Get up and run!

On September 10 Ukraine marked The Day of Physical Culture and Sports. But few even know about this holiday. It was established by a presidential decree back in 1994. Perhaps if this day was celebrated like the City’s Anniversary Day, if people paid more attention to physical culture, and if such celebrations involved more people, then the level of physical culture in Ukraine would be better. Unfortunately, this is not the case: very few people exercise and people above the age of 50 are in very poor health. Generally speaking, Ukrainians prefer to watch sports than to be involved in them. Physical culture is part of a person’s general culture, a part of person’s attitude towards themselves. The renowned doctor Viacheslav Yevminov once told The Day that morning exercise should be a reflex, just like brushing one’s teeth. Unfortunately, this is only true for five percent of all Ukrainians. The majority (54 percent) says that they haven’t done any sports for a whole year, the rest practices sports a few times a month or less. We are active fans. According to the data provided by Research & Branding Group, 43 percent of Ukrainians are soccer fans, 31 percent enjoy boxing, 29 percent are interested in figure skating, 15 percent favor calisthenics, and ten percent avidly follow track and field athletics. Experts explain this by the fact that these sports receive the best media coverage and have the most successful athletes. Suffice it to take a look at the achievements of the Klitschko brothers in professional boxing or the passion of Ukrainian soccer fans. “In general the interest of Ukrainian citizens for such sports events is very high. According to the survey, ten percent of respondents have a great interest in sports events and don’t miss any information from the world of sports, 25 percent regularly read sports news, 38 percent follow some big sports events from time to time, and 25 percent are not interested in sports at all,” the analysts say.

The state is trying to do something to solve this problem. Ukraine’s government has adopted a social program Healthy Nation for three years already. Yet few average Ukrainians have heard about this program and how it can influence their lives.

In Ukraine, love for sports means something different than love for beer or for talking about politics. It is passive and ineffective.

The results of this survey are quite disturbing. According to it, although Ukrainians want to be healthy and look good (90 percent), they do nothing to this end. The older generation looks at young people and says that they should practice sports, and be better and stronger than them. Thus, 89 percent of the respondents want the younger generation to do sports systematically, while 40 percent want more and more young people to go into professional sports. But they should practice what they preach. Indeed, it seems that right now parents lie on the couch and watch sport games while dreaming that their children will be athletic, strong, and good-looking.

The survey also showed that there is a problem with how accessible sport seems for Ukrainians. Only 13 percent of Ukrainians think that the necessary conditions for doing sports are present in Ukraine, while 29 percent of people said that practicing sports was not feasible given the current conditions. The rest was unable to answer this question — highlighting a serious problem with the level of information available about sports infrastructure in our country, or else with the level of interest in it. At the same time the survey showed that in order to get some physical exercise it is not necessary to go to expensive fitness clubs or gyms: out of the five percent of Ukrainians who practice sports, 82 percent do it on their own by doing morning exercises, jogging every day, or by choosing some other, easily accessible sport. Only 29 percent of respondents got their physical exercise in gyms or various informal groups.

“At the same time the results of the survey do not give a reason to think that this level of interest will turn into real activity, because the bigger part of Ukraine’s population (60 percent) do not plan any sports activities in their free time, and most of them (47 percent) declared that they have no such plans at all. In comparison with the level of Ukrainians’ engagement in sports in 2003, there was a shift in the right direction. However, it is only a short-term trend, and further research will be needed to show whether it will continue in upcoming years,” said Maryna Kasian, deputy director of Research & Branding Group.

The study also showed that people are highly sensitive to the fees charged by sports clubs. For example, a mere 21 percent of respondents said that they were ready to pay for such services, i.e., the economic factor is a significant hurdle preventing Ukrainians from practicing sports. Some Ukrainians manage to combine leisure and sports — exercising in recreation centers, health resorts, etc. However, they constitute only 11 percent of all Ukrainian citizens. In general, the results show that the population is prevented from practicing sports by the expenses involved (77 percent), low living standards (65 percent), an underdeveloped healthy-lifestyle culture, and problems linked to age or health condition.

In addition to surveying the population (1,200 respondents, aged 15-74), the sociologists also interviewed sports specialists, such as representatives of sports media, local self-government bodies, and sports organizations (a total of 100 experts). Most of them are not content with the state policy aimed at involving the population in sports (which is virtually nonexistent). Experts also gave ambiguous evaluations of the state structures that are supposed to enhance the physical activity of the population. In their opinion, these tasks have to be addressed by sports federations, voluntary sport associations, branches of the Sports for Everyone center, the mass media, and executive bodies.

In the opinion of analysts, the situation can be improved through the construction of new sports and recreation facilities, and not only in major oblast and raion centers. The study has shown that the problem of paying for services is much more acute in the provinces than in big cities. More attention should also be paid to promoting a healthy lifestyle: people should be informed about the need to exercise at leisure, because this is much more useful than lying on a couch in front of a TV set the whole day. Government agencies should also be involved in promoting a healthy lifestyle, and an interest in sports.

It’s good when someone gets you interested in sports or inspires you. But what if you never find somebody like that? Friedrich Nietzsche’s Zarathustra said to a person who was tired of life, who was lying down, and could not even raise his head because of fatigue: “If you don’t want to die you have to get up and run, singing…” Sage advice for all of us.