Yury Dounar: Why develop alpine skiing in the country without mountains?

It's better to focus on the kinds of sport requiring less expenses than develop all sports.

A sports observer from Pressball newspaper, Yury Dounar, spoke to charter97.org about Lukashenka's statement a cost-saving approach to sports.

“He said the right things if we don't focus on the tone and circumstances of the remark. The other matter is that this approach is more suitable for games, when sportsmen have bonuses for good results. To speak in sporting terms, the matter is a system of bonuses that sometimes allows football clubs in the Belarusian premier league to receive much more money from bonuses than from salaries,” the expert said.

The observer stressed that it is a normal practice that works fine for games.

“But it's not clear what to do with other kinds of sports. For example, in freestyle skiing you in fact have one jump in for years at the Olympics. In my opinion, a system of priorities would be more logical. The authorities develop many sports that hardly have any relation to our country. For example, we develop alpine skiing though we don't have mountains. Sportsmen have to train abroad. I think we could save money by focusing on particular kinds of sport that require less expenses. Sportsmen now receive as much as they want, but let's be straight, there's no track and field in the country. It is supposed that good athletes will appear if sportsmen are paid more. Actually, nothing will change. Don't lie to yourself that Belarus is good at sports,” Yury Dounar said.

The Belarusian ruler said at a meeting to discuss problems of BFSO Dinamo and the ways of tackling them: “You will get money, big money, for results. No results, no money.”