YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. After the accomplishment of final version of the scenario and preparatory activities, “Robert Sahakyants Production” company will start working over the new full-length animation cartoon titled “Olympionic” from January 1 of 2015. The project of the cartoon received financial support of the Government of the Republic of Armenia. In a conversation with “Armenpress” the Company’s Director Davit Sahakyants stated that it will take them 3 and not 5 years to shoot the movie due to AMD 80 million they’ll annually receive from the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

Among other things, the Director of “Robert Sahakyants Production” Davit Sahakyants highlighted that the new cartoon will tell about the events, which took place in the second half of the 4th century, when the young king of the Greater Armenia Varazdat participated in the tournament and was declared the winner of the 291st Olympic Games.

Sometime before his Armenian kingship, Varazdat participated in the Olympic Games in Greece. He is often regarded as one of the last competitors in the Ancient Olympic Games. Varazdat's victory in the bare-knuckle boxing event (pugilat) is recorded in Moses of Chorene's History of Armenia (3.40). Since he reigned from 374 until 378, conjecture places his victory in the 360's. Varazdat is the second recorded Armenian to participate in the Olympic Games, while the first was his ancestor Tiridates III of Armenia, before he served in his Armenian kingship. Varazdat’s victory is also known from a surviving memorandum which is now kept at the Olympic Museum in Olympia, Greece.

Upon the initiative from the Armenian National Olympic Committee, on May 8, 1998 a statue bust of Varazdat was installed at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece. The sculptor of Varazdat’s statue bust was Levon Tokmajyan.