| Vyacheslav Fetisov summed up the preparations for the Olympics Yesterday, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Physical Education, Sports and Tourism, Vyacheslav Fetisov, met informally with Russian and foreign journalists to talk about the preparation of the Russian team for the Olympics in Athens, as well as to touch upon a number of other important issues.
According to Fetisov, most of the costs associated with the preparation of our Olympic team fell on the shoulders of the state. “In some sports, state funding reached 80%,” he explained. The head of the agency found it difficult to give an exact figure for spending on the Olympics, saying that we are talking about approximately $120 million. Commenting on the information voiced by the leaders of the Russian Olympic Committee that the Americans spent $2.5 billion on preparations for the Games in Athens, Fetisov cast doubt on these data. Because if you divide this amount by 500 athletes (which is approximately how many the overseas team will consist of), it turns out that at least $5 million was spent on preparing each one, which is clearly not true.
At the end of the Olympics, all our winners and runners-up will receive tax-free cash rewards from the state in the amount of 50, 20 and 10 thousand dollars, respectively, for first, second and third place. Fetisov assured that there will be no delays in the payment of prize money, since all financing is carried out through the state treasury system. “The number of medals we win,” said Fetisov, “is the number of awards the athletes and coaches will receive.” Regarding the recent statement by ROC President Leonid Tyagachev, who promised additional cash prizes of $60,000 to the winners of the Games, adding that this exceeds the amount promised by the state, Fetisov said: “The more money the athletes receive, the better.” However, regardless of anyone, he added that on the eve of the Games, “many are rushing to the microphone to promote themselves.”
For the first time, a group of Russian lawyers will go to the Olympics in Athens, since one cannot ignore the fact that the program of the Olympic Games includes quite a few sports with subjective judging. “Honestly, when I went to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, I was sure that after the tragedy of September 11, these Games would become the cleanest and fairest. But everything turned out the other way around: they went down in history as the most scandalous, and in this regard, we must anticipate any turn of events,” Fetisov said.
Another innovation in the Russian Olympic team will be the appearance of a full-time psychologist. Rudolf Zagainov, who worked with figure skater Alexei Yagudin in Salt Lake City, will now help others. “Of course, it’s difficult for one person to complete such a volume of work,” says Fetisov, “but it’s no secret that some athletes need it, and we tried to do everything to help them.”
Touching on other important topics, in particular preparations for the World Cup of Hockey, Fetisov admitted that the leaders of our hockey federation did not approach him with this issue. According to Fetisov, an unhealthy situation has developed in our hockey. “Head coach Billyaletdinov is forbidden to communicate with me, in any case, he did not talk to me, although who, if not me, the coach of the Olympic team, could help him. Until now, no one can get through to hockey player Sergei Fedorov. But I am not authorized to conduct such negotiations, because I don’t know whether the national team needs Fedorov or not. Our hockey leaders just can’t understand that hockey players are not puppets. These are independent, rich guys. And I’m sure that if information leaks in the press that one of our players refused to play for the national team, then most likely this means that no one talked to him about anything.”
According to Fetisov, Russian sport needs to be reformed, since such problems concern not only hockey. By the way, on behalf of the president of the country, work is now underway to prepare major international tournaments, in particular the World Hockey Championship, together with other countries. “We have already prepared a legal and economic justification for this project and are confident that we will be able to implement it,” said Vyacheslav Fetisov. Olga ERMOLINA |
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