Sports: Transition period

Summary

From the failures of Belarusian athletes at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro a number of conclusions were made: 1) the state, which has provided leadership and funding of the sports sector, strengthened the control of public organizations – federations of sports; 2) internal doping control became more intense. The degradation processes continued in most kinds of sports: fewer medals were won at the World Championships in Olympic disciplines than ever in the sovereign history of Belarus. The results of the national teams of football, hockey and athletics, the most popular sports, are disappointing. At the same time, successful performances continued in traditionally strong areas where national sports schools remained – women's tennis and wrestling, kayaking and canoeing, trampoline jumping.

Trends:

• Staff turnover in the sports federations;
• Narrowing of the range of ‘medal’ sports;
• Failures in the most popular sports – football, hockey, athletics;
• Low level of competence of sports leaders.

Staff turnover

Dissatisfied with the results of the Olympic Games in Rio, Alexander Lukashenko announced in his April Address to the People and Parliament: ‘In the near future, we will completely reform the federations’.1

First, he made a reshuffle in the National Olympic Committee (NOC), which he has headed since 1997. The post of the first Vice-President of NOC taken by Maxim Ryzhenkov was given to Andrey Astashevich2 , 45, who had worked for 13 years as the General Director of the Olympic sports complex Raubičy. Astashevich was instructed to update the federations with authoritative people from sports, which in fact means a 20-year-old practice of appointing high-ranking amateurs to the governing sports seats have failed.

Supervisory boards have been established under the federations. For example, the board in the biathlon federation was headed by its former chief, KGB Chairman Valery Vakulchik. In fact, over the new heads of federations ‘controllers’ were appointed. Maybe the change of officials to former athletes was called to reduce the costs of the industry: earlier functionaries from power, using administrative resources, attracted extra budgetary funds.

However, the logic of some personnel reshuffles is difficult to understand. For example, the swimming federation was headed by Ella Selitskaya, the former swimmer, master of sports, but at the same time the Deputy Minister of Taxes and Duties instead of the former Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Tozik. Is the practice of combining posts used again?

It is difficult to explain the rotation in tennis. The head of the concern ‘Amkodor’ Alexander Shakutin for several years of his leadership of the federation managed to set up the National tennis Academy, launched a large-scale construction of the tennis centers, generously funded the preparation of national teams. As a result, the women's team sensationally reached the final of the World Cup. However Shakutin was replaced by Sergey Teterin at the tennis throne.

Another headline reshuffle was the appointment of the former Governor of Hrodna and Minsk Semyon Shapiro instead of Igor Rachkovsky as the head of the hockey community. The border guard General did not ensure the solution of sports problems: the national team did not make it to the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang and played without success at the World Cup.

Reporting and election conferences were held without alternatives and smoothly. Only fencers faced an emergency situation. In the election of the Chairman of the federation, in addition to Alexei Ovsyankin agreed by the higher authorities, the delegates suggested Andrey Gubanov, who won the most votes. All congratulated the winner and the delegates returned to the regions. At the local levels authorities ‘raised awareness’ of those who voted ‘wrongly’, and the Chairman of the audit Committee Viktor Rudakov declared the conference null and void. After three days a new forum was organized, there were almost twice fewer participants: 17 instead of 30. In spite of A. Gubanov's absence, a new non-alternative election was held. And A. Ovsyankin became the Chairman.

The repeated conference took place with serious violations, but the auditor didn't notice them. Six months later, the Ministry of Justice demanded the third conference to observe the formalities prescribed in the law. Nevertheless the state official Alexander Baraulya who carried out the control of elections of a ‘correct’ candidate became the Deputy Minister of Sport and Tourism. At the winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, he served as chief of the Olympic mission of the Belarusian team.

Heads of football federations (Sergey Rumas), handball (Vladimir Konoplev), basketball (Maxim Ryzhenkov), athletics (Vadim Devyatovsky), boxing (Dmitry Tikhomolov) kept their positions.

Shallowing

During the year at the World Championships in Olympic categories Belarusian athletes won only eight medals. There have been no such modest achievements in sovereign history. Because different kinds of sport have World Championships with different periodicity, for the purposes of comparison, we take the statistics of odd-numbered years. It demonstrates and almost fourfold reduction of the medals won: from 28 in 2003 to eight in 2017.

What kinds of sport experienced retreat? Take for reference prosperous 2011, when our athletes rose to the world podium 18 times. Then the winners represented 12 kinds of sports. Now rowing, boxing, track cycling, light and heavy athletics, fencing, freestyle disappeared from that register. The winners of 2017 represent only five kinds of sports.

There is a bronze swimmer by the name of Alexandra Gerasimenya, but she won her medal at the non-Olympic distance of 50 m backstroke. There are the finals of the tennis Federation Cup, but the Olympics do not have team competition. The loss of weightlifters is the easiest to explain: the Federation was punished with one year absence from international competition for multiple disqualifications at the Olympic Games of 2008, 2012 and World Cup of 2013, 2015. As a result, Belarusian weightlifters missed the world championship.

In the richest for medals Olympic kind of sport (47 sets of medals) – athletics – managerial irresponsibility and doping inertia flourish, the coaching staff has grown very old and experienced staff shortages. As a result at the world championship in London, the Belarusian team was represented by 16 athletes only. About the same number of candidates did not meet the standards or were injured. The best results (6^th place) were demonstrated by track and field athlete Alina Talay and javeline thrower Tatyana Kholodovich.

The topic of doping is also relevant for cyclists. Rhythmic gymnasts who for two decades have made the audience used to elite brilliance receded. The positions are lost in the academic rowing, where for many years a blissful picture has been created by Ekaterina Karsten and Julia Bichik. Combat sports – boxing, judo, Taekwondo were also struck. Vladimir Samsonov and Victoria Pavlovich turned 40 and are no longer able to close the gap in the preparation of the reserve team of table tennis. The football team took the last place in the group qualifying tournament of the World Cup, skipping forward not only the famous teams of France, Sweden and the Netherlands, but also colleagues from Bulgaria and Luxembourg.

Many sports have not been marked by medals for years. No breakthroughs for skaters, short-track athletes, figure skaters, artistic gymnasts, swim-synchronized swimmers, horseback riders, Musketeers, badminton players, yachtsmen... For the maintenance of about fifty national teams the Ministry of Sport allegedly spends millions in hard-currency terms.

Another visible reason for the decrease of the number of medals is the tightening of doping control at all levels. The ex-Minister of Sports and Tourism Alexander Shamko in a television interview said: ‘If in 2012–2013 there were more than 30 cases where athletes were caught on doping, today there are isolated cases. Three cases this year are not related to abuses, but to certain violations of the rules’.

Victory in Lausanne

Perhaps the most important for its image is that Belarusian sports do not win victories at the sports arenas. Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne fully justified the men's team of kayakers and canoeists, suspended for a year from competition by the International Federation of the Sport (ICF) on unsubstantiated charges of the use of illegal drugs. Alas, the Olympics cannot be returned to the athletes, but the good name is more important than Olympic titles. Unfortunately, a disservice to paddlers who have never committed any sins was done by athletes, bodybuilders, cyclists, athletes, sport-lifeguards, whose mass disqualification created an ill name for the Belarusian sport.

According to the results of re-testing of frozen Olympic samples, Belarusians had to return 9 Olympic medals of the 2004-2012 Summer Olympics. For this reason, the Belarusian weightlifting federation was disqualified for a year and the international athletics federation issued a warning to the Belarusian athletics federation.

In the step from the top

The most resonant success was achieved by the women's tennis team which for the first time reached the final of the world team championship – the Federation Cup. A dramatic confrontation with the USA team unfolded at the Čyžoŭka-Arena in front of 8 thousand spectators and David Haggerty, the ITF President, who arrived in Minsk for a reason. Alexandra Sasnovich and Arina Sobolenko competed with the winner of the U.S. Open, Sloane Stephens and Coco Vandeweghe, a tenth-ranked. Despite the fact that the Belarusian girls were significantly inferior to the guests in the ranking, after single meetings the score was equal – 2:2. And only in the battle of duets the skilled Americans won – 6:3, 7:6 (7:3), and with it they won the Cup.

The rise of the Belarusians is not accidental. Back in 2011, the Belarusian team won 5 consecutive victories: rivals from Austria, Croatia, Greece, Poland and Estonia were beaten with a total score of 16:0. Victories in single matches were secured by Victoria Azarenka and Olga Govortsova, in pairs – by Tatiana Poutchek and Darya Kustova. But the next season, to the match with Americans that opened the way to the World group-1, only Kustova and Anastasiya Yakimova flew, who did not have a chance against Serena and Venus Williams – 0:5.

The new struggle began in 2015, when the BFT was headed by Alexander Shakutin. He immediately set the task to fight for the Federation Cup. Experienced Azarenka and Govortsova together with young Alexandra Sasnovich and Vera Lapko won the European final, beating rivals from Georgia and Bulgaria – 3:0, Portugal 2:1 and UK – 2:0. In Tokyo, the Belarusians won from the Japanese – 3:2. In 2016, in Canada Sasnovich and Govortsova defeated the hosts of the court – 3:2. Azarenka returned to the team to have the match with Russia and won both singles matches, the winning score was added by Sasnovich – 3:2. Seven victories in a row, won on away courts, opened the doors to the 8^th of the strongest teams of the world.

In 2017, tennis players played at home only, with no Azarenka who gave birth to a son. In the quarterfinals with the Netherlands (4:1) and the semi-finals with Switzerland (3:2) Alexandra Sasnovich shone, defeating highly ranked opponents, Kiki Bertens and Timea Bacsinszky. The appearance of the non-star Belarusian team in the final was recognized as sensational.

It was the time when the BTF leader was changed: Shakutin gave his post to Sergey Teterin, a former tennis player who became friends with A. Lukashenko in the mid-1990s and taught the President to play tennis. When he switched to hockey, Teterin also started skating. Most likely, long-term contacts with the President were not in vain. Teterin skillfully pushed Shakutin away from the tennis ‘throne’. But the luck turned against the new leader: women's and men's teams failed in the play-offs.

Playground for sports

The country's leadership seeks to acquire the right to have high-profile sports competitions. Apparently, this is necessary for promoting the image of Belarus, strengthening its sovereignty and for development of tourism. In 2016, Minsk was chosen as the capital of the Second European Sport Games in 2019. And in November 2017, the President of the European Athletic Association (EAA) Svein Arne Hansen announced in Minsk that on 10–11 September 2019 the athletics match between Europe and the United States will be hosted in the Dynamo stadium. This stadium has been under construction since 2012 and is expected to open in 2018.

Together with Latvia, Belarus got another large-scale forum, the World Hockey Championship–2021. A neighborhood tandem was one vote ahead of Finland in the two-stage voting. In 2014 Minsk held this tournament on its own.

It is noticeable that all top tournaments are held and planned exclusively in the capital. Minsk is not too rich in modern sports facilities, apparently, that is why the program of the II European Games contains only 15 kinds of sport. Among the regional centers, Brest and Hrodna are well-equipped. But their transport and hotel infrastructure do not meet the requirements of international sports federations.

Conclusion

Belarusian sports have entered a transitional period. The doping era is not over yet, but doping control has become more serious, as a result of tightened home doping control. The Minsk anti-doping laboratory lacks international accreditation, but its equipment allows checking national teams with a high degree of reliability before sending them to World and European Championships. Out-of-competition control is also carried out, including at the request of international sports federations.

The number of disqualifications has dropped sharply, but non-doping technologies for training champions have not been mastered, and coaches working on the basis of illicit drugs continue to be unpunished and take leadership positions in some key kinds of sport. This is facilitated by the fact that Belarus has not yet adopted a law on criminal liability of sports personnel for doping interference with athletes. Therefore, the game of ‘hide and seek’ continues. Anabolic steroids give way to the growth hormone, which is excreted from the body in a short time.

On the one hand, the inability to ignore doping control probably became one of the main reasons for the fall of the results of Belarusian athletes. On the other hand, coaching staff are mostly professionals who were born and began to work in the USSR. Veterans don't know the modern technologies of training and because of their age do not readily accept innovations. And it is economically and psychologically unprofitable to work without results. To solve this problem, time and a complete restructuring of the training of coaches are needed.

The European Games 2019 in Minsk are close at hand where the hosts will try to save face. One might assume that in the strategic plans of the leadership of the country the EG 2019 have a much higher priority than the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Investments will possibly be made in the forced training of young athletes without a doping past. In addition, funding of the sports included in the program of the Minsk Games will be strengthened. Another direction is team sports and games. Special attention will be paid to hockey.