Turning the pages back... June 23, 1991 (06/19/05)

Turning the pages back...

June 23, 1991

"National sport is also an attribute of an independent state and the movement toward sovereignty of Ukrainian sport is taking place within the general context of the struggle for sovereignty and statehood for Ukraine," said Ukrainian People's Deputy Yaroslav Kendzior in an interview with The Ukrainian Weekly's Chrystyna Lapychak published in this paper on June 23, 1991.

Mr. Kendzior was a leader of the movement toward sovereignty in sports for the Ukrainian republic, struggling for Ukraine's rightful place in the world of international sports. A former physical education instructor in Lviv, he served as chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet's Subcommittee on Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism.

"I have always believed that through sports organizations, through individual athletes, through individual sports teams we could, Ukraine could quickly earn a reputation as a great state, because we know how popular sports are today in the world," said Mr. Kendzior. "A single sports team, when it is strong and popular, be it hockey or soccer or basketball, when it will play around the world, when it will call itself a Ukrainian team and will play under its national flag, the whole world will resound with talk about Ukraine through sports."

"Right now we are making great efforts ... to create national sports structures, we are encouraging sports federations (in Ukraine) to gain national status, to hold national championships, to demand their acceptance into appropriate international organizations, such as in soccer the Ukrainian Football Association joining the Federation of International Football Associations, and finally, the formation of a national Olympic committee of Ukraine and its effort to gain acceptance into the International Olympic Committee."

"If tomorrow we achieve political sovereignty, then automatically all of these sports problems would be solved. On the other hand, we shouldn't wait, these sports organizations shouldn't wait until all the political problems are solved and the political independence and political definition of Ukraine are affirmed," he continued.

Mr. Kendzior said that neither he nor the other members of his parliamentary subcommittee had any illusions that Ukraine could be represented independently at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992. Ukrainian athletes, he said, would participate as members of the all-union Soviet team.

"In 1996, however, at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, here in America. I expect that you will welcome and applaud a Ukrainian national team during the opening ceremonies, which will march in its national costumes under its national flag," he declared.

Source: "National sports in Ukraine: another sign of sovereignty, says deputy," by Chrystyna N. Lapychak, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 23, 1991, Vol. LIX, No. 25.

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