President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine Serhiy Bubka has stressed that he is ready for the great responsibility that will fall on him if he is elected head of the International Olympic Committee.
“As of today, I am ready. I’ve been schooled by the IOC, the International Association of Athletics Federations. I have worked in almost all of the key IOC commissions and I’m currently involved in several such agencies,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Bubka also noted that his eight-year presidency of the NOC of Ukraine had given him very important experience.
“Our team has been able to open the Olympic House (the headquarters of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine), which belongs to the Olympic Movement in Ukraine. We have introduced and are carrying out unique programs. By and large, it is hard to find such an active Olympic Committee today. At present, one may call us trend setters,” he said.
According to Bubka, such experience of teamwork has become the groundwork that gave him an opportunity to prepare in practice for such a high office.
“I’m not afraid of such responsibility, because the president is working with a team. The IOC has an excellent administrative structure staffed by highly trained specialists. I understand and know how to manage, how to move forward, how to work with government agencies. The NOC of Ukraine has established excellent relations with the country’s leadership. There is support from the president, the prime minister, and ministers. The IOC does work at a larger scale, but the ideology and the philosophy are the same,” he said.
The election of the new President of the International Olympic Committee will take place at the IOC session in Buenos Aires on September 10, 2013.
