The news that the biathlon world champion Olena Zubrylova is going to compete under the flag of Belarus this year was only confirmed last week, although such things are usually not done overnight.
First about the history of the question, i.e., the very mechanism for a biathlete to transfer from one country to another. Unlike soccer or basketball players, who belong to a certain club, biathletes have no choice. They compete in the World Cup series (the only commercial competition for biathletes) for their country’s national team or not at all. This puts the athlete’s destiny into the hands of the national federation bosses. Should a biathlete stay out of his or her national team, the only chance of competing and earning money is to change citizenship.
We all saw the most striking example of this practice at the winter Olympics, where the German Johann Muelleg brought sunny Spain the title of a world skiing leader. Also there, Russian Mikhail Botvinov attempted to win skiing glory for Austria, while half the Bulgarian women biathletes spoke Russian.
Thus it would be wrong to blame Olena Zubrylova for lack of patriotism. The athlete simply had no other option, following a conflict with the Biathlon Federation of Ukraine. It will be recalled that after her Olympic loss Zubrylova and her coach (and husband) Roman drew all kinds of criticism. Indeed, as Olena failed to win a medal, all the fanfare, with which the large delegation of Ukrainian sport bureaucrats went to the US, was simply an exercise in futility. It was no secret even earlier that the bureaucrats tried to hide the complete collapse of our winter sports behind this athlete’s delicate back. And they thanked Olena by firing her coach from the national team.
Meanwhile, our Belarusian brothers open-heartedly received the homeless athlete. Mr. Lukashenka’s country has found the resources to furnish this unique world-class biathlete with decent pay and training facilities. And what about ours? Once more, the ambitions of bureaucrats have outweighed the interests of Ukrainian sports. We said a fond farewell to the only woman athlete capable of vying for top world rankings. No huge amounts were needed. The upkeep of the world champion would cost about as much as that of, say, a Shakhtar Donetsk substitute. But Ukraine failed to find the money.
Now there are no problems. Next winter there will be no sense for the Ukrainians to watch the televised World Cup series. The biathlon has been added to the list of sports where Ukrainians have nothing to hope for. To top it all off, the bureaucrats will not lose in the long run. For there still are a few medal-intensive sports that serve as a feeding trough for the functionaries. This is our way: the fewer the champions, the more sports bosses.
Finally, I will note that Zubrylova was one of the last products of the Soviet sports system, as were or still are such world-acclaimed sport stars as Serhiy Bubka, Andriy Medvediev, and Zhanna Pintusevych. A few more names could be added to this list. Then goes emptiness, all the more deep now that the only woman biathlete of truly international class has left Ukraine.
