Former Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergej Bubka is also among the crowd of deserving Olympic winners and guests of honor at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Photo: TASR, Michal Svítok
Sergej Bubka in a picture from 2019.
The owner of the gold medal from the 1988 Seoul Olympics, six world championship titles and the holder of 35 world records will sit in the VIP boxes, but only as a private person.
The former long-term president of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee, one of the heads of the World Athletics Federation (World Athletics), currently has no position and did not receive official accreditation before.
Bubko became an outcast two years ago after being accused of collaboration with the Russian occupiers of Donbass. He had to leave all posts, pack his bags and disappear abroad. Specifically, you aimed for Monaco.
Bubka has always been an exceptional athlete. A huge, extraordinary talent, but at the same time a peculiar weirdo. While other Soviet athletes were alien to any kind of esotericism, mostly believing only in the power of the Communist Party and money, Bubka was already interested in various spiritual practices.
He was afraid of incredulous looks, he was convinced that positive energy could escape through a handshake. Because of this, he refused outstretched right hands before the race and responded to all greetings with a slight nod of the head.
However, he also believed in money, otherwise it was not possible. He was too pragmatic and rational for that. Bubka only improved all world records by a centimeter, he never wanted to go higher.
“This was because of the premiums that the World Athletics Federation paid for each such success. I didn’t want to make a super result and get only one reward, I preferred to have that kind of income regularly. Another thing is that almost 70 percent of this income was taken from me by the state. It was justified by the fact that he provides all my training and covers all costs,” admitted Bubka in one of the interviews.
It is not surprising that in 1991 he decided to break free from the hands of the then Soviet system of sports physical education. He founded a private company that was to finance his concentration, and renounced claims to support from the state. With the fact that since then all the money earned belonged to him in full.
A dangerous precedent was created: Bubka could be followed by other stars of Soviet sports. And so the regime did everything to ground the defiant athlete. For several months, he did not receive nominations for any international events. Who knows how it would have ended if the Soviet Union had not collapsed at the end of the same year.
The Ukrainian also thought carefully about what he would do when one day he hung up his sneakers on a nail. “I have seen many cases where yesterday’s champions suddenly found themselves bankrupt. Those people didn’t think about the future at all. They were convinced that titles and medals would guarantee them a comfortable life even after their sports career. They got burned because that’s not how it works. I looked at them and tried to learn from other people’s mistakes,” stated Bubka.
He started learning English. As an active athlete, he organized the international Pole Vault Stars tournament, which received positive feedback and took a permanent place in the athletics calendar. His company soon outgrew the scope of sports and started commercial activities.
In addition to financial capital, Bubka diligently increased political capital as well. After the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, he ended his successful sports career and immediately moved to the official chair. The head of the International Olympic Committee at the time, Juan Antonio Samaranch, came up with the idea of establishing an athletes’ commission in the IOC, and the Ukrainian immediately won a place in it.
During the twenty years of building a non-sports career, Bubko managed more than enough. As one of the country’s best-known athletes, the former high jump record holder was elected president of the Olympic Committee of Ukraine in 2005. He remained in office until his dismissal the year before last.
At the same time, he held the highest positions in World Athletics for the last two decades. The fight for the seat of the head of the federation was won by Briton Sebastian Coe, but Bubka became the first vice-president by his side. He never hid that he owes his position to the support of the states of the former USSR, especially Russia. He was with sports officials from Moscow for one year, communicating with them on a daily basis.
At the same time, Bubka consistently built a strong economic background. Over time, his modest company turned into a large holding, which included its own bank, a chain of grocery stores and gas stations, a factory for the production of office supplies and, for example, a bakery.
The former athlete’s financial gains grew in proportion to his political influence and amounted to millions of euros per year. Life seemed to him to be going through a rose garden…
Everything went wrong in 2022, shortly after the start of Russian aggression in Ukraine. Bubka decided that he would earn even more thanks to the war. The former pole vaulter registered the Mont Blanc company, which began selling fuel to military units in the Donetsk National Republic (Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia). Bubka managed to conclude three contracts with the occupation administration in Donbas, then the whole thing collapsed.
A huge scandal broke out. The legendary athlete had to leave all his posts and urgently leave his homeland. Today, Bubka lives in Monaco, where he prudently bought real estate during his athletic career.
The Olympic champion retired from public life for good. He is only occasionally present at the matches of the local football club AS Monaco, which is owned by his friend, Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. Bubka prefers not to comment on the last events of his life.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
