“I love helping athletes.” Korotyshkin about the new position, the development of swimming and doping problems

At the end of October, the Olympic medalist Yevgeny Korotyshkin becomes vice-president of the new United Aquatic Federation. talked to him about his work in the leadership of the Moscow Swimming Federation, current problems and the need to create a professional swimming league.

— How does this transformation from athlete to leader or sports official take place? Is there a big difference between the idea of ​​such work and the reality?

— Yes, I managed to realize along this path that people who are not immersed in the issues of a problem cannot understand how difficult it is to solve this or that problem.

– For example?

— It must be understood that the regional swimming federation has practically no leverage to resolve certain problems. The regional federation is legally responsible for the development of the sport, but at the same time the situation regarding financing is: how you tour is how the federation makes money. Marketing, involving state corporations and commercial organizations in sports, and developing a business plan for financial institutions can yield results in fundraising competitions. The head of the regional federation is constantly forced to find options and finance expenses not taken into account in the overall planning. In this case, the regional federation is entrusted with a college of judges, who must be created, trained and prepared for each specific event. At the same time, the same judges are not subordinate to you. As well as the collection of statistical data, processing, the formation of national teams for participation in All-Russian competitions, the search and training of leading coaches, the awarding of sports categories and titles.

In a word, the federation is a collegial body: we come together and try to agree among ourselves on social work.

— When you were an athlete, you thought: why are all these people not doing anything?

– (Laughs) Yes. Many people think: the federation only organizes the Russian championship, and the ROC only functions as a travel agency, sending people to the Olympic Games.

Having worked at the Moscow Swimming Federation, I can say that the flow of documents is huge, it is even difficult for people to imagine. Again, many people have no idea what the federation is responsible for. They even contact you, for example, if someone’s shampoo was stolen from the pool…. Or they ask to fire a coach because an athlete performed poorly in a competition.

— Here is a comment on your nomination to the United Federation. “Under Korotyshkin’s leadership, his swimming leagues flourished in Moscow, which parasitized the lack of official starts.” What can you answer?

— Every year in Moscow there are 14 official starts for all ages and 36 official sporting events with the participation of Moscow athletes. I am convinced that the schedule is quite busy. Leagues were created to help athletes who need to try their hand before entering the official start of the season, speed up or repeat swimming after a poor start at official meets. Participation is not compulsory, it is only intended to help athletes achieve results. We support the development of swimming and various sports groups.

— Is it possible to create a kind of ISL in Russia?

— Of course we should have a professional swimming league. I think we will soon include it in the development strategy and we will do it. Today, when many athletes cannot travel to international competitions, we need to create an exciting tournament format for them and create an awards fund for this purpose.

— Currently, swimming is more popular than many sports, but at the same time it still loses to the main sports. Are you sure that this project will be necessary for a wide audience?

“You have to work at it, you have to start somewhere.” Everyone watches football. Is it really such an exciting game? No. The question is how much effort, time and money has gone into the development of this sport. Even if you don’t want to know anything about football, it appears in your information field, thanks to the fact that matches and news about it are constantly in the background.

At best, swimming is monitored once every two years and, between starts, these athletes are forgotten. And if there is a League that airs every week, then there will be heroes that people will follow.

— Like the Tour in tennis or the World Tour in cycling? To watch it like a TV series?

— In terms of performance, the swimming finals at the Olympic Games are comparable to those of basketball. And in the television sense, swimming is a sport understandable to the audience and all actions are placed in a single frame. Spectators should be captivated by the competition process. To do this, we must propose a new competition format. It is possible to introduce a new scoring system, modernize the rules, add dynamics and drama. Turn sport into a game.

— Meanwhile, in the comments: “Oh, I know Korotyshkin, he participated in “Titans”. Do you understand that many people now recognize you for this reason, and not for this very medal in London?

— Yes, I started participating so that people would have an extra reason to talk about swimming. So that parents who choose a sport for their child see that swimmers are universal athletes capable of defeating even the strongest people on the planet. In general, I am supportive of athletes’ desire to be more active in the media; they need managers and assistants to facilitate further discussions with sponsors. At one point I wondered why the sponsor signed a contract with me, and not a more successful athlete, even though we were both considered. I asked a direct question: “Why?” They answered me: “You have social networks, you communicate with journalists, you have something to tell.”

— Yulia Efimova said on that sponsors refused with the wording “investing money in sport is like throwing money down the toilet”. But without sponsors, it is impossible to carry out cool projects and develop the sport in a modern way.

— There are no limits to sponsors in football, but it is also a sport. By investing money somewhere, the sponsor expects to receive something in return. The question is therefore not whether the sponsor does not want to invest in the sport, but what we can offer them.

We must be constantly visible: constantly appear on the air, give interviews, be interesting for the viewer. Generally speaking, we do everything to make the sponsor interested in us.

— Why did you decide to help Efimova in the selection for the Games? There were very few such voices then.

– Everything is simple here. First: the athlete asked for help. Second: I completely understood that this was one of his last chances to go to the Games. And third: I am sincerely convinced that sport should be outside of politics.

– Is it possible? Somewhere in the void?

– We were raised this way. Throughout my career.

“We were raised with many values. Since childhood, we have heard “he who does not work does not eat”, but infogypsies are thriving…

— I am convinced that if you do something, you must do it well. Otherwise, looking at such comrades, you can lose a lot in life. When I came to Italy to train, I reached my speed limit. Other teams improved their butterfly results, but I hit a wall. I told my coach Andrea Di Nino that I doubted the purity of their progress. He replied: “Evgeny, if you think that doping exists in sport, you will never be able to improve your results. You just need to work with the attitude “there is no doping in sports, everyone swims cleanly”, this way you will feel freer in your work, you will believe that you can surpass them. And this setup works in practice.

— I remember the moment when one of the basic vitamins that children consume at school began to be considered prohibited by the RUSADA system. Everyone laughed in the comments, then Korotyshkin came and wrote something like “If it is recognized as dangerous, we simply do not use it.”

– Well, what are the options? If there are rules, then they must be respected. And I believe coaches should instill that attitude. Our coaches are our second parents and their words are perceived by the athlete at the stage of his training as immutable truths. And literacy in this sense must be developed: mildronate was monitored by WADA, the alarm should already be sounded. This is a lot of work that must be done efficiently by all parties.

— How was the disqualification of a 14-year-old athlete perceived?

— I cannot comment in detail, I do not have enough information for that. But the use of illegal substances by minors is still an issue that concerns adults.

— In summary: it is difficult to find sponsors, interest in this sport is not yet as great as we would like, there are many restrictions on the international scene, questions regarding anti-doping at the local level remain . Why do you need all this? Why get involved in this?

— I love sport, it’s important for me to help athletes, what’s more, I like helping them and, of course, I want to develop myself. Maybe the “armchair experts” aren’t happy with some things, and so far not everything we wanted has come to fruition, but much of what has been done has been done with a very high quality. Russian swimming has room to develop, a goal to achieve. Our athletes have proven they can compete with the strongest swimmers on the planet, but there are times that slow down their development. I believe I can help overcome them. The task is arduous, but all the more interesting.

— Everyone is waiting for the Olympic Games.

— And “Olympic”, and “Moskvorechye”, and “Formula Voda”, and Pavel Korchagin’s swimming pool – all of them will be put into operation in the next two years. These pools are built to new standards and can, if necessary, be transformed into “quarter pools”. We are all looking forward to hosting the Russian Championship in Moscow again and proudly welcoming the regions to the capital.

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