Yana KLOCHKOVA: Why did we fly overseas if not to fight for medals?

When Ivan Fedorenko, chairman of the State Committee for Youth Policies, Sports, and Tourism as well as president of the National Olympic Committee, was meeting the last group of our Olympic athletes last week, he said the Ukrainian team had “made a good show” at the Olympic Games.

“The media published terse statistics may be interpreted in different ways, but every seventh member of the Ukrainian team won a medal and each fourth was in the first six,” Mr. Fedorenko pointed out, adding that “taking 23 medals is very good,” Interfax-Ukraine reports.

Former Premier Valery Pustovoitenko, who also arrived from Sydney with the athletes, noted that “all we have to do is not to jump to conclusions. We must analyze the way we prepared for the Olympics, the course of the games themselves, and draw up new plans to train for the next Olympic Games in Greece.”

It will be recalled that our country finished twenty-first in overall team standings due to, above all, a dismal number of gold medals, the main indicator. Only three of them were won in Sydney, with swimmer Yana Klochkova taking two.

After the Olympic champion had come back from Sydney, our correspondent met her in her Kharkiv apartment.

“It must be a pleasure to feel yourself on top of the world. Tell me frankly: were you afraid in Sydney?”

“No, I knew one distance was mine. Although daddy always says I should not underestimate my opponents, I knew I was in good form. The second gold was maybe a gift, for that was a very difficult race.”

“And the silver?”

“Well, I never expected it, so I relaxed a little. Just think yourself: you’ve bagged two gold medals; isn’t that enough? But Oleksandr Kozhukh, my coach, said I had to brace myself and do the job because the Ukrainian team had too few medals.”

“Speaking of the team, how would you appraise Ukraine’s twenty-first place?”

“We might have done better. Did we fly overseas for any reason except to fight for medals? It was my first Olympics, but I’d taken part in a lot of international competitions, so I can compare. The Ukrainian team did better in Atlanta.”

“But why?”

“In general, analyzing is the coaches’ job, but it seems to me that while many athletes were psychologically ready up for victory, the whole team was not. I remember that the Americans, Germans, and others were somewhat more closely knit. They would dine and mix together... Of course, this is not so easy because athletes have different schedules, but still we should have been better friends with one another.”

“This is what we call readiness to give a leg up. Tell me: did you have the support of fans?”

“And how! There’s a big Ukrainian diaspora there, and they cheered us so well. On the other hand, all Australians are very cordial, and the Olympics ran in a friendly atmosphere from start to finish.”

“What plans are you making, including those far ahead?”

“I’m going to swim, even in the more distant future. Did you see the American swimmer who won the gold in the 800 meters? She’s thirty- three! So I’ve got plenty of time. Now, for the time being, I can relax, but I will start training soon. I’ll be getting ready for the swimming championship of Europe. There will also be a short-distance competition in Spain.”