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When determining the priority sports, it is important not to destroy what is currently working in the Latvian sports system, the head coach of the Latvian skeleton team and the director of the bobsleigh and sledge track “Sigulda” emphasized on Latvian Television on Tuesday Dainis Dukurs.
In the summer, the Ministry of Education and Science promised to name the priority sports in the country in October, but so far only two information tables have been published, which have provoked a sharp reaction from a number of participating sports federations.
The first table takes into account the fulfillment of five criteria: achievement, mass, youth involvement, accessibility and gender equality. So far, the question is about three other initially developed criteria, which are the future potential of the sport, the number of competitions in Latvia and profitability.
Excluding three additional indicators, the Ministry of Education and Science performed calculations of the fulfillment of the criteria and established the ranking of Latvian sports. Basketball took the first place with 94.59% of criteria met. The following places in the top ten are volleyball, athletics, floorball, hockey, checkers, sports dances, gymnastics, swimming and freestyle wrestling, which has 68.97% of the fulfilled criteria. Bobsleigh and skeleton, for example, have 31.79%, cycling 28.07% and luge 26.28%.
In the second table, which shows the achievements of sports, bobsleigh and skeleton are in the first place, followed by basketball, hockey, volleyball and checkers.
In “Morning Panorama”, Dukurs admits that from the beginning he survived as a skeleton in the list of priority sports.
“It seemed to me that this table was wrong, but at the moment I am not at all worried about it. I know what my tasks are – to prepare for the next Olympic Games together with the students, and I think that the new management of the Latvian Olympic Committee (LOC) and the LOK Executive Committee will also think about those athletes who are high-class athletes and who could won medals and high places in the world, ”says the meritorious skeleton coach.
He added that when discussing sports, a normal process is a discussion in which the issue of priorities in sport should not be rushed, allowing all stakeholders to have a say.
“I think the problem will be solved by sitting at the table for both the lower and higher federations,” he said. “There are the right arguments for both, and the main thing is not to destroy what is currently working and working quite well. Step by step, I think we will find this middle ground and the truth. ”
Dukurs also mentioned that, in his opinion, “the Latvian sports community is smart enough to find a middle ground and settle the issue without being pushed aside or undeservedly insulted that he is not worthy.”
LOK President George Tikmer reminded that the last two published tables are for information only. Once the draft document is ready, it will be submitted to the LOK Executive Committee for discussion, taking into account the views of sports federations.
He agrees that hasty, quick and ill-considered decisions will not be made. “Let’s wait for the results and then try to answer what the word ‘priority’ really means,” says Tikmer, recalling that the LOK defined its position a year ago when it submitted its vision to the MES, calling for the discussion to be divided into two sports, including Olympic and non-Olympic sports, athletes, teams and crews and so-called “grasroots” sports (amateur sports).
In connection with the priority sports, the “Morning Panoramas” studio also raised the question of which athletes are included in the Latvian Olympic Team (LOV), which to some extent already shows the priorities in Latvian sports.
Tikmer pointed out that on November 2, one of the issues of the LOV participants ‘meeting will be the analysis of the LOV athletes’ composition.
The process of determining priority sports will take a long time, because only at the end of September the Ministry of Education and Science announced a procurement for the study “Improvement of the Sports Financing Model”, allocating 9,500 euros.
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