1 February 2001This Sunday, the world's greatest pole vaulter, Sergey Bubka, makes his last competitive appearance at the same arena in Donetsk where he cleared 6.15m in 1993 - still the world indoor record for the event. But although he has decided to hang up his spikes, Bubka is embarking on a new career with all the focus and determination that marked him out as an athlete. The IAAF's Nick Davies caught up with Bubka in Monaco ..
This is the first winter for many, many years that you have not been training hard. What have you been doing with your time?
I am still training three times per week. This includes some athletics, some weight lifting, football, tennis and swimming. I am also travelling a lot for the IOC [see answer 3, regarding Bubka's election to the IOC Executive Committee]. I spend some free time with my sons, training them, checking their levels of fitness and watching them play tennis. I have also been preparing my meeting in Donetsk, where I will have my last vault as a competitor.
What's funny is that I thought I would have more free time once I stopped competing and would travel less, but I am travelling more! But this is good, because if I had nothing to do it could become a problem.
The IOC work is very stimulating and occupies a lot of my time. I receive documents almost every day. I am also a member of the Evaluation Commission for the 2008 Olympic Games. This commission has 16 members and we are the only ones now entitled to visit the cities. For this task, I will be in Beijing on 18-19 February, then I travel to Osaka and then Toronto. After that, I return home before leaving again for Istanbul and then Paris. At the beginning of April I will be in Lausanne with my colleagues in order to present a written report to the rest of the Executive Committee.
As a highly competitive person, how will you cope with life outside the sporting arena?
I intend to use the same focus I had as a competitor in my new life. I am also used to organising my life. At the age of 14 I left my parent's home to live with my brother and a friend in a factory hostel. We had to do everything ourselves. That was a good lesson and since then I have had no problems sorting things out.
What was your reaction when you heard you had been elected onto the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee in Sydney?
I was very happy because I always dreamt that I could finish my sporting career and then quickly become part of a sport's organisation. I was lucky because I arrived at the end of my competitive career at exactly the same moment as the IOC made some revolutionary changes. This will open doors for the athletes and I can take advantage of what was an unexpected opportunity. But I am also very proud that the world's athletes have chosen me as their representative. I see myself as a very lucky person because I jumped from the top as an athlete to what is the top of sports administration.
What do you think are the most important qualities you can bring to the IOC?
I have a lot of experience and a deep knowledge of what makes an athlete tick. I can use my experience to describe what an athlete needs, from any point of view, whether technical, logistical or even psychological. I believe the IOC Athletes Commission works very well. It is very useful because it can prepare the new generation to take over the responsibility of running sport in the future.
You are also newly elected to the Ukrainian Athletic Federation's council and a member of the IAAF's Athletes' Commission. What do you think are the key issues facing athletics in the future?
Athletics has made a lot of progress over the past 20 years. It has built solid foundations. The former IAAF President Primo Nebiolo contributed the most in this respect. The new athletic leaders must use the legacy of this era to further develop the sport and maintain a high status. It will be very important to organise new competitions so that all levels of athletes have opportunities to compete. It is also very important that there is a close relationship between the IAAF and the meeting promoters. I think the IAAF could ask meeting promoters to provide financial guarantees to avoid delays in payments to the athletes. They could take the example of professional tennis where these guarantees already exist.
Another issue for me is the World Ranking system. The current proposal is useful but any system should be SIMPLE and understandable to everyone, whether that be athletes or the public, organisers and media. I think the aim of this World Ranking should be to assign ranking points based on placings achieved by athletes not the actual results. I have no confidence that the system is fair when it gives points which are based on results. I think it is very difficult to compare results from different events. For example, in 1993, at the GP Final in London I vaulted 6.05m but Jan Zelezny, who had thrown 88.28m, gained more points than me according to the scoring tables then being used. Such a system is not fair on the athletes. I accept that bonus points should be given for world records, but they also be given to those who win major competitions. A World Ranking system must be clever enough to be simple as no scoring table can fairly compare results from different events.
In general, what should well known athletes contribute to the administration of international federations?
The more important aspect of an ex-athlete's contribution is a strong passion built up over a competitive career. This helps to promote athletics, especially through the Media, who are often eager to hear our views.
Outside of these political roles, have you other business plans? Are they, or will they, have a connection to sport?
I have businesses in the Ukraine that are connected to sport. First of all, there is the Sergey Bubka Sport Club, which has 10 coaches and more than 300 boys and girls practising athletics for free. We give them clothing, shoes and pay for the coaches' time. I have some sponsors but most of the money comes from me. Since the collapse of the Soviet system my country cannot put that much money into sport, so I put something back myself. I also have some bakeries and import yeast from France and I have opened some fitness centres. My brother looks after these businesses for me and most of the profits are put back into the club.
Your sons are into tennis and you are actively supportive of them, but why that sport and not athletics?
My sons chose tennis 5 years ago and are still more interested in tennis. My eldest Vitaly (15 years-old), was very good as a high jumper and as a sprinter. Sergey (13) started with tennis and has always played tennis. I accept that for the boys, a match is more attractive than jumping or running. But they love athletics and are used to doing the sport as part of their conditioning. In 1996, when I was injured after the Olympics I began to teach them the pole vault, but when I was better I had to give up the coaching.
You dominated the pole vault for over 15 years. How do see the pole vault today and expect to see in the future?
We have to go back to studying the technique of this event. You cannot be consistent at 6.00m if you don't have a very good technique. The new generation must realise they can obtain good results only with this method. They must learn the importance of how they use the pole. Today, pole vaulters are strong and fast but they hit a wall because they are not yet able to transfer those benefits into the right technique.
Tell us about your indoor pole vault competition in Donetsk?
I started to organise this event in 1990, when the USSR still existed. At the beginning, it was very difficult to attract spectators and educate them about the pole vault. So we added music to the programme and found some very good commentators who were knowledgeable. They could talk to the athletes during the competition and then "translate" what the problems were etc to the public. Each athlete's vault was accompanied by a different kind of music. 10 years later, we have a capacity crowd (an ice hockey arena) which means 5000 spectators. But I reckon we could fill a 20,000 seater venue if we had such a thing. Now, the event is a special part of the city's social programme - a promotional event for Donetsk. I am happy about what we have achieved and even happier for the athletes who get a really enthusiastic welcome from the public.
What are your thoughts on women's pole vault. It seems to attract more media and public interest than the men's event!
I like women's pole vault more and more because I find that their technique is often better than the men's! I think the women vaulters will develop faster and faster and will achieve 5.00m very soon. But then it will become more difficult for them because they will need to dramatically improve strength and speed to go higher. But I have to say that the women vaulters show a lot of focus during their competitions. The women's event at the Sydney Olympics was really beautiful. There was a great fight, and a great atmosphere. I am not jealous of the women but what they are doing is a great promotion for the pole vault.
Sergey Bubka fact file
Sergey Bubka broke through in 1983, as an unknown 19 year-old, when he won the pole vault title at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki. He went on to win the next five editions of this event, an unparalleled achievement. Unable to take part in the 1984 Olympics because of the Soviet boycott, Bubka won the Olympic crown in 1988, but missed out on the next three editions because of injury. But it is as a world record breaker that Bubka really captured the imagination. He set his first world record outdoors in 1984 in Bratislava with 5.85 - and set 16 more world records until 1994, when he set the current mark of 6.14 in Sestriere. Bubka also broke the world indoor record on 10 separate occasions. No other athlete has completely dominated an event, for so long. Blessed with great natural speed, strength and gymnastic ability, the Ukrainian also developed his exceptional technique with the help of a visionary coach Vitaliy Petrov. But above all, Bubka was renowned as a ferocious competitor. His aggressive defence of his title at the 1997 World Championships in Athens, after his chances had been written off, will be remembered as one of the great moments in athletics history.
