When Ukrainian journalists were discussing the prospects for our national team on the eve to the Sydney Olympics, many were quite skeptical young girl swimmer Yana Klochkova’s chances. They would say she was inexperienced and that “her victories are still to come in the future.” However, even a simple enumeration of Yana’s many titles proves that her virtually phenomenal results in Australia are not accidental.
Yana Klochkova was born on August 7, 1982, in Simferopol. She now lives in Kharkiv and is coached by Nina and Oleksandr Kozhukh. Yana is a three time world champion, twice World Cup winner, and a five time champion of Europe. Finally, Yana grabbed two gold medals in the Sydney swimming pool in the women’s 200 meter medley (setting a world record) and 400 meter (Olympic record). As it became known on September 22, Yana Klochkova complemented her two decorations made of the noble metal with a silver medal in the 800 meter freestyle, clocking 8:33.66. It is worth noting that she participated for the first time in the finals on this distance at such an important competition (we mean world and European championships, World and Europe Cups, and, naturally, the Olympics). This is why Yana’s latest silver weighs as much as gold.
The Day’s correspondent met the Olympic champion’s parents in their cozy Kharkiv apartment. Olena Klochkova kept herself glued to the television screen showing our cyclists in action, while Oleksandr Klochkov was doing his utmost to curb his sports enthusiasm to keep our conversation going.
The cyclists finished, bringing their silver to our growing collection. The conversation started with asking how often Yana phones from Sydney and what she tells them about.
“She’s in rapture over the second medal because the medley includes the breaststroke, a difficult style indeed. She told us how Ukrainian diaspora fans threw her high in the air. Our team is being supported very well over there. Of course, we watched everything on TV, and mother stayed up all night.”
“What is she going to do when she returns?”
“There will be receptions and celebrations, then two weeks of rest. We even know where we will spend this holiday. If we don’t go to the Crimea (we’ve got relatives there), Yana will buy ice cream and spend time at home with her favorite books and crosswords. She is an avid reader but short of time. And ice cream is a passion for Yana. So we will relax for two weeks and then, as the coach said, we’ll get ready for the World Cup.”
“Yana is loved throughout Ukraine. World, European, and Olympic champions are the pride of any nation. But you are parents, not only sports people. Are you afraid your daughter will catch the star syndrome? For she is very young.”
“Oh, no. Yana’s a good kid and a hard-working girl. Although we are a sports family, we have never practiced sports just for achievements and titles. Do you remember the motto, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game? Yana knows that sports is work. She is the subject of media stories, she gets scholarships from the IOC and the Kharkiv Young Talent Foundation, and is also assisted by the oblast administration and Governor Oleh Demyn. Yet, Yana still works. I see what you mean. We know a female athlete who once went to an international competition and began to put on airs that, look, we’re the champions.”
“All right. You can be gracious in victory. And if you lose? Are you sure everything will be fine?”
“Yana thinks that being a champion is a normal thing, nothing special. But in Athens, at the world championship, she beat the Slovak, Moravkova, by a mere one-hundredth of a second, and then in Finland, at the 2000 European championship, she touched the finishing line simultaneously with the Rumanian Beatrice Caslaru. They are also now at the Olympics (in Sydney, Yana defeated Beatrice by almost a two second margin — Authors). So the coach said: ‘Yana, you still have to work! Don’t you see they’re are breathing down your neck?’ Yana agreed. She knows there is no limit to improvement.”
Last Wednesday the Ukrainian Olympic participants won three bronze medals. Leader of the Ukrainian gymnastics team, Oleksandr Beresh, came off third in the men’s individual all- round event, scoring 58.212 points, after the Russian Aleksei Nemov (58.474) and the Chinese Yang Wei (58.361). The top five also includes Oleksandr Svitlychny with 57.950. Our cyclists continue to reap a bounteous harvest of medals. Then Iryna Yanovych took the bronze in the women’s sprint. And we have good news from the mat. Ukrainian judoist Ruslan Mashurenko won the bronze medal in the 90 kilogram category. In the so-called medals table, the Ukrainian athletes are so far thirteenth with 8 medals (2 gold, 3 silver, and 3 bronze).
