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Olga Panarina: Escaping from Belarusian “backwater” is good fortune

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Olga Panarina: Escaping from Belarusian “backwater” is good fortune

A track cycling world champion recommends Belarusian sportsmen to move to the countries that will appreciate them.

A scandal over expelling Olga Panarina from the national team broke out on March 6. Minister of sport Alyaksandr Shamko said: “Yesterday I signed a contract on expelling Panarina from the Belarusian national team. She will have an appropriate record in her employment book. We have been unable to contact her since February 22. Her telephones were turned off. We were waiting that she would explain the situation. It was figured out on February 28 that she and her coach Stanislav Solovievv were in Turkey.” The reason for the expulsion was the sportswoman's refusal to participate in the Track Cycling World Championship in Minsk due to a head injury.

Olga Panarina gave an interview to Spornivnye Novosti, refuted the minister's words and spoke about the shocking situation in the Belarusian cycle sport.

“I will not appear [in the national team] and I don't care. But you, if you work in Belarus, will not dare publish even 50 percent of what I say. I often heard from journalists that they cannot publish these or those things, because they can be fired or the editor can ban it.

The future generation already formed their views. If you talk to teenage cyclists off the record, most of them will say they train and dream of leaving Belarus,” Olga Panarina said.

The sportswoman explained why officials unleashed anger on her coach.

“Soloviev was the only coach who was not afraid of telling officials the truth about the situation in cycle sport. Let's recall the summary conference of the Belarusian Cycling Federation (BCF) last spring, when federation's then president Alexander Muraviev said 2 million euros had been spent on cycling for the last five years. Coaches were shocked. No one received aid in children's sport or in elite sport. Everyone knows it, no one raised his voice. Only Soloviev said it to the minister. After that pressure was put on the BCF to make them provide aid. Soloviev's team didn't see any help from them, but he became their number one enemy. I don't mean the president of the federation. I mean deputy presidents and assistants. They want to have an opportunity to laundry money rather than have results in sport. Top officials in the federation have been replaced, but the deputy chairs and assistants are the same. They have been putting the squeeze on Soloviev since autumn, when new heads were appointed,” the sportswoman said.

Olga Panarina noted that sportsmen don't have future in Belarus and advised them to go to the countries where they would be able to establish themselves as professionals.

“You understand it yourself that escaping from this 'backwater' is good fortune. I'd like to wish other sportsmen good luck and chances to break free, if they admire sport and want to become professionals. There are some good coaches in racing sports in Belarus. But with this attitude of officials, talented coaches and sportsmen spoil their career. We have an example of world champion Aliaksandr Lisouski, who didn't leave the country in time and found that he is no longer needed here. It is very important to make right conclusions and work in the place where your efforts are appreciated,” Olga Panarina said.

The sportswoman said the minister lied when he said her coach and she were unavailable.

“What concerns about the inability to contact me, it is not true. None sports officials called me during that period. I didn't have calls until at least February 28. I applied for a vacation from March 1. If I wanted to remain [in the national team], I could apply to a mobile phone operator for call details and refute the minister's remark,” she said.

Olga Panarina is a Belarusian track cyclist, 2011 world champion and Honoured Master of Sports of Belarus.

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