General Director of the Sports Federation of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (PIN) Tatiana Olkhovaya, in an interview with R-Sport special correspondent Artem Kalinin, spoke about the pressing problems, about the disappointment of missing out on the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and assured that, despite to suspension (RCP), none of its athletes will quit training and performing.

The Ministry of Sports allocates funds, we hold on to one finger

- Tell us, in what coordinate system does your sport exist?

Our sport in the Paralympic system is called the sport of LIN - persons with intellectual disabilities. And those sports that we talk about when it comes to healthy athletes are called disciplines in our country. The LIN Sports Federation develops many disciplines. We have an international federation - INAS, which holds its own competitions. And there are competitions under the auspices (IPC). It turns out that in one year we can have two European championships in the same discipline or two world championships held by INAS and IPC.

- How many disciplines of PE sports are developing in Russia?

We are on this moment we are developing 12 disciplines, but we continue to expand the roster. This year we will introduce 6 more disciplines. But the IPC disciplines - those in which athletes compete in the Paralympics - are table tennis, swimming and Athletics. The program is very narrow. In contrast to POD (diseases of the musculoskeletal system), for example, where there are 10 classes in swimming, depending on the defeat, we have only one class. We have a very high competitive tension - almost like healthy athletes.

- How is the issue with the financing of your federation and athletes?

A good question and a sick one... Our funding is probably the weakest when compared with the PODA and the FSS (Federation for the Sports of the Blind). But we haven't been doing it that long. Our federation was registered only in 2012 before the Paralympic Games in London. Prior to this, the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) worked with athletes for two years, and we were under the PDA. For two years I created the LIN Federation. Funding has practically remained at the level of 2012, even decreasing slightly, despite the addition of new disciplines.

- Whose account is the funding for? Due to RCC?

At the expense of the Ministry of Sports. The Ministry of Sports allocates funds to us for a single calendar plan which we give them. There are limits that they allocate, and then we distribute (the money) ourselves. We hold on almost on one finger, but at the same time we manage to compete and perform successfully.

- Have you tried to apply to the same Ministry of Sports with a request to increase funding?

We appeal, but the state has its own limits. I think now there will be some kind of distribution.

How successful are your guys?

Last year at the World Swimming Championships in Glasgow, where 8 sets of medals were played, we won 5 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals, setting four world records along the way. It is a pity that our athletes did not go to the Paralympic Games. We are comparing the results shown in All-Russian competitions, with those that were shown by athletes in Rio. In the first four swims at the 2016 Paralympics, we would have had three gold medals and one bronze medal. In general, we had a very serious mood for the Paralympics this year.

We went to the door, and the door was walled up

- What did you feel when you learned about the removal of the RPC from the Paralympics?

It is difficult to put into words… We understand that we have done our job. When such work has been done, and you understand what result you could count on there, and then it’s as if you are approaching some kind of cliff, but there is no bridge to the other side ...

In 2012, athletes with LIN participated in the Paralympic Games for the first time since 2000 after a notorious scandal. And now we have, probably, the strictest system for determining the criteria for participation. If everything is visible visually in athletes with POD, then LIN must be determined. The games in Brazil could have been just the second for us, and we have developed so much in these four years. But, unfortunately, it didn't work out.

- How were the athletes informed about the CAS decision?

Athletes very hard suffered the news of non-admission. At that time we were in Novogorsk at the training camp. They called and said that a decision would now be made on the RCC, that it would most likely be positive. And everyone was 95 percent sure that we would go to Rio. Went to the base good mood, but on the way they saw that some were already crying. And I could not calm them (athletes) in any way. It was very difficult. Until I burst into tears myself, the girls couldn't stop crying. And they were just sobbing. Seeing that I was crying, they were surprised - it turns out that I can also cry - and began to calm down. The boys sat with their heads down, completely crushed.

- None of the guys after the non-admission decided to quit the sport, since everything is so unfair?

Our guys are obedient. We make a decision, we tell them about it, and they carry it out. If they don’t like something or they are tired, then they talk about it in training. But in our team, coaches and psychologists work at the same level, and we manage to regulate the psychological state of athletes. They understand that we have come to the door, and the door is bricked up, figuratively speaking. Now you need to either cut through another door, or wait until this one opens. But we have international competitions held under the auspices of INAS. Therefore, I think, while we will go to these starts. INAS did not close the door in front of us and cannot do it. We belong to those federations that are absolutely pure. We have not had a single doping case in the entire history of our work. This was the most annoying thing. It is almost impossible to explain this to the guys who do not understand why they were punished.

- Did any of the officials at the All-Russian competitions approach you, offer help?

I cannot say that, for example, Vitaly Mutko did not support us. He knows our guys for a long time and treats our direction very well. He is the President of the Special Olympic Committee Petersburg, which holds the Special Olympics - a competition in our direction, from where we recruit guys. Mutko supported us. Was in Novogorsk. For example, he is very proud of the fact that our Alena Prokofieva is the first racket of the world in table tennis, bypassing even the Chinese.

Work with people with intellectual disabilities brought God

- What are the next starts of our athletes? Where will you perform?

In Kaliningrad from 24 to 30 October the championship will take place European table tennis under the auspices of INAS. We will also participate in World Games under the auspices of the same federation.

- How wide is your federation's coverage in Russia?

We have guys collected from all r

regions - Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Kirov, Chelyabinsk, Saransk... At the moment we have 43 regional branches, but this year's conference, I think, will be attended by delegates from 57 regions. We are expanding our work.

People with LIN - 3% of the total population of the planet. But the competitive framework is very narrow under the auspices of the IPC, so we work at INAS. I am a member of the executive committee of the European INAS - there we try to promote our disciplines. Now we are lobbying for equestrian sport. We have developed a dressage program and now INAS and the International Equestrian Federation are going to implement it. I think that in the near future we will show it to the IPC, so that this discipline in our direction will be included in the program at one of the next Paralympics.

- How many such people go in for sports in Russia?

According to 2015 statistics, 115,000 IDUs go in for sports. And when we started in 2011, there were only 4,000 of them. We are developing very seriously. In the complex society in which we live, the birth rate of such children is now very high. We recently signed an agreement on joint activities with autists, because there are many such guys, and they are not attached anywhere in sports. Every year we hold an international conference where we invite representatives of INAS. They offer us, and we offer them some development prospects. Initially, we made a proposal to develop the direction of Down syndrome. I think there should be a separate class for athletes with this diagnosis. We started developing such a program in Russia to prove that such athletes can and should compete in a separate class. Our activities are wide, and I think the number of athletes will increase significantly.

- How did you yourself get into this sphere, why did you start helping people with intellectual disabilities?

I don't even know how to say. Perhaps God brought. I can't say otherwise. I was professionally engaged in swimming, then I worked with the guys. Once in the 90s I came to the temple and for the first time I saw children with intellectual disabilities. Then I found out that they live not far from me in a boarding school. It became interesting to me, I came to visit them, looked at their physical education lessons. I was surprised that the lessons were not very active. Two months later I left the nursery sports school, although the prospects were great, and went to work with the guys. Having two higher sports educations, she offered her own program to the director of the boarding school. Then it turned out that there is such a Special Olympics. A year later, I was invited there as a sports director.

It was difficult to readjust. There, the work is not for the result, but for adaptation through sports. The program developed by the Americans helped. I can relate to the United States in different ways, but the fact that they have developed such a program is wonderful. It began with the Kennedy dynasty. One of the children in this family had intellectual disabilities. Eunice Kennedy began to look for a way to adapt her sister to life. Everything was tried, including art, but it turned out that adaptation is best through sports. According to this program, people should not be dragged along, but should be taught to live in society.

- No devastation inside after the CAS decision? Desire to quit?

No. There is a great desire to work. And we will keep the team. We talked to all the guys about what happened and why it happened. We all agreed with them. We realized that this is a stage that you just need to go through, become stronger, more powerful and show your advantage at the next Paralympics. We do not even think about any doping, although we regularly conduct anti-doping work with both athletes and coaches. No matter how our state is accused, the state cannot come from something that harms the nation. Are we going to destroy our nation through doping? Which state will take care of it? This is the dumbest accusation. It's just individual people who destroy themselves.

- What is the main problem in your work: lack of funds or rejection by society?

The main problem is insufficient funding. As for society, society knows about us, but is afraid to hear that there are people with intellectual disabilities. The Russians have always had certain traditions. We, unlike the West, have always treated the so-called holy fools in a special way. These people were considered divine. And then everything changed. In the West, such people began to be treated differently, but in our country they began to say that there are no such people ... They exist, and there are many of them. Another thing is how we can help them to realize themselves in society. And our federation seeks to open a niche for such people. We show them that they can achieve high results in sports, and then they should be smoothly transferred to society.

It was from such competitions - the World Championships in mountain and cross-country sports, held in Poland, that our athletes have just triumphantly returned. Unfortunately, we did not take part in the alpine skiing part of the competition, also due to funding problems. But in cross-country skiing, through the joint efforts of the regional ministries of sports of the Kirov and Sverdlovsk regions, the Perm Territory and the Komi Republic, sports club The Snow Leopard, which supports the Moscow athlete Schukina Elena, and private philanthropists from the Nizhny Novgorod region managed to send a team of eight people - three girls and five men. The competition was attended by 30 athletes from eight countries, among whom for some reason there were no representatives of such ski powers as Norway and Finland. Our guys demonstrated total superiority over their rivals, having won 15 medals, including 8 gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze.

First, in individual freestyle races at a distance of 5 km, the girls took the entire podium - Schukina Elena (Moscow) - gold, Prokofieva Victoria (Perm Territory) - silver, and Babaeva Ekaterina (Sverdlovsk region) - bronze. In men in a similar race for 10 km. Ivan Volegov (Perm region) won, Alexander Sorokin (Nizhny Novgorod region) was third, Ivan Martyushev (Komi Republic) was fourth, Alexander Charushnikov (Kirov region) was fifth, Maxim Skurikhin (Kirov region) closed the top ten.

In the ski sprint classic style all three girls were again the best, but in a different order: Prokofieva, Babaeva, Shchukina. Among men, Volegov again won the gold medal, and Martyushev became the bronze medalist. In three relay races - men's, women's and mixed, all the guys participated and won all three starts - thus, each athlete became at least once a world champion. For the last 15 km classic race for men, the coaches did not put the team leader Volegov, Charushnikov Alexander became the third after the athletes from Poland and Estonia. In women's 10 km, only the most titled athlete of the team, Shchukina Elena, who became the world champion for the 29th time, competed.

Cross-country skiing among people with intellectual disabilities is successfully developing in various regions of our country. From March 14 to March 19, the Russian Championship will be held in the Kirov Region, which is comparable to the World Championship in terms of competition.

We hope that this material will be of interest, firstly, to those who have children with intellectual problems, the most common nosology in the world; secondly, potential partners in the development of our direction. We will be glad to any cooperation for the benefit of one of the most vulnerable groups of the population.

Our Federation, headed by the President Evseev Sergey Petrovich and CEO Olkhova Tatyana Ivanovna, has been successfully operating for the sixth year already, regional branches operate in more than forty regions. From disciplines close to the format of the journal " skiing", we develop skiing, cross, cycling. VFSLSIN website: www.rsf-id.ru, PR specialist Karelina Lyubov is ready to answer all questions: [email protected].

In Russia, there is still almost no state support for athletes with Down syndrome. This is expressed in the fact that competitions involving people with Down syndrome are not included in the calendars. sporting events, and the necessary funding is not allocated for the participation of such athletes in these events.

However, in Russia there are organizations that support sports movement for people with mental disabilities, including those with Down syndrome. One of them All-Russian Federation sports of persons with intellectual disabilities (Federation of Sports LIN of Russia). The activity of this organization is carried out within the framework of the Paralympic movement and is aimed at the sport of the highest achievements. Athletes' results are measured according to generally accepted sports criteria.

The issue of the participation of athletes with Down syndrome in competitions for persons with intellectual disabilities (PID) has so far remained controversial. Is it possible for them to participate on the principles of equality and correct assessment of results? What can be done to change the conditions for the participation of athletes with Down syndrome in sporting events?

LIN Sports Federation of Russia, being a national member International Federation Sports LIN (INAS), took the initiative to provide a separate classification for athletes with Down syndrome. And from the second half of 2017, INAS starts a pilot project for the experimental introduction of additional fitness classes, one of which is the class of athletes with Down syndrome. For athletes with Down syndrome, criteria were developed for selection and admission to competitions, and an algorithm was developed for collecting the necessary information to confirm the fitness of an athlete.

In the spring of 2017, the LIN Sports Federation of Russia was enrolled in Sports Union persons with Down syndrome (SU-DS), and now has the opportunity to initiate the performance of athletes with an extra chromosome in international championships and tournaments in different types sport among people with Down syndrome.

Activities in the second half of 2017:

World Table Tennis Championship in the Czech Republic (October 2017, INAS);

World Swimming Championships in Mexico (November 2017, INAS);

Open European Swimming Championships for people with diabetes in France (November 2017, SU-DS).

In Moscow and the regions are held sports events in which athletes with Down syndrome can participate in the following PE sports disciplines: athletics, swimming, cycling, tennis, horseback riding, table tennis, pioneer ball, fun starts. Learn about interregional and all-Russian official sports competitions on LIN sports for 2017, as well as get additional information, get acquainted with the regulations on events, the rules for applying and participating on the VFSLSIN website

For all questions, please contact: [email protected]

07.09.2017

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