Denys SYLANTIEV: “Only people who rely on themselves can make good sportsmen”

A well-known sportsman, active citizen, and, since last week, parliamentary candidate told The Day about what encourages him to invest in the state, what he thinks about the language law, why he decided to go to politics, and, naturally, how he assesses the prospects of Ukrainian sport and the results of the London Olympics.

Denys Sylantiev is, first of all, an athlete, Merited Master of Sport in swimming, champion of the world and Europe, and a silver medalist at the Sydney Olympics. Yet, in the past few years, he has been taking an active part in key sociopolitical events. He is an active citizen who openly displays his attitudes and has his own opinion on what is going on in this country. You will agree that there are not so many sportspeople in Ukraine, who, in addition to doing sport and perhaps filming for adverts and all kinds of shows, are courageous enough to try to change something in this country.

Last week the Central Election Commission registered Denys Sylantiev as a self-nominated first-past-the-post candidate in the parliamentary elections. The sportsman is now registered at constituency No. 214 in Kyiv. “It took me more than a fleeting second to decide to change the swimming trunks for a candidate’s ID card. I think the experience that I have gained in all the years of civic activity will play a positive role in my political career,” Sylantiev told The Day. “I have been engaged in civic activities long enough to understand that the situation cannot be changed in this way only.”

Yet politics was, naturally, not the only reason why we interviewed this sportsman and active citizen.

“UKRAINE WIELDS CLOUT. IN SPORT”

V.L.: “You told The Day at the beginning of the Olympics that you were not much satisfied with the start of our national team. Have you changed your mind now?”

“On the whole, we showed quite a good result at the London Olympics, but I expected more from our national team. It is a pity that we have been making the same blunder year by year – we failed to create proper training conditions for our athletes. The government’s philosophy is as follows: we win medals, so why are you complaining? Some athletes and coaches even did not want our team to achieve success in London: they won’t lock the barn door till after the horse is stolen, so to speak. We must have a sporting ‘disaster,’ a complete failure at the Olympics, to make the government pay attention to sport problems and begin to do at least something.”

V.L.: “Serhii Frolov set a Ukrainian record in the 1,000-m free style swimming, but this result did not let him qualify for the Olympic final. He told the media that the training conditions for Ukrainian swimmers leave much to be desired. What are the development prospects for this sport in Ukraine?”

“Today, we practically have no centralized specialized swimming training bases. There is a swimming pool in Dniprodzerzhynsk, where swimmers do pre-competition training, but it is surrounded by factories – it is hard to breathe there, let alone train professionally. There is a good renovated pool, Meteor, in Dnipropetrovsk, which is the basic training facility for Olympic competitors, but there is no place to eat and sleep at. There is quite a good training base in Yevpatoria, but it is intended for Paralympians.

“We must point out insufficient psychological, not only physical, training level of sportspeople. Whenever Ukrainian athletes come for a competition to Britain, France, or America, and see the training conditions for their counterparts in those countries, they have their psyche and self-esteem seriously hurt. It is high time to forget the training bases that we inherited from the USSR – sport demands constant investments, for it is the question of not only the country’s prestige, but also the nation’s health.”

M.S.: “If the state fails to fulfill the set tasks, what are the alternative ways of solving sport problems in Ukraine? Can private initiatives change the situation?”

“We need a law that would encourage business to invest in sport. It should provide for tax exemptions for those who build a sport infrastructure, reduced public utility rates for sport bases and complexes, preferences in land acquisition and construction of sport facilities, etc. In this country, those who want to build a sport complex, a business center, or a supermarket compete for land at auctions in unequal conditions. Naturally, the two latter will cover the expenses faster and more effectively, but business should be taught to bear social responsibility.”

V.L.: “You write in your blog that sportsmen showed mutual understanding and fair play in London. And what do you think about refereeing? The media believe that if we were not a post-Soviet country, we would not have been judged so unfairly.”

“Of course, if an athlete represents the US, it is difficult to judge them unfairly. Yet there are a lot of examples, when referees took a biased approach – and this applies not only to Ukraine, but also other countries. I do not believe that they do not reckon with us on purpose. On the contrary, our sportsmen have made a very good name for themselves in the world. Maybe, we are treated as a third-world country due to a weak economy, but, let me emphasize this, Ukraine does wield clout in sport.”

V.L.: “Which of the two things more stimulates Ukrainian athletes to win – cash awards for medals or the opportunity to raise the prestige of their country?”

“In sport, both incentives – a country’s prestige and a cash prize – are equally important. Good sportsmen are usually people who come from low-income families and should rely on themselves only. I know this very well, for I was raised by a single mother. So I used to train hard, undergo hardships, and set new goals. Sport allowed me to realize myself and shape the basic features of character. Whenever I try to reach out to bureaucrats today, I understand that it is sport that formed my self-control.

“It often happens that an official comes to us half an hour before the departure to the world championship and says: ‘You should remember that you are defending the honor of your country. We worry about you, so don’t disgrace us.’ But if he added: ‘Guys, whoever will take first place will get an apartment and the runner-up will be paid such and such amount,’ this would seriously enhance the incentive for the athletes (some of them live in a shared apartment) and their respect for the state.”

“BUREAUCRATS MUST NOT DEMAND THAT SPORTSMEN REACH A LEVEL OF WORK WHICH THEY THEMSELVES CANNOT DO”

V.L.: “In spite of a largely depressive situation in sport, there still are energetic people who support it. Your foundation is also making a sizable contribution to this. To what extent is the private initiative important today, what can it change, and what can it influence?”

“Sportspeople, as well as other people who have realized themselves in a certain field and have some clout, must contribute to societal development. After I had left big-time sport, I decided to be engaged in civic work. In two months after being established, the foundation carried out its first project – the international tournament Mr. Butterfly in Zaporizhia. Then we began to implement new projects aimed at popularizing sport and forming a healthy lifestyle. Why am I doing this? Armchair bureaucrats sometimes do not know what people really need locally and what their problems are. The activities of our foundation form a demand for sport.”

M.S.: “You write in your blog that it would be a good idea to introduce the nomination ‘Olympic Games Loser’ for the officials who administer big-time sports. Who would you confer this award on? And why is the state not interested in sport, although it is perhaps the main factor that forms a positive image of this country?”

“I think 90 percent of bureaucrats are not doing their job properly. You can trace the following chain: a world-level athlete – a world-level coach – a mediocre administrator – an always busy Swimming Federation president – an always deadbeat chief of a governmental department. We will not be able to achieve success unless we reach the world administrative level. Bureaucrats must not demand that sportsmen reach a level of work which they themselves cannot do.

“The current situation at the federation is that athletes have turned into serfs – they have lots of duties but no rights at all. Once Nina Kozhukh, Merited Coach of Ukraine, bearer of three Orders of Princess Olha, who had raised Yana Klochkova and trained Oleh Lisohor (I was also her disciple in the last years), asked the federation for a stopwatch. She was told the federation was up to the neck with other problems. I once asked them to help me get a visa for a trip to an international competition, only to be told that the federation had no time to deal with me personally – their job was to popularize swimming in this country. What is more, swimming schools and pools are being closed, while no new youth aquatic schools and centers have been built.”

M.S.: “Can this situation be changed if even the renowned coaches and athletes, who win medals for Ukraine, come across this kind of problems?”

“Officials should be changed on a regular basis. In the US or Europe, for example, they do not sit too long in their offices. There was a regular rotation of staff in the Soviet Union, too. Officials were changed every five years. By contrast, in this country a state-appointed coach may hold their post for 20 years or so.”

M.S.: “You are an active citizen who takes a high-profile stand in the key public events. What is your inner motivation?”

“I am a public personality and perhaps a role model for somebody. Therefore, I bear responsibility for these people. It is important for people to know my position, for they can thus form their opinion if they have doubts about something. For this reason, I take an active part in various events, such as smoke ban campaigns, blood donation, AIDS control, etc. I personally derive pleasure from this and encourage my friends among sportspeople, actors, and showmen to join these campaigns.”

M.S.: “To what extent is it necessary today to get the sport community involved into civic activity?”

“It is absolutely necessary. Sportsmen are by far the only people who have achieved success thanks to their character and efforts only. They are not some politicians who have stolen something somewhere, cheated somebody, and thus made money. They are not some singers who become stars for money. Sportsmen are a stratum that has been underestimated and underutilized as a socioeconomic component.”

“A POLITICIAN NEEDS THE SAME QUALITIES THAT A GOOD SPORTSMAN DOES”

V.L.: “You have registered as a self-nominated first-past-the-post candidate in the parliamentary elections. Why did you opt for politics?”

“Going to politics is a logical step after I have participated in civic activities over the past few years. I must make a short excursus into history. In 2008 the Youth and Olympic Swimming Support Foundation, which I had organized, suggested establishing the Children’s Swimming Club. We hit upon this idea because water-related mortality comes second only to the road accident death rate in today’s Ukraine. The idea of establishing the club was quickly implemented, and children can receive free swimming lessons at such clubs in the cities of Ukraine. Also, as part of this program, we managed to open a full-time swimming school in Lviv.

“At the same time, working within the framework of this project, I could see that it was extremely difficult to put these ideas into practice, especially on the national scale, if you try to do this via a non-governmental organization. To do this, you should be a politician who can initiate governmental programs and see to it that they are implemented. I am sure that any civic activist will come to understand, sooner or later, that it is necessary to become a professional politician – it is absolutely right and normal.”

M.S.: “How would you assess your political chances as well as those of your sport colleagues?”

“I am sure that the Ukrainians are very much tired of empty promises and, in general, of the ‘political talkfest.’ Unfortunately, we have got used to hearing politicians say many fine words, but they have not done too many good deeds. At the same time, it is obvious that the one who has shown serious achievements in professional and civic activity will most likely repeat his or her successes in politics, for he or she has knowledge, experience, life philosophy, and will to victory. So I am convinced that my record and my successes in sport and in civic activity will ‘campaign’ for me better than slogans.

“As for other athletes, everything depends, naturally, on a specific individual and the goal he or she pursues. On the whole, a politician needs the same qualities that a good sportsman does: purposefulness, a desire to win, and willingness to do hard work. I think sport and politics look alike in this case. Of course, this does not mean that any excellent sportsman will necessarily make an excellent politician. But if a sportsman wants to do very much for their country and, what is more, knows how to do this, he or she stands a fair chance to become a good politician.”

S.M.: “What are the key elements that form a successful politician?”

“You must know about what you are going to do. You should clearly see the goal: why you are going into politics and what you want to achieve. When an individual is an active citizen and knows about the problems of culture, sport, and freedom of speech, he or she establishes certain contacts, hears the opinion of different people, borrows their experience, and forms the idea of what should be done to improve the situation. Far from all prospective MPs really want to do something. Ninety percent of the candidates just want to protect their business.”

“IT HURTS ME WHEN THE LANGUAGE OF MY COUNTRY IS CALLED A DIALECT”

M.S.: “Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych has signed the law on languages. We are now living in a country, where an attempt was made to set the Ukrainians at loggerheads. What do you think of this, what is your vision of the further developments, what will this law change in Ukraine?”

“I think there were manipulations in this matter. What is being emphasized is the conflict that this law may trigger because it is to the benefit of the people who are bursting to gain power. I personally see no conflict in this. Certain politicians are manipulating people in an attempt to project an appealing image and win high ratings. I am very sorry that the people who are beating their breasts and saying ‘We are being robbed of Taras Shevchenko’s language’ are in fact here to cash in on this. Therefore, let us not make a tragedy out of this. Does it matter who speaks what language? What really matters is what people are doing for the country.”

V.L.: “You are focusing on our oppositionists, but the Party of Regions and the Communists are also hyping themselves up on this law: look, we have done what we promised…”

“Watching the opposition’s actions on television, I just wonder to what extent this law is of benefit for the authorities. This law can’t be compared to, say, the laws on the taxation code and the retirement age. From this angle, I am on the side of the people who took to the streets in protest against this kind of cabbalistic laws. But here, I am among the people who see no tragedy in this. Let there be two languages – this will not change things either for the worse or for the better. We have more pressing and acute problems than that of the language. An educated or, to be more exact, culturally enriched individual will understand that this will in no way affect this country’s image and wellbeing.”

M.S.: “To what extent is the sporting community aware today of responsibility for its words and deeds? To what extent is it active, as far as their civic stand is concerned? Here is the latest example: the USSR swimming champion Dmitry Volkov called the Ukrainian language a dialect.”

“It is difficult for me to comment on Dmitry Volkov’s words. It hurts me personally to hear that the language of my country was called a dialect. I think these words were caused by a lack of knowledge.

“Sportspeople often take a superficial approach to the fact that their words and actions may have a certain effect on people and that they are responsible for what they do outside sport. I am clearly aware of what example I set to people, so I try, as far as possible, to do positive things and exert positive influence.”