Ekimov: “Money is only a means of supporting an athlete, you need to work on all components of motivation”

President of the Russian Cycling Federation Vyacheslav Ekimov believes that it is impossible to motivate an athlete to achieve high results and continue their career only with financial payments.

Russian athletes have been suspended from international competitions in most sports due to the situation in Ukraine. The International Cycling Union (UCI) allows Russians to compete under neutral status, but even in that status they will not be able to participate in January’s European Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

— Last year was quite successful for us in terms of implementing the schedule we had planned. Despite the logistical and organizational difficulties, we managed to realize our plans to compete in all four cycling disciplines. We managed to take the juniors to the world track championship and compare the hands of the clock with world cycling, although in this age category, but this is also an important point – see where we are in general, to make sure we are not late.

I would like this year, all those involved in sport not to despair. Restrictions are a temporary phenomenon, the main thing for us now is not to lose our reserve, but also to develop mass amateur sport in the country,” Ekimov told .

— Your track athletes are definitely no longer participating in the Games. If I understand correctly, the Olympic Committee has started making payments?

— Of course, I would like to thank our ROC for these payments, but at the same time we all need to understand that money is only a way to support an athlete, but it is not 100% of his motivation. And we must work so that the athlete finds his motivation in his results, in competitive practice, in all its components.