Ukraine has achieved some noting sporting success during its 20 years of independence, but has failed to fully capitalize on its Soviet inheritance.
In 40 years of Winter and Summer Olympic competition from 1952 to the last time a Soviet team took part in1992, Ukrainian athletes collected 193 medals.
Since Ukraine began competing separately, the country has bagged a meager 29 medals in four Summer Olympics and five Winter Olympics.
Sports insiders and experts blame a sharp reduction in funding for sport at all levels for the performance drop.
In the Soviet period, sport was lavishly funded in a search for champions in the propaganda Cold War with the West, as well as to promote an active lifestyle. But funding dried up after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as economic turmoil swept Ukraine.
“The only difference is funding,” said Valeriy Borzov, Ukraine’s first sports minister and an Olympic champion.
Irina Deriugina, an Olympic champion and famous Soviet-Ukrainian gymnast and coach, said the primary reason for the drop in sporting achievements is the lack of sports facilities. “Those existing are mainly in a poor condition and were built in Soviet times,” she said.
Borzov added, however, that conditions are starting to improve as the state boosted money for the National Olympic Committee (NOC).
There have been some notable successes at the Olympics for the Ukrainian team, particularly in gymnastics and track and field – two sports the Soviet team was especially good in.
Gymnastics brought six gold medals, more than any other sport. Track and field has contributed 15 medals, three of them gold.
Yana Klochkova, known in Ukrainian by her nickname “Goldfish,” became a swimming legend after winning four gold medals in Olympics in 2000 and 2004.
Ukraine’s gymnastic school keeps producing great athletes, such as Lilia Podkopayeva, Kateryna Serebrianska and Anna Bessonova, who fill world championships tables with Ukrainian names.
Still, the general picture is not bright. Sport in Independent Ukraine had a hard start. From its very beginning the work of NOC, the heart of the state’s sport, has been full of obstacles, to put it mildly.
“Immediately after independence, it became clear that we needed to create our own Olympic committee,” Borzov explained. “But it wasn’t an easy thing to do. To be officially approved by the International Olympic Committee we had to endure a one-year probationary period and get our five national sports federations approved by the committee.”
In 1993, when the NOC took up preparations for the 1994 Winter Games in Norway and 1996 Summer Games in the U.S., Ukrainian Olympians were in dire financial straits.
But help came from abroad. Borzov, as a president of NOC, appealed to the Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S. Larissa Barabash Temple of Atlanta, whose parents had left Ukraine many years earlier, was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of Ukrainian Olympians abroad.
“We had to organize a training camp for Ukrainians,” said Barabash Temple. “My husband is a lawyer, and there are some well-known American athletes among his clients. That helped me in the search. One of the most difficult tasks was finding a base for kayakers team training.”
Barabash Temple, together with other members of the diaspora launched a campaign to raise money for the National Olympic Committee. Sports clubs agreed to provide training facilities in America at a minimal cost – $25 per day – for the opportunity to work with Olympic athletes.
The biggest sponsor fee of $1.3 million was donated by Harry Bowman, a Ukrainian by birth and owner of Bowman’s Sports Betting.
This help allowed Ukrainian athletes to take part in their first Olympics as part of an independent Olympics.
Now, even though the Ukrainian national team no longer needs help from abroad, the way financial support for sport is organized remains questionable. Sponsors are hard to find and state support is hard to secure.
One sport that has brought success to Ukraine – and certainly doesn’t lack money at the top level – is soccer. The national team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2006; Shakhtar Donetsk won the UEFA Cup in 2009 and Dynamo Kyiv made the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 1999.
Another successful sport for independent Ukraine has been boxing – most notably Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, heavyweight brothers who hold all the major world titles in that division.
Sporting success can bring financial reward, or lead to other spin-off careers. Soccer star Andriy Shevchenko earned $2 million for a beer commercial, according to media reports, and the Klitschkos also advertized a beer brand. The choice of product to promote received criticism as many fans said alcohol and sport don’t mix.
Olympic champion swimmer Klochkova chose another field in which to take advantage of her success and popularity in sports – politics. Before the end of career Klochkova (now 29) joined the pro-presidential Party of Regions and used to be a deputy in the Kharkiv city council.
Legendary athlete Sergei Bubka is also engaged in politics. He is president of the NOC and was president of Rodovid Bank until it collapsed in 2009.
Bubka said the increasing commercialization of sport offers Ukrainian athletes the chance to earn money from sporting activities. “Now it is possible for athletes to participate in commercial competitions and thus get worthy payment for their hard labor,” he said.
Ukraine is preparing to take another large leap in its sporting life next year, when it will host the Euro 2012 soccer championship. In 2013, Ukraine will host the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championship for the first time.
“With all these events, we can say that now is that very moment when the world gives Ukraine the opportunity to intensify sports development,” said Olympic gymnast Deriugina.
Sports highlights from the first 20 years of Ukrainian Independence
1994 – At the Winter Olympics in Norway, figure skater Oksana Baiul won for independent Ukraine its first (and so far only) “winter” gold medal.
1996 – Performing at the Summer Olympics for the first time, the independent Ukrainian team took home 23 medals, nine of them gold.
1999 – Vitali Klitschko, the eldest of the two boxing brothers, knocked out Britain’s Herbie Hide in the second round to win the WBO heavyweight title.
2002 – Eighteen-year-old chess player Ruslan Ponomaryov became the youngest world chess champion. Three years earlier, Ponomaryov had already surprised the chess community, when he became the youngest international grandmaster ever.
2004 – At the Olympics in Athens, Yana Klochkova won her fourth Olympic gold medal for swimming in her final Games.
2006 – Ukraine’s national football team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time.
2008 – The Beijing Olympics was the most successful for an independent Ukraine, which scored 27 medals, seven of them gold, and was the 11th most successful country. This was also the year that Ukraine was awarded the right to co-host with Poland the Euro 2012 soccer tournament.
2009 – Shakhtar Donetsk won the UEFA Cup after beating Germany’s Werder Bremen in the final.
2011 – Wladimir Klitschko defeated Britain’s David Haye, meaning the brothers now hold all four major world heavyweight titles.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]
