Don’t wait for a miracle! Let us work together for success

Фото: Mikhail Stepaniants

What is already done and what is still to be accomplished? How to prepare for the new summer and winter Olympic Games? How to allocate your powers and finances rationally and construct the process of athlete’s preparation? The interview below answers these questions. Ekaterina Kolodnaya talked to the director of Moscow's Department of Physical culture and sports, Mikhail Stepaniants.

Mikhail Sergeevich, what will be the most important task for the Department in the coming year 2009?

In ideological terms it is as equal opportunity. It is in the plans for Moscow to relieve people with disabilities. Like the rest, these Moscovites want to see Moscow beautiful, smart and comfortable for living and for sports. To this moment we have not done everything to create the conditions that would allow them to say: we’re just like all others. This is why I think that the year 2009 will be dedicated to this precise category of Moscovites. However, this is far from being all. There are also strategic questions, so to say.

What do you mean?

In spite of the fact that the law on sports has been adopted, it is my opinion that many things have to be revised in the organization of sports movement. This idea might seem seditious to some but this is true. We should redefine the place and role of government agencies, the place and the role of federation, the place and the role of the Olympic Committee. Why? It is impossible to move forward in sports without unified strategy. It is impossible to move on when there is no link and understanding between them. It’s time we built a model that would clearly assign each of these entities their unique functions.

The president of Russia, Dmitrii Medvedev named a figure and was apparently displeased with it: 15% of Russian people are practicing physical culture.

The figure is higher in Moscow, it stands at 23–24%. Statistics says that ten millions of people are living in Moscow, of which more than two millions are active at our premises and more than a million take part in mass our sports events. Almost 300 hundred of children are studying at our sports schools. This makes some 2.5 million of people being in constant contact with us on a yearly basis.

Are you satisfied with the 2008 results?

On the whole, yes, we did. Some things are currently in process. We are implementing a program of sports centers but it doesn’t develop quite well. The projects that are working on now are not perfect. Time runs fast and plans must be updated. However, the idea that something can be perfected is already an achievement. This property of a given sports complex will not be used for other purposes and we can change many things for the sake of increased efficiency. I also deem important the fact that we create conditions for the Moscovites that make them come to us.

There was time when five-storey communal housing was a revolutionary solution to the housing problem. At that time in the 1960’s when I first entered a flat in such building it seemed to me the most bright in the world. I think that today’s sport complexes mark the beginning of a revolutionary road that Moscow treads upon. It may be a step closer to what I spoke about and what I dream of: physical education. Sports should not be understood in merely professional terms. I am talking about sports that allow a person to be always in shape, something which is part of general culture.

Did you do everything possible for the victory in Beijing? Are you satisfied with the results?

We realize the importance of the role we play in the Olympic movement of our city, which gave 30% of athletes to our national teams in every sport. If we look at the number of medals, we see that Moscovites took 34% of the total for Russia. Is it a good result? I think it is. In any case the government of Moscow praised the results in very positive terms, noting that Moscow played a decent role in this battle.

However, there are those who attribute this success to the “exclusive” capabilities of the Russian capital.

Yes, it is no secret that many people regard Moscow as a huge money-sack. However, no one seems to notice that Moscow regularly wins the winter Spartakiades of students. Winter Spartakiades, mind you. However, we only have a skating center and the ice palaces for figure skating and hockey. Yet we win Spartakiades because the scheme of preparations that we developed allows us to win in such conditions.

Did you get a feeling that in Beijing we were sort of summing up the results of all the Games in which we took part, while the coming events need to be prepared for differently?

Frankly speaking, when I was speaking at a meeting of the government of Moscow about the level of preparedness of our athletes, I took notice of all those who were present in the meeting: the Mayor, the minister of sports and the Head of the Olympic Committee – all of them belong to the last cohort of those who came to sports and spent most of their sports life in the Soviet sports schools. Those who came in the 1990’s will be present in London. My feelings tell me that the locomotive named “Soviet sports” has made its last stop. This locomotive can not pull us through to London. We should rebuild our structure and system and we should understand that the present etalons of success have to do with a conscious realization of what you’re doing rather than senseless funding. It seems to me now that the locomotive that will take us further is not yet properly equipped. I mean it is there but it should be worked on.

Is it an objective outcome?

Yes it is. If we take into account the fact that today we have a new structure of state government and Ministry of sports, youth policy and tourism was established, the most important task at this stage is to take everything that allows us to move forward and define our aims before anything else. We must understand that in London we might not get the results we are expecting.

We should be ready to accept it with dignity. However, I am positive that these are temporary shortcomings related to the upcoming system changes.

You mean, we should not expect a miracle to happen.

It seems to me that it will simply not happen. The British have proven it one more time: in spite of a recent failure they managed to regroup, put their efforts and funding in the sports that in the final count gave them the results they hoped for. They never planned to become the fourth, they never planned to win so many medals. The result was good because the money they spent and their methods of training athletes was by itself enough to get such results. It means they know how to pave the road for an athlete and give him the right conditions coinciding with his peak shape. It requires extensive scientific research and they generously funded their infrastructure and their athletes. Only in the final days did we manage to overcome them although they planned to get from 12 to 14 medals but got as many as 19. All of the medals were won in sitting sports, I mean rowing. There they invested their funds. This means that miracles have to be prepared.

The objective reality is such that there is not so much time to realize it all, is that so?

First of all we shouldn’t speak too much about the number of medals we’re planning to get. Today we speak about sports, its potential possibilities and its development. Speaking about the development we should always know when to make systemic changes. No reconstruction can give immediate results. I think that if we start this systemic and structural reconstruction now, London will not yield the expected medals. However the next Olympics will certainly do. It is my opinion that we should creatively prepare for the Olympics in Sochi and base our vision of the entire system from this perspective.

I mean that we should work to build a generic model of athletes’ training, which would be suitable both for summer and winter kinds of sports. The primary indicator of success of this proposed model should be expected in Sochi. This is the proposed all-Russian sports strategy. What happened after Beijing won't be repeated. Then victory was shared by everybody, however, defeats were other people’s faults. One common strategy implies one common responsibility.

Do you mean that we should regard London as part of such preparation?

Yes, perhaps we will have to engage a thousand or two thousands of athletes through the coming Olympics but this will be all about proper training and gaining skills. We should test the new methods in London in order to reach out to new horizons.

Is there an understanding of at least some components of the proper direction of development of the sports of higher achievements today?

Moscow has long ago defined the path for itself that it is following now. We understand that great athletes do not come from heaven. Long gone are the times when people would come from their villages and demonstrate outstanding achievements.

Today we implemented a single unified process that begins from the neighborhood and ends with the sports of higher achievements. It is important that we’ve created a model that allows us sharing unified understanding for every single sport and tracking those who have the potential for the future of sports of higher achievements.

Today we have to create all the conditions for every athlete at the peak of his or her physical, athletic and professional abilities to achieve the envisioned goal: to become the best, the first and to win. Which leads to fame and all the rest. Athlete regards his or her victory as the realization of ego, as a movement into the future. However, this victory is not only physical it’s a victory on the social and material level. Serious institutional teamwork defines the political face of the city, its status.

If we want to get results as soon as possible, we must immediately crosslink athlete, coach, science and medicine into one body. This is the model we are implementing in the city.

Is this a plan for the four years to come?

Yes, for four years to come. We say: “If you want to get recordbreaking results you have to give everything you have. Everything else may be nonexistent. Only then will you get results.” Thus we are getting ready for Vancouver, we've chosen about 260 athletes and carefully examined them. Today 130 of them are already candidates for the national teams. There is a hundred more in reserve. This is our scheme of preparation.

It is important to note that these questions are always in the focus of the government and personally the mayor, Yurii Mikhailovich Luzhkov. His care for athletes, the new sports venues that he opens are known to the Moscovites and we enjoy full support here.

Is the adverse economical situation going to affect our plans? In particular, what about the reconstruction of Moskvich stadium, which is planned to be completed for the World Track and Field Championship?

The budget for the next year is being discussed now. In any case we have to finish the reconstruction by 2012 and hold a test competition. The stadium will be reconstructed anyway.

We continue to build sports and health complexes and in December we opened several sports venues.

A purely personal question: where do you plan to celebrate the New Year?

Within my family. My family is big it is all Moscow sports as such. We will surely meet with sports and celebrate. Such is our tradition. On a personal level, I will still celebrate it within my family. We love this celebration very much, especially my beloved grandson.