Remember how Svetlana Khorkina was suddenly added to the coaching staff of the Russian national speedskating team? Well, this was not a joke and she even gave a speech at the FISU (International University Sports Federation) forum in Krasnoyarsk this week, as a representative of the Russian Skating Union and an Ambassador of the Winter Universiade-2019.
Khorkina talked a bit about her work with the speedskating team, saying that she will mostly deal with administrative issues and not actual coaching: “I’m not trying to get into the technical, coaching work, but some general and organizational issues are similar [to gymnastics]”.
As one of the Universiade’s ambassadors, Khorkina plans on participating in the Universiade’s Flame relay. She thinks that the 2019 Universiade will become the best Universiade ever:
“It will absolutely become one of the [athletic events] that will bring responses about the best organization. It will be the best Winter Universiade of all times and people if you will”.
Khorkina also added that the most important reactions to the competition’s organization would be those of the athletes: “The most important evaluation will happen when the athletes will start their competition. They are the main characters here”.
Khorkina also had some thoughts on doping, a hot topic in the Russian sport in the past few years and the one to which she dedicated an entire chapter in her latest book. She believes that the Russian sports organization are already doing a great job educating the athletes about doping and that other countries should learn from Russia:
“The Summer Olympics in Tokyo is ahead of us. Definitely, it’s better to prevent doping in advance than to identify some diseases later. Today, we have already put this work on track: educational forums are held, the Russian Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Sports and other sports organizations are working on it. The more informed we all are, the fewer mistakes we will have in the future. It would be nice if such things were also happening in other countries”.
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