Spurred by the decision of one of the country’s most famous athletes to leave Ukraine and compete for Belarus, the government has announced a bold plan to revive the country’s flagging national sports program.
The plan, proposed by the Sports and Physical Culture Committee, includes a package of measures aimed at attracting both state and private funds to help the country’s athletes. Sports officials want to establish a system of grants for the best national coaches, lure private sponsors and revive the national sports lottery.
Sports officials hope the move will prevent embarrassing incidents like the announcement earlier this month by four‑time world biathlon champion Olena Zubrylova that she planned to apply for Belarusian citizenship. Zubrylova explained that Belarusian authorities have pledged to provide better training and financial conditions for her.
Ukraine’s women’s biathlon team saw its funding cut after a disappointing performance in the Salt Lake City Olympics in February. Zubrylova said that since the Olympics she has been forced to buy bullets for training with her own money.
Volodymyr Brynzak, the president of Ukraine’s Biathlon Federation, said the Belarusians have promised Zubrylova a $1,000 monthly wage – about five times what she makes in Ukraine.
Earlier, Mykhailo Slyvinsky, a three‑time world champion in kayaking, transferred to the Polish team citing disagreements over funding with local sports officials.
Maria Bulatova, the chairman of the Ukrainian Sports and Physical Culture Committee, said halting the defection trend is now her agency’s top priority.
“If we do not stop presenting such kind gifts [to other countries] now, who knows what it might eventually lead to,” she said.
Bulatova said her committee is now pushing for legal changes to Molodsportloto, the national sports lottery. Proposed changes would require the lottery to channel a portion of its profits to the development of sports.
“Let’s take the Italian or Polish Olympic movements, for example,” she said. “They are 100 percent and 20 percent subsidized by national sports lotteries, respectively.”
Molodsportloto, established in 1992, is meant to provide 5 percent of its revenues to developing sports and physical culture programs. But the lottery’s contribution to national athletics virtually stopped when it was re‑organized into a commercial venture in 2000. Last year the lottery made Hr 30 million in profits, while transferring only Hr 50,000 to the Sports and Physical Culture Committee, according to Bulatova.
Sports officials are also trying to reintroduce a law that would encourage private sponsors to support the national Olympic movement. Under a previous incarnation of the law, scrapped in 1996, sponsors earned hefty tax deductions by contributing to the national Olympic team.
Bulatova said her committee has also asked the Cabinet to allocate funds for establishing a so‑called presidential grant for the hundred best national‑team coaches. Similar incentive programs exist in Russia and the Baltics. In Russia, about 500 national coaches receive monthly grants of about $600.
The committee has proposed 10 percent to 30 percent salary increases for coaches in youth sports schools, with raises dependant on seniority. The committee has also proposed giving coaches in youth sports schools monthly bonuses equal to their monthly salaries. The coaches’ salaries are typically around Hr 250.
Though government officials support the initiatives, the proposals have yet to be considered by the Cabinet, Bulatova said.
Volodymyr Platonov, principal of Ukraine’s National University of Sports and Physical Culture, said changes to sports financing schemes were desperately needed. Platonov said Ukraine spent 37 times less that Spain, for instance, on preparing its athletes for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. He said most of the equipment used by Ukrainian athletes is extremely outdated, while coaches and athletes often have to spend their own money preparing for the games.
Platonov said he is not sure if the Cabinet will support all initiatives proposed by Bulatova’s committee. He pointed out that the government is wary of supporting any law exempting private sponsors from taxes, since it fears such a move would lead to a drastic budget shortfall. One way to solve that problem, Platanov said, would be to establish a limit over which donations are no longer tax deductible.
Bulatova said that more state support for national athletics is essential if the country wants to avoid fiascos like the Salt Lake City games, when Ukraine failed to win a single medal.
“I’m convinced that if we want to perform better at the next Olympics in Athens, we have to adopt the world practice of financing our Olympic teams,” she said. “A third of the budget should be allocated by the government, a third should come from a sports lottery and another third should come from sponsors.”
