What Was the Most Important Event of 2021 in Latvia?

Although this year has passed in the shadow of COVID-19, life has continued in all areas and industries – writers have published new books, artists have written songs and created works of art, athletes have trained and participated in competitions, researchers have worked hard in laboratories conducting research and making significant discoveries.

RSU lecturers and students have expressed their opinion on which event, achievement or discovery has been the most significant this year in Latvia.

The XII Latvian School Youth Song and Dance Festival – A new format in our cultural world that combines the possibilities of modern technologies through remote live broadcasts and limited conditions with participants, leaders, songs, dances, nature, spectators, which will leave a legacy of the love for singing, dancing and making music for generations to come.

Assoc. Prof. Dzintra Kažoka, Department of Morphology

I've been a big sports fan since childhood, so I'd like to mention ice hockey! Latvia hosted the 2021 World Ice Hockey Championships in May and June 2021. This was only the second time that a sports event of such a level took place in our country. In addition, Latvia managed to organise the championships in Riga without any serious problems, although the games had to be played with almost no spectators. Even though Latvian fans could not fully enjoy the World Championships in person, this was compensated by the Latvian national team's victory in the Olympic qualifying game at the end of August, meaning the Latvian national team has qualified for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Māris Ginters, Head of the International Admissions Office

The event that made the whole of Latvia smile and rejoice was Latvia defeating the Canadian national team at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. This was the first time in the history of Latvian ice hockey that our team gave such an outstanding performance.

Toms Mārtiņš Smilga, 5th-year Medicine student, Chairman of the Board, RSU Student Union

The highlight of 2021 were several operations that were performed in Latvia for the first time. Surgeons from the Children's Clinical University Hospital performed a correction of a spinal deformity using a new 3D X-ray device for the first time in the Baltics and performed a unique otitis media operation that eliminated a congenital ear problem and improved the patient's hearing for the first time in Latvia. The Digestive Disease Centre Gastro performed an unprecedented surgery in Latvia – an endoscopic local peripheral transmural resection of the intestinal wall. Vascular and cardiac surgeons of Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital performed a complete aortic prosthesis operation on a 22-year-old patient with congenital connective tissue disease (Marfan) for the first time in Latvia.

Zane Vitenberga-Verza, Assistant Professor at the Department of Morphology, Leading researcher and Head of the Laboratory of Morphology