| 2010-02-02 |
Published: The Kommersantú Newspaper |
Co-founder of the team speaks on its prospects and the cycling development strategy in Russia.
Co-founder of the team speaks on its prospects and the cycling development strategy in Russia. Katyusha, the first Russian professional bicycling team of the top division, made the presentation of its athletes in Italy. The percentage of Russian racers in the team went up to 70 percent now compared to 40 percent last year. IGOR MAKAROV, Head of ITERA Group of Companies, one of co-founders of the team with an annual budget of ˆ15 told VALERIA MIRONOVA why there were no megastars in the team and how this project fit in renaissance strategy for domestic bicycling living through a deep crisis.
— You are one among a few leaders of the larger native companies who have been sponsoring sports, bicycling for that matter, for such a long period of time. Why?
— All I am doing, I am doing on a systematic basis. Probably, I grasped it from my childhood: it was meaningless to waste energy on a one-time action. Any systematic project presupposes not only long-term investment, but also energy, attention and labor management before it can produce dividends. Where I am offered a business project with an extremely high, though a one-time profit, I never take effort to consider it. The same is true with bicycling. As a former athlete, I understand very clearly it is impossible to prepare a champion within one year. To do this, a long-term high quality technical support, coaching and organizational work is required. All this, in its turn, requires a systematic financing.
— Bicycling in Russia seems to have reached the very bottom point. At the Games in Beijing, out of 18 sets of medals, the Russians won only two bronze medals. What do you think was the reason for it?
— When I was a member of the Soviet national team, our guys won practically everything, because there was a system: sports schools for children, international and national calendars, powerful cycling centers in Leningrad, Samara, Moscow, Tula and in Central Asia. When all this split apart, the best racers ran off to foreign clubs. At that time I found myself in a complicated business area, that is to say, energy business. I was to spend a lot of efforts to establish and develop my company. Then I had to put the sport aside for the lack of time. Every time any representative of the Federation applied to me I took it as my duty to provide help. I hoped very much there would emerge a leader to restore the bicycling system in the country. Unfortunately, a situation emerged similar to that described in a fable about a swan, a crawfish and a pike.
— Against the background of an inevitable disappointment in this case, the Katyusha team was there a year ago...
— This team is not just my child. Katyusha is the cap of a huge iceberg. There had never before been a top division team. So, today we have a base where our racers can develop in conditions of healthy competition with strong foreign racers. Now my dream is that the work the quality of that in Katyusha would start in our bicycling at all levels beginning with physical culture schools. A unique Board of Guardians had been established under the FBR of Russia (Federation of Bicycling of Russia). In addition to ITERA, its members include Rostechnologii, Gazprom, Vnesheconombank, Vneshtorgbank, Sberbank, Gazprombank and other companies. No matter how excellent the financial environment we managed to create is, we won’t be able to restore the entire sport in which 18 sets of Olympic medals are contested, unless the state provides assistance.
— Is the "construction" plan already there?
— This is what we are going to discuss in detail with Vitali Mutko, Minister of Sports, later this week. I believe, we have to begin with the centers I have mentioned, that have a colossal experience, and then these efforts are to spread over the country.
— Are you satisfied with the results of Katyusha?
— We shall have to assess the results in approximately two years. As a businessman, though, I can see the achievements of Katyusha so far, and I give it an "A". From the viewpoint of the technical support, service provision and personnel we are the world best today. Thus, we have established a foothold for our athletes to use and achieve good results. It was very difficult to organize such a team just within one year. It has won respected in the conservative world of bicycling. This team is already prepared to win in a physical and technical sense.
— Why there are no world rating superstars in Katyusha?
— We have been negotiating with many of them, racers of Astana Team included. When selecting candidates we primarily were trying to assess their personal qualities that could influence or even destroy the team spirit. We do not want Katyusha to be a one-racer team, no matter how great he is. This is why we rejected the services of certain celebrities for the purpose. The Katyusha ideology is domination of the Russian athletes over strong foreigners who create a healthy competition for their growth. We certainly could have bought a couple superstars to ensure up-to-the-minute victories. This, though, would not help develop bicycling in our country. This is not our strategy. Given a huge number of medals bicycling can bring to Russia, this sport should not be considered expensive. The total of $40-50 million a year is needed to ensure operation of sport centers, schools and organization of competitions in Russia. The budget of Katyusha is ˆ15 million a year. Astana, the team that was the leader of the world rating in recent years, has about the same budget. So, it turns out that we are the best in a technical and financial sense. The only thing to be done is that the best Russian racers should join this environment and begin to grow.
The Katyusha Team of Russia in the season of 2010
President: Andrew Chmil.
Racers: Sergei Ivanov, Alexander Kolobnev, Vladimir Karpets, Michael Ignatjev, Nikolai Trusov, Alexander Bocharov, Pavel Brutt, Timothy Kritski, Yegor Silin, Dennis Galimzianov, Eugene Petrov, Sergei Klimov, Artem Ovechkin, Nikita Yeskov, Edward Vorganov (all of Russia), Filippo Pozzato, Danilo Napolitano, Luka Mazzanti, Marco Bandiera (all of Italy), Stin Vandenberg, Maxim Vantomm (both of Spain), Joaquim Rodrigues Olivier, Juan Rippol Horrach (both of Spain), Robbi MacUen (Australia), Kim Kirhen (Luxemburg), Alexander Plyushkin (Moldova), Laslo Bodrogi (Hungary).
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