what matters is that our young people have a reason to smile and hope for such a path and becoming a champion one day”, said Ralph Yirikian.

In his turn, Sarunas Marciulionis shared his success formula: “Never give up and always believe that you will win”.

“I am happy to be in Armenia and take part in such an important project. I find it important that we managed to show children the way to basketball development. It is highly important for children to be active and engage in sports”, said the legendary basketball player.

It should be added that within his visit Sarunas Marciulionis, already had a meeting with Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Gabriel Ghazaryan and National Olympics Committee Secretary General and Chairman of Basketball Republican Federation Hrachya Rostomyan.

“At the meeting, I suggested that Armenian coaches be trained in our academy”, said Sarunas Marciulionis.

Talking about the present of the Armenian basketball the athlete said that Armenia lacks the tradition and it should be formed. He recommended creating a basketball style basically considering the low height of Armenian athletes. According to Sarunas Marciulionis, the focus should be on speed and long-distance basketballs shots.

It should be added that during his visit to Armenia Sarunas Marciulionis conducted a master class for around 140 children from Yerevan, Gyumri and Artik. Other than that, “The Other Dream Team” movie about the phenomenon of Lithuanian basketball was screened at Moscow Cinema.