The assessment of the recently concluded Olympic Games in Paris from a medal point of view was not too optimistic from the Slovakian point of view, as the Slovak team won only one precious metal under the Eiffel Tower.
Photo: ČTK / AP / David Goldman
The Slovak expedition won a single medal in Paris.
Bronze was won by canoeist Metej Beňuš on wild water, and no athlete from the Tatras joined him.
“If we talk about sports results, we won only one bronze medal and that is disappointing,” said the president of the Slovak Olympic and Sports Committee (SOŠV) Anton Siekel during a press conference at the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Slovak Republic.
The fact that 27 skilled Slovaks presented themselves under five rings and they claimed a total of 12 positions in the Top 10 sounds much more positive.
It should also be mentioned that, due to the demanding qualification criteria, it is increasingly difficult to get under the five rings, and for several representatives of the Slovak Republic, just making it to Paris was a great success. However, even that should not obscure the fact that Slovak sport is not doing well.
“We have to realize the seriousness of the situation. We had one medal, but even if there were four or six, it will not fundamentally change the situation in Slovakia.
Olympic medals are a huge impetus for athletes and youth to look for their role models in real forms and not somewhere in video games. We have to look for the reasons years back.
Why didn’t we invest in infrastructure earlier? Already today, I look at the Olympics in Italy with great respect. Our expedition will have similar problems in terms of size.
I want us to be as high as possible in the number of medals won, I wish that to every athlete. But let’s look at the matter objectively, not as a case that happened as a result of neglecting something a year ago.
Let’s talk about the steps we need to take to have the potential of candidates for Olympic spots at a minimum of 50,” Siekel noted.
The state secretary of the department for sports, Ján Krišanda, thanked the Olympians for fighting to the limit of their strength.
“The expedition reached eight places in the eighth place and the promise for the future is that the young generation has joined,” he said, emphasizing the need to adjust the funding of individual branches in sports.
According to him, it is necessary to review and change the distribution of funds. “It is not possible to set all the different levels of sport with one calculation.
The Ministry will tend to reevaluate the systematization of sports support. We must also finally focus on supporting talented youth who do not have a roof and a methodology. We need to create training central centers for preparation,” he noted.
Just a few days after the end of the Olympics in Paris, he already outlined the goal for Los Angeles 2028. “We have to talk to the associations and identify athletes who are able to participate in the future Olympics and create the most optimal conditions for them.
We will discuss it intensively with the Olympic Committee and the unions. The goal is to send the largest possible expedition to Los Angeles, perhaps 50 athletes, and later to Australia approximately 100 athletes.
The last time we had team sports was in Sydney 2000, so we will be moving in this direction as well. There is a lot to do, but I think we will succeed,” he added.
The Minister of Tourism and Sports Dušan Keketi sees the current situation as a starting line. “For many years, sport was bypassed, work with youth was not systematic, insufficient attention was paid to the training of coaches, sports grounds were neglected and very few new ones were built, moreover, sport was underfunded until the changes brought by the Sports Act.
Today, however, we see that even that is not 100% correct and needs to be amended. We perceive all these problems, which are named by experts in sports, the sports community, top athletes and parents of children who play sports.
That is also why the SNS insisted on the establishment of a new ministry that would have sport as one of its main activities and not as an area that is on the sidelines, as was the case in the past,” said the head of the department.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
