On April 5, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. The silver medalist of the 2008 Olympics, Vadim Devyatovsky, is ready to compete for a spot in the 2012 London Summer Olympics. This was announced today by Mikhail Portnoy, Head of the Department of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, while answering journalists' questions during a meeting with candidates for the national Olympic team, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. "He is a very serious athlete and a multifaceted person. Even when faced with problems (after an exhausting two-year legal battle with the International Olympic Committee related to a high-profile doping scandal, Vadim Devyatovsky managed to reclaim his medals from the Beijing Games and his good name - BELTA note), he continued to train and prepare for new victories," said Mikhail Portnoy. According to him, the athlete has currently achieved an acceptable level of fitness and is ready to compete for a license to the London Olympics. "Vadim Devyatovsky is a very strong person, and he is ready for this himself. We hope it will happen," emphasized the head of the department, adding that the entire Vitebsk region is rooting for this athlete. The meeting with candidates for the national Olympic team took place at the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. The main participants of the meeting were Natalia Mikhnevich, the silver medalist of the Olympic Games in shot put, and Alina Talai, the bronze medalist of the World Championships in hurdles. The athletes gladly answered questions from members of the Club of Young Olympians of Gymnasium No. 5 and the Olympic Reserve School. Natalia Mikhnevich, for example, admitted that she has no idols in sports, but there are people whose achievements she emulates. She is helped to achieve success in sports by her coach and, of course, her family – her husband and son Ilya, who is now four and a half years old. The athlete has done a lot of work to prepare for the London Summer Olympic Games and plans to achieve an acceptable level of physical fitness in the near future. At the same time, she assesses her readiness level as significantly higher compared to the Beijing Olympics, for the preparation of which Natalia had only one year due to the birth of her son.