INTERVIEW: Larysa Barabash Temple on Ukraine's preparations for the Olympics

Larysa Barabash Temple, the U.S. representative to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, played an integral organizational role in Ukraine's successful effort at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and will be deeply involved in Ukraine's preparations for the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

The Ukrainian Weekly's Kyiv Press Bureau editor Roman Woronowycz recently met with Ms. Temple in Kyiv to discuss current NOC-Ukraine preparations for the 2000 Olympic Games set for Sydney, Australia.

Ms. Temple also commented on the controversy that has developed among sports enthusiasts in the Ukrainian diaspora regarding the November 1998 signing of an agreement between the state sports committees of Russia and Ukraine to cooperate in the development of their individual Olympic programs.

CONCLUSION

Q: Earlier, you mentioned that with a new president of the NOC there usually comes a new sports structure. Could the election of a new president, any president, hinder preparations now under way for the Sydney Games?

A: My personal opinion, after spending this last week here, is that the hindrance will be in the absolute breakdown of the financial system. You will have the catching up and the revamping and the "who's going to get the gas monopoly" type of situation. In that changeover will come the difficulty.

I think sports here always has a priority in the mentality of the leadership. They value it, even if they don't necessarily value the people in it. They do value sports. They value it as the prestige of the nation and also as one of the factors that they can provide for the health of the nation. And that's a constant. Good, bad or indifferent, the politician understands the value.

Q: What are the current ties between the Ukrainian Sports Federation of America and Canada (USCAK) and the NOC Ukraine?

A: Today the ties are very much concentrated on the All-Ukrainian Summer Games that are taking place this year. USCAK is handling all of the logistics of organizing teams from the U.S. to travel here.

It's a wonderful concept because it does not deal with athletics at the highest Olympic and national level. It deals with athletics at every age level and at every level of proficiency. Athletes from the diaspora can come here and compete with their fellow athletes in the games and really enjoy the sports atmosphere.

So USCAK today is handling the organization of that in the U.S. and today that level is the essential level of the relations.

Of course, USCAK has a great interest in what goes on in the NOC, and I hope they will see fit to understand that athletes always deserve support, and politics really doesn't have that much room in sports.

It's always about the athletes. Despite the fact that many negative elements surround [sports], especially big money - big money is a negative element in athletics, not a positive. It's still about the athlete, that's what we remember.

Somehow we have to divide up the politics of it from the fact that Ukraine today still has one of the world's top sports systems and it deserves support at every level.

We can't expect the diaspora to support it financially, but we can certainly expect moral support at every level. These athletes do too much for the prestige of Ukraine, too much for the health of the nation, too much for us to ever disregard their value.

Q: Besides USCAK, what other diaspora support have you had in the past and would hope to have in the future?

A: USCAK is the central organization of Ukrainian sports [in North America]. Much strong support also comes from the city organizations of Ukrainian sports.

The ones that I have to absolutely mention is the Ukrainian Sports Club of New York, run by Dr. Ivan Sierant. Tryzub in Philadelphia, with Ihor Czyzowycz, is a very strong sports organization. Chicago has two - they have Levy and they have Kryla - Lions and Wings. Of course, the person there that runs the Olympic organization is Paul Midzikewycz. Cleveland, where Ivan Roskil runs the Olympic organization, and Buffalo where Nick Lefchyk not only operated our entire travel system, but has truly supported a lot of the various things that we have done.

And these are merely the people that I have named.

Of course there is also Canada. Stan Haba in Toronto, Yuri Holowka in Winnipeg. Edmonton has done a tremendous job, as well, supporting various Olympic and international World Cup events.

We can talk about all the cities from which support comes, and from Florida, Texas, California, so it really has been an all-around effort.

I think in large measure I have to credit Askold Lozynskyj, president of the UCCA (Ukrainian Congress Committee of America), who today is president of the Ukrainian World Congress, because of his absolute and stable support for what sport does for Ukraine and his insistence on an integral diaspora program.

There is Ulana Diachuk of the Ukrainian National Association, which has been supportive, and the UACC (the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council), and women's organizations have been supportive.

We have had tremendous support from SUM, where Lida Mykytyn acted as my right hand. Plast has been supportive.

This has been an effort where everyone has been involved.

I also cannot fail to mention the Ukrainian financial institutions, because I realize how much comes from them even if it goes through these various city organizations and USCAK. It has really turned into an extensive system.

The one thing that we have understood from this work is that the value of the work is twofold. It is not just help for Ukraine and the Ukrainian sports system. It has been of equal value to the youth organizations of the diaspora.

You yourself know how many young people came to Atlanta to work on the Olympic Games with the athletes. These were all kids from Plast, SUM and other youth organizations from throughout Canada and the U.S.

The fact that they came and worked with young people from Ukraine who were absolutely on top of the world in terms of their capabilities. The relationships and friendships that developed between them are of lasting value.

The common language spoken by the Ukrainian athletes and all of the Ukrainian kids from the diaspora working with these athletes at the various training venues had to be Ukrainian. It was the only language they could deal in.

The Ukrainian system is constantly being criticized because the Russian language is, in fact, the prevailing language in sports. But when they do interact with the diaspora at these major international championships and Olympic Games, the common language becomes Ukrainian.

The athletes understand that they are in a unique position because they have a diaspora that totally takes care of them. Suddenly their pride in being Ukrainian rises immensely.

There is a lot of value, in addition to the financial support and the organizational support for the system, and the value is twofold. One of the things that we found the first time that Valerii Borzov traveled around the U.S. prior to the Olympics in Lillehammer was that at very many of the social events that we attended there were young people there who had really separated themselves from the Ukrainian community, but were so attracted by sports and the value of his name in sports.

Suddenly sports has become the vehicle that brings young people back into the community. Today when we talk about securing the Ukrainian community in Canada and the U.S., sports takes on a far more meaningful position than it has in the past.

Q: In Australia is there a diaspora organization in place at least somewhat similar to that which prepared for the Atlanta Games?

A: Absolutely, they have a very strong organization in place. The chairman there is Roman Desnych. He is headquartered in Sydney. They have a very strong organization built around him. They have developed various training facilities.

When the Olympics in Atlanta were completed, a group of us who had actually worked on the organization sat down and developed a computerized listing of absolutely everything that we had done, how it was handled, all the different federations, how we handled sponsorship negotiations, how we handled facility negotiations, and provided that to Sydney so that they had a starting point.

They've used that and have done an excellent job. Recently people from the NOC here visited Sydney, and they were delighted with the preparations that have been made.

They have far more geographic difficulties than we did. There were far more facilities in proximity to Atlanta that we had access to. Everything in Australia is so far apart. From my professional discussions here I understand that the geographic distances are a problem in Australia, but they are being resolved. The organization in place there is very professional in what they are trying to do for the NOC, including what we did in terms of social facilities and the social things that we planned around the Olympics.

They have to deal within their realm. They understand where they live. I don't know how they stand financially, but I think that they are going to need far more financial help than we had, at least from what I heard from the World Congress.

I think that financial assistance and sponsorship is what they are going to have to deal with in the next year and a half. On the other hand, when they started working with the NOC, it was made quite clear to the NOC that it has to take more responsibility for training and pre-Olympic preparation than it did in Atlanta. In Atlanta they started with nothing, and now they are starting with at least a little bit of experience, even though I can't say that there is extra funding, because that is being cut, but we hope for the best.

Q: As for Ukraine's hopes for the 2000 Olympics, is there another Lilia Podkopayeva (multi-gold medalist in gymnastics) who could emerge?

A: I hope so. I look at the young gymnasts now coming up and there is a lot potential. There is one young gymnast, and I forget her name, that is fantastic. There are two young athletes in track that are fabulous. There is a young man, Bilonov, who has taken Bahach's place (in shot put). There is a high jumper who is young and a triple-jumper, after Inessa Kravets, who are apparently incredible.

There is a lot of potential. But potential requires development, potential requires a lot of things.

I spoke with the president of the wrestling federation yesterday. He said they have a lot stronger team than for Atlanta.

Q: Changing subjects, somewhat, could you explain the hullabaloo surrounding the November 1998 agreement between the sports committees of Ukraine and Russia, in which terms are provided for the two countries to cooperate in training and preparations for the Olympics and on sports programs in general.

A: First of all, there is a great deal of misunderstanding about that. When you look at bilateral agreements, they are absolutely normal events in the development of the socio-economic and political structure of any country.

Ukraine today has bilateral sports agreements with 47 countries. There are 47 different types of agreements. Some of them are between the sports committees or sports ministries of the countries, some are between the NOCs and some are within the framework of a general government bilateral agreement.

This particular agreement is an extension of the bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Russia and functions within that aspect. It is not part of the treaty but an extension.

Basically, if you want to understand its functions it's an extension of the big treaty.

The accusation in the diaspora that it is far more than a bilateral treaty simply are unfounded. It's not true.

Again, there are 47 similar treaties and each has its specifics. The one with Russia is very convenient for Ukraine because, as you know, when the Soviet Union broke up sports education and the entire science of sports development was headquartered in Moscow.

Even though the institutes in Kyiv had some very good personnel, they were left without a great deal of the facilities they required. So they continued the relationship, not just with Moscow but with a whole variety of countries, for the development of the science of sports and athletic development.

One of the things that this particular treaty does, which is a positive, is that it formalizes the academic cooperation, which in sports is very necessary.

In practical terms, the position of the [Ukrainian] sports committee is that, particularly in the aspect of winter sports, our athletes need the winter facilities in Russia.

I find that not to be a persuasive argument because our athletes pay and use the winter facilities in Russia regardless, so an agreement is not necessary.

But once you start talking about academic cooperation, an agreement is necessary. One of the arguments of the sports committee that I do find persuasive is that, just like the general treaty between Ukraine and Russia, in the treaty between the sports committees of Russia and Ukraine the Russian committee recognizes the Ukrainian sports committee as one of an independent country that is dealt with on a bilateral level, and I do find that to be a persuasive argument for this type of treaty.

I do wish to underline that this is one of 47. This is not a unique treaty.

Now, what came out in the Ukrainian press about joint training simply doesn't reflect the truth of what goes on. Training is never joint in the sense that you put the teams together and train. That simply doesn't happen. Teams train with their specific coaches, trainers and systems, and they don't join with other specific, coaches, trainers and systems for training.

I really tried to look into the elements of what is planned for Crimea for preparation for athletes. My understanding is that there was a very effective training base in Alushta during the Soviet era.

The base and the facilities today are quite deteriorated. There has apparently been an agreement for the past eight years with the Russian stock company Luzhnyky, basically to develop the facility as a joint venture.

They are the ones that own the stadium in Moscow. They are a construction firm. The agreement is that they will, at their cost, develop [the Alushta site] and will become joint owners in the joint venture, which has nothing to do with the training of the team except that this is a large base that will be used by many teams, not only by the Ukrainian and Russian teams. It will be used by Moldova, Georgia, Belarus, other teams that require training at that altitude and temperature.

You can question a joint venture with a Russian firm, but the only way you question it is if [you are ready] to provide someone else from another country for the joint venture. You can't simply demand from the sports system here that they not accept investment from another country.

Realistically, we know what the financial situation in Russia is today. Investment means real money. It does not mean an agreement that has existed for eight years. Until real money starts coming and buildings begin going up, I mean it's dependent on real money not on political treaties.

Q: So, then, you can say for a fact that there will not be joint training.

A: There is never going to be joint training. Training is always specific to coaches and teams and athletes. There is never joint training. There may be training in the same place, or the same city. But there is never joint training of teams, there are only competitions between teams.

The sports committee is very specific in recognizing that this is a bilateral treaty between countries. There will be no Ukrainian participation in what has been known as the Eurasian leagues, which was very strongly promoted by Russia and very strongly promoted by [International Olympic Committee Chairman Juan Antonio] Samaranch. There will be no participation by the NOC-Ukraine officially within the CIS Olympic structures, or whatever they are trying to do.

And I did check out the treaty. There is mention of two Olympic movements in the treaty, but there is no specific treaty in terms of Olympic teams because this treaty is between the sports committees.

The value of this treaty to them, according to the Ukrainian sports committee, is the joint cooperation in the academic realm.

PART I

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 25, 1999, No. 17, Vol. LXVII

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