By Oleh ALEKSANDROV
Sports fans know that the achievements by Ukrainian athletes in winter
sports kinds are less than in summer ones. And the only gold medal we have
managed to win so far belongs to the talented figure skater Oksana Bayul.
Our figure skaters failed to repeat this achievement in the last Olympics
in Nagano. What can they count on this season? What prospects do the new
generation of skaters have? The Day turned with these questions
to the president of Ukrainian Federation of Figure Skating Liudmyla
Mykhailovska.
"First of all we count on Olena Liashenko and Yuliya Lavrenchuk. Thus
far they have never reached higher than the bronze in European tournaments,
but more lies ahead. In mixed doubles we put our main hope on Yuliya Obertas
and Dmytro Palamarchuk of Dnipropetrovsk. Last season they won the Junior
World Championship and the Junior Grand-Prix. Participating in the adult
tournament for the first time, they placed seventh. We hope that this duo
will continue to make us proud with their successes. I believe they have
a great future.
"With every year it gets harder for us to compete with leading world
teams. The main problem for athletes is our funding shortage. For instance,
now ice rent is very high - Hr 180 per hour. The national team trains in
Kryzhynka complex, but they have to share the ice with the ice hockey team.
All of this creates difficulties for us, because the hockey players need
a totally different ice.
We found no understanding in the State Sports Committee and city administration,
but this is understandable: they also have no money.
The situation in Odesa is even worse. The local Palace of Sports quit
preparing ice two seasons ago. Discotheques and various shows bring them
more profit than figure skaters' training. And the world-renowned Odesa
figure skating school has to work in a substandard rink, which simplifies
the programs thus bringing less points in tournaments. The ice-cleaning
machines are all worn out and need replacement: they are about twenty years
old and they fail to guarantee high quality of the ice, which is directly
connected with the training process. We could attract sponsors to solve
this and other problems. But the federation does not have permanent sponsors
due to Ukrainian legislation. Sponsors are not interesting in giving money
for sports.
Also, add the brain drain to all these problems. The number of coaches
has considerably shrunk in the last four years. As a rule, experts go abroad
not because of money, but because of work and living conditions. This is
a great pity. If we had a good technical basis, we could have coached foreign
athletes, bring much money to the country, while we have talented coaches.
So far...






