Poor preparation, dissension in ranks cited as reasons for poor showing at Olympics (03/10/02)

Poor preparation, dissension in ranks cited as reasons for poor showing at Olympics

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Poor preparation and internal dissension were behind the failure of Ukraine's Olympians, especially its much-vaunted female biathlon squad, to win a single medal in Salt Lake City, said a leading Ukrainian sports official on March 6. The official also admitted that cross-country skier Iryna Terelia was guilty of using a banned substance before competing.

While Chairman of the State Committee of Physical Education and Sport Maria Bulatova and President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine Ivan Fedorenko continued to refrain from commentary or analysis on Ukraine's poor showing at last month's Olympic Games pending a comprehensive review, Vladimir Platonov, vice-president of the NOC-Ukraine, was not so reticent. He criticized Ukraine's biathletes, their federation and their trainers for the poor performance in Salt Lake City, and took a verbal swipe at the International Olympic Federation as well. However, his main point was that Ukraine must get back to the basics in its Olympic preparations.

"For the situation to improve, we have to start rebuilding the training bases and to concentrate on youth programs once again. Then there will be possibilities," explained Mr. Platonov, who is also the rector of the State University of Physical Education and Sport.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekly, in which the noted professor condemned the dissension within the ranks of the biathlon team and the way in which it went about preparing for Salt Lake City, Mr. Platonov called the performance of Ukraine's Olympians in Salt Lake City dismal.

"In a word, overall the results were unacceptable," explained Mr. Platonov. "But this is merely a general grade. There were bigger failures that even reached embarrassing levels. Here I mean the biathletes."

He underscored, however, that there were events where Ukraine's athletes exceeded expectations, including freestyle, luge, bobsled and the downhill events.

Mr. Platonov has written several books and manuals on the subject of Olympic training, including, "The General Theory of Athletic Preparation for Olympic Competition," which has been published in German and Spanish, as well as Russian.

He lambasted the biathletes for competing in paid World Cup events at a time when they should have been involved in intensive final preparations for the Olympics.

He said several members of the team spent December and part of January in Europe attending the professional competitions, one of which offered a Volkswagen automobile as first prize, instead of training at proper altitudes in the United States after which they were forced to play catch-up.

Mr. Platonov explained that in the two months before the Olympics the commonly accepted training regime is 40 days of intensive training in conditions similar to those at the Olympic site, followed by a 20-day period of winding down and resting.

"While others were either not taking part in these commercial competitions or using them as controlled training competitions with the accent on the training, our biathletes were going all out to capture the grand prizes," said Mr. Platonov.

He said chaos and dissension within the ranks of the federation also had caused a decline in the performance of the biathletes after they had achieved much success at the Nagano Games in 1998.

"There is a lack of good will; internal conflicts and misunderstandings exist," said Mr. Platonov, who added that the worst part is that no one within the federation seems ready to face up to the problems and make the required changes.

"The lack of a desire to analyze the situation, the need to keep the status quo, that's the real tragedy," he said.

The problems began after the biathlon team reached the top of the sport with its world championship in 1999. Then the federation's president, Ivan Biekov, who had directed it since 1991 and led it to the top spot in the world, was replaced. To help in raising badly needed funds, the new federation head asked businessmen to get involved in the federation's activities. The businessmen, however, put the accent on developing their commercial projects at the expense of the federation's successes, explained Mr. Platonov, and the squad's downhill slide began. As a consequence, many of the leading trainers that Mr. Biekov had retained left as well.

Asked to comment on the dismissal of an assistant trainer and a team coordinator of the biathlon athletes as the Olympics were held, the respected academic said that it was an unprecedented, unprofessional and badly timed move. He explained that plenty of time had existed before the Games to make specific personnel decisions.

"You just don't do it during the Olympics," emphasized Mr. Platonov.

The university rector also explained that while Olena Zubrylova, the 1999 world champion in the 15-kilometer pursuit has had her share of health problems, her descent from the top of the biathlon world can in part be blamed on a decision by the IOC's medical commission in 2000 to ban a substance that she had been using to enhance her performance.

The "pharmacological preparation," as Mr. Platonov called it, had been developed by Ukrainian sports pharmacist Vyacheslav Popov and in many ways was instrumental in the success of Ms. Zubrylova and her teammates. Mr. Platonov attributed the decline in the level of performance of each of the athletes after 2000 to a large degree on the decision to stay within IOC guidelines and to not continue to administer the drug to the athletes.

That does not mean that either he or the NOC-Ukraine agreed with the decision. Mr. Platonov offered that performance-enhancing drugs, those that can be established to be safe for the user - and he emphasized that anabolic steroids can never be considered safe - should be allowed in the Olympics. He explained that they are as instrumental in reaching peak potential as is the choice of equipment.

"Italian cyclists use bicycles that have been aerodynamically designed and put through extensive wind tunnel testing. They use helmets that give peak aerodynamic efficiency. Americans have a different set of skis for every kind of snow imaginable," explained Mr. Platonov. "We do not have those advantages. We have, however, a highly advanced pharmacological program, which unfortunately is not treated the same as other technical aspects of Olympic preparation."

He said that all athletes use some sort of pharmacological substances during their training, most of them legal, but some of them not. He underscored that he would never propose either a substance harmful to an athlete or one that is banned by the IOC.

The Olympic expert admitted that cross-country skier Iryna Terelia, who, along with Russian cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina was disqualified from the cross-country relay on the final day of competition, had indeed taken a banned substance, which had enhanced her red blood count. He called the incident unfortunate and explained that neither her federation nor her coaches sanctioned her action.

Mr. Platonov explained that in the months before the Olympics Ms. Terelia had trained extensively with the Russian team. "It seems that she may have adopted some of their training methods," he said.

What was inexcusable, according to the academic, was the way in which the athletes were tested for banned substances in the minutes right before the event. He said that testing specific individuals 15 minutes or even a half hour before they compete gives them a marked disadvantage because it disrupts their pre-competition focus.

While Mr. Platonov offered an apology to Ukrainians at home and in the diaspora alike for Ukraine's poor showing - stating that those who didn't train properly "deceived us, the diaspora and the trainers" - he repeated that the hope for better results in the future depended on going back to the basics.

"It still comes down to the lack of a central training complex, like the one we used to have in the Carpathians," explained Mr. Platonov. "Today there is no foundation, no children's schools, no trainers, no facilities."

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