“What salad are you going to prepare for the holidays?” » – Mom asked me. For the first time in many, many years, I celebrated the New Year not at a training camp or competition, but at home, in my apartment. “None, Mom. And the painting is very symbolic. Because I have to get up at seven in the morning for my first workout of the year.
Am I complaining? On the contrary, it is my conscious choice. Otherwise, I would have accepted my friends’ offer and accompanied them to celebrate the New Year in a fashionable club. Let me clarify: I myself don’t know if it’s fashionable. But I trust them, ha – they know a lot about it. Because they are interested. Not for me.
I am a modern businesswoman. My job is professional sport. As in any business, profit is directly proportional to investment. My career is first, second, and so on. Absolutely everything I do is first checked based on the main parameter: does it help me achieve my goals or not.
At the same time, I understand very clearly that I do not exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, I am an object of investment, of effort, of investment. For over ten years, very serious resources have been invested in me. Human first: the knowledge, talent, diligence of my coaches and specialists. But the State paid and is paying for almost all of this. The state decided it needed strong professional athletes.
Moreover, all developed countries approach sport this way. A champion is a symbol of the nation. The difference is in the details. I like to take Norway as an example, because Norwegian skiing is ahead of others in many ways. So, here too, the State decided that certain taxes would automatically be intended for the needs of elite sport (and a little for culture). For games of chance, for example. Private sponsors of cross-country skiing/biathlon only play a role in the lives of Johannes Kläbo or the Boe brothers, while the rest of the professional athletes live on scholarships provided by the government. Just like ours.
When they invest so much in you, providing you with everything you need (run away, Veronica!), it imposes responsibilities. At least that should be the case.
I have two goals, I haven’t hidden them for a long time. The first is professional, sporty. I want a personal Olympic medal and I am moving towards my goal. All other competitions are intermediate grades, an opportunity to check the course. The way our sport works is that all efforts are focused on Olympic achievements. All teams start preparing for the next Olympics years in advance. Look how much time Klebo now spends in Italy. Do you think he likes pizza and spaghetti so much? No, this is part of the preparation for the 2026 Games. The main ski manufacturers are already starting to test prototypes “for the Olympic Games”. It will take two years to get them to the level that Klebo will take with him to Val di Fiemme. Or I take…
I also have another goal. Bigger and more important to me. Try to change the role and influence of the athlete in society. Previously, this was impossible. Athletes played sports and entertainment personalities entertained themselves. Some are in forests and training bases, others in Moscow, closer to Ostankino. They have built a perfectly functional system to promote their loved ones. Therefore, we all know perfectly well which of them did what today, who left and to whom, who they called and what outfit they wore for the next event. You know the expression “the difference between a bad rat and a cute hamster lies only in the quality of public relations and promotion of the latter”?
But the world has changed. Today, social media and technology allow us to compete with all the “entertainment stars”. Often I don’t have time to go to the Ostankino television studio, but the live broadcast from the training base doesn’t look much worse.
We are stronger, more persistent and we have something to say. And how can I say, we have something to examine. Just take a look at the latest photo sets of my teammate Alena Baranova. Or Ivo Niskanen. And no, the ski world hasn’t been turned upside down because Olympic champion Ivo is advertising briefs. Or are the abdominal muscles still strong? We have this, a proven fact.
…This is not the first or even the second year that I have said: I do not compete with my rivals on the ski slopes. It is only an “entrance ticket” to recognition among millions of people. The competition that really interests me is the one with the same stars from the entertainment world. Since I started talking about it publicly and actively, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Many of yesterday’s idols have been proven false. It turned out that their views and those of the people do not really coincide on many important issues.
Today, I hope that media efforts will promote stars, create influencers, those that my generation will follow, to shift towards athletes. We are perseverant and resilient, we are used to working for months, years, an hour, an instant. And we didn’t grow up within the Garden Ring – we are the “deep people”. We belong to our small homelands. Examples of success and business acumen for our construction sites and our neighborhoods. There are not the only ones, of course, there are much more useful and worthy people, I bow to their efforts, their achievements and their victories. But let them speak for themselves. I speak for myself and for those professional athletes who think the same thing. Our time has come!
Source : MatchTV
I am Sandra Jackson, a journalist and content creator with extensive experience in the news industry. I have been working in the news media for over five years. During this time, I have worked as an author and editor at various outlets producing high-quality content that attracts readers from different demographics.
