Parliament Speaker highlights “historic” result of Georgian Olympic team

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday highlighted a “historic” result of the Georgian Olympic team that finished 24th among 206 participating teams at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

In his social media message, Papuashvili thanked Olympic athletes from the country with their best-ever result.

“It is noteworthy that with this historic result, we are ahead of 18 EU member states, while five of them did not win any medals”, Papuashvili said.

The lawmaker further stressed Georgia was “leading international rankings not only among regional nations but also, in some cases, among the EU member countries too”, both in terms of economic growth numbers and governance scores.

“On the backdrop of our opposition’s downplaying of everything Georgian and worshipping everything foreign, considering Georgia only as a periphery at the mercy of the other countries, such results remind everyone at home and abroad that Georgia’s progress and strength is to be found in ourselves and that the present of this country is as bright as its future”, he concluded.

Papuashvili and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze will nominate all Olympic medal-winners from the country for “highest state awards”.