Barys Tasman () (13 November 1954 – 25 June 2022), was a Belarusian journalist, sports reporter and sports analyst. Tasman was born in a Jewish family in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

. He graduated from the

Belarusian State University The Belarusian State University (BSU) (, ; ) is a university in Minsk, Belarus. It was founded on October 30, 1921. The university was ranked 387th in the world in the 2023 QS World University Rankings. History 1919–1949 On February 25, 1919, ...

with a major in geography in 1980. He worked as a loader, worker at a road equipment plant, and assistant at a geodetic laboratory. From 1981 to 1994, he pursued a career as a geography teacher in several Minsk secondary schools. Tasman organized the first Belarusian school-based Museum of astronautics (1987–1994) at the Minsk school № 46. Since childhood, he was interested in sports and "dreamed of sports journalism," but he entered into the profession only after the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

at the age of 40. Over 20 years (1994–1997 and 2002–2020), he worked as a reporter, observer, and editor of the first Belarusian independent sports newspaper, '' Pressball'', covering

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

, and other

Olympic sports Olympic sports are sports that are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2024 Summer Olympics included 32 sports; the 2022 Winter Olympics included seven sports. Each Olympic sport is represented at the Internation ...

. Tasman was also a sports editor at the then-most popular Belarusian independent daily newspapers '' Svaboda'' (1997–1998), ''

Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta ''Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta'' ('', BDG''; English: "Belarusian Business Newspaper", ) was a business-oriented bi-weekly Russian-language newspaper based in Minsk, Belarus. Closed by the state authorities, the print version of the newspaper c ...

'' (1999-2002), and '' Belorusskaya Gazeta'' (2002). Barys Tasman was called "one of the most authoritative sports experts" in Belarus, and "a legend of Belarusian sports journalism". He was also known for his "encyclopedic knowledge in the field of sports history and statistics", and his sports analytics "became a phenomenon in Belarusian journalism". In different years, he authored numerous publications about the history of the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

and world sports and interviewed famous Belarusian and Soviet athletes, coaches, and sports officials of different decades, creating the history of Belarusian sports. In addition, he regularly produced analyses and journalistic investigations denouncing the corruption of state-run sports bodies. Tasman covered the World and European championships in athletics in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

(1995),

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(1997),

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

(1998), and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

(2013) on the ground. He also served as a press attaché of the Belarusian Athletics Federation in 2005-2006. He predicted the future success of Belarusian sports stars

Max Mirnyi Maksim Mikalaevich "Max" Mirnyi (born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player. Mirnyi became a doubles specialist following his singles career, in which he reached a career-high of World No. 18 (August 2003) and finished ...

and

Vladimir Voltchkov Vladimir Nikolayevich Voltchkov (, ''Uładzimir Mikałajevič Vałčkoŭ''; ; born April 7, 1978) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player. Voltchkov reached the semifinals at the 2000 Wimbledon Championships, where, as a qualifier, he ...

, the primary sensation of the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Yulia Nestsiarenka, and others. Barys Tasman was known for his consistent criticism of the policies of the authoritarian leader of Belarus,

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

. In 1997, he was among over 100 prominent Belarusian opposition politicians, human rights activists, cultural figures, and journalists who signed

Charter 97 Charter'97 (; ) is a declaration calling for democracy in Belarus and a pro-human rights online news outlet taking its inspiration from the declaration. Charter The Charter'97 declaration deliberately echoes the Czechoslovak human rights declara ...

, a declaration calling for democracy in Belarus. While working in ''Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta'', he wrote opinion columns on socio-political topics criticizing the policies of the Belarusian authorities. He also wrote his 'political' column on the website of the first Belarusian independent news agency ''

BelaPAN The Belarusian Private News Agency or shortly BelaPAN () is a non-governmental independent Belarusian news agency, one of the main in the country. BelaPAN provides news on politics, economy, and sports from Belarus in Russian, Belarusian and En ...

''. For 10 years (2009–2018), Tasman authored the sports chapter for the ''Belarusian Yearbook'', an annual publication "analyzing key developments of the state and society in Belarus."

References

External links

* Barys Tasman. "Sports: Transition period" in ''Belarusian Yearbook'' - 2018

* ttps://nmnby.eu/yearbook/2016/en/index.html * Barys Tasman. "Sports during a crisis" in ''Belarusian Yearbook'' - 2016
* Barys Tasman. "Sports: Strangers are dearer than the locals" in ''Belarusian Yearbook'' - 2014

* ttps://nmnby.eu/yearbook/2012/en/page25.html * Barys Tasman. "Sports: Olympic failure and overall regression" in ''Belarusian Yearbook'' - 2012
* Barys Tasman. "War on huts, money for palaces" in ''Belarusian Yearbook'' - 2011

* ttp://www.nmnby.eu/content/images/BY_2009_engl.pdf * Barys Tasman. "Sport Stuck in the Development Model" in ''Belarusian Yearbook'' - 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tasman, Barys 1954 births 2022 deaths Journalists from Minsk Belarusian journalists Sports journalists Belarusian State University alumni Belarusian Jews