Barys Tasman

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Barys Tasman (1954–2022) was a Belarusian journalist who became one of the country’s most respected sports reporters and analysts.

Tasman was born in Minsk into a Jewish family. He studied geography at Belarusian State University and graduated in 1980. He worked in various jobs, including loader and factory worker, and later taught geography in Minsk schools from 1981 to 1994. He also helped start the Minsk School №46 Museum of Astronautics (1987–1994).

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Tasman switched to sports journalism at the age of 40. He spent many years (1994–1997 and 2002–2020) at Pressball, the first independent Belarusian sports newspaper, reporting on football, athletics, tennis, wrestling, boxing, fencing, chess and other Olympic sports. He also served as sports editor at Svaboda (1997–1998), Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta (1999–2002), and Belorusskaya Gazeta (2002).

Tasman earned a reputation as one of Belarus’s most authoritative sports experts. He had encyclopedic knowledge of sports history and statistics, and his analytics were influential in Belarusian journalism. He wrote about the history of the Olympic Games and world sports, interviewed many famous Belarusian and Soviet athletes and officials, and frequently exposed corruption in state-run sports bodies.

He covered major events in athletics on the ground, including the World and European championships in Gothenburg (1995), Paris (1997), Budapest (1998), and Moscow (2013). He also served as the press attaché for the Belarusian Athletics Federation (2005–2006). Tasman accurately predicted the future success of stars like Max Mirnyi, Vladimir Voltchkov, and Yulia Nestsiarenka.

Politically, Tasman was a vocal critic of Belarus’s long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko. He signed Charter 97 in 1997, and wrote political columns for BelaPAN and other outlets, advocating democracy and reform. From 2009 to 2018, he authored the sports chapter of the Belarusian Yearbook, documenting key developments in Belarusian sports and society.

Tasman passed away in Minsk, Belarus, on June 25, 2022, at the age of 67. He is remembered as a legend of Belarusian sports journalism and a trusted source of sports history and analysis.