1980 Olympic champion Stella Zakharova talked to RBK Ukraine about the state of sport in Ukraine and whether a nation can still participate in sports events when it’s currently at war.
She believes that sending athletes to camps abroad ultimately hurts the national sports because it means that the local facilities are not getting renovated or developed:
“In my opinion, it’s a very convenient scheme for the officials – an athlete went abroad, the state money was allotted for him but there’s no control of this money. That’s why it’s very convenient to send athletes to other countries instead of investing in the infrastructure of our sports facilities. But they could’ve renovated the gyms, the sports centers, the trampolines! If only they wanted to”.
“I’ll give a simple example: if a family doesn’t save money, doesn’t invest in anything but only spends, in the future, they will have nothing. The same goes for our athletic uniforms. You can save money if you hire a good manager to work with the big international manufacturers of sports clothes. We all see how the foreign athletes compete in the uniforms by Nike or Adidas. The country doesn’t buy those uniforms, on the contrary, the big brand is paying to a famous athlete so that he will wear their uniform”.
“When I was the president of the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation, we were always looking and sending offers. As a result, we found an American company that dressed the whole national artistic gymnastics team. The company was interested in it! Per our agreement, they also paid us money for placing in the top 8 at Worlds and Euros. In addition, they also dressed the coaches and the junior team. It’s done the same way in other countries where there’s a fight among the international brands to supply uniforms to the famous athletes. It’s an advertisement for the company while the state doesn’t spend a lot of money on the uniforms”.
Zakharova was asked about an opinion of some Ukrainians that it’s not appropriate to invest in sports development during wartime (Ukraine is still at war with Russia). She does not agree:
“But war isn’t the reason for the country to die. Even during wars, people stopped the active fighting for the athletic competitions. Wars stopped when the Olympics happened. After all, sports bring peace to the world. And if not for the total corruption in the country, everything developing on its own”.
Zakharova said that she is lobbying in Ukraine’s parliament to pass the law that would create incentives for businesses and individuals to invest in national sports (they can technically invest now but they don’t get any tax benefits for it).
As many athletes and sports personalities, she was asked about the ban of Russia from the Olympics Games, of course, and she agrees with Oleg Verniaiev that total ban was not called for:
“Now the Russian athletes are competing at the Olympics under the Olympic flag and not under the flag of Russia. But I think that there shouldn’t be a “one size fits all” approach. You can’t deprive the majority of the athletes of the opportunity to compete under their flag, whatever country they represent. After all, it’s the highest title, the highest competition. I’m more than sure that there is politics of strong countries here. And athletes suffer because of it. Because of one signature, the hardest work of a person during 4 or even 8 years is ruined. Yes, there are punishments for doping where a person clearly did wrong. But everyone’s on doping nowadays! The situation is very complicated but there’s clearly politics there”.
Photo: Xsport.ua
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