Gia Saralidze: "Officials can cover up their mistakes at work by successes achieved at Olympics by athletes' sweat and blood"

Yesterday the Russian athletes returned from Rio de Janeiro, where the 31st Summer Olympic Games were held. The national team didn't perform at full strength – every Russian athlete except Darya Klishina, most of the rowing team and all the weightlifters were banned from the Games. Nevertheless, the athletes managed to win 19 gold, 18 silver and 19 bronze medals. The performances of the athletes from the South Caucasus countries was also impressive: Georgia won two gold, one silver and four bronze medals; Armenia – three silver and one gold medal; Azerbaijan – one gold, seven silver and ten bronze medals. A creative producer and host at Vesti FM, Gia Saralidze, has commented on the results of the Games in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.

- In your estimation, how significant are the results of the Russian national team at the Olympics in Rio? How did the team manage to deal with the actual and psychological pressure from WADA and the international federations?

- Let's divide the results of the Olympic Games in terms of the development of sports in general, professional and amateur sports in Russia, and the results of the Olympic Games in the particular concrete historical conditions. If we talk about the performance of our athletes at the Olympics, then it is an outstanding performance. The Olympic Games were attended by about two-thirds of those athletes who were due to take part initially. In some sports there were none of our athletes at all, such as athletics (where the Russian team could have won a few medals, including gold ones). Given the pressure from WADA and part of the International Olympic Committee, taking into account that some of our competitors have known that they were permitted almost a day before the start of the performances, we can say that it is an outstanding fourth place.

If we talk about the situation in different sports in different federations, it is another matter. Of course, Russia is gradually losing those positions which the Soviet Union achieved. By the way, Russia also held these positions when our sport worked with the Soviet material. Which of our sports won medals? Those where work is carried out in the federations, where the money allocated by the government to preparations for the Olympic Games is not stolen, where everything is fine, for example, in the Fencing Federation. The International Fencing Federation is headed by Alisher Usmanov, who is a former fencer, and everything is put in order there, therefore there are medals in this sport – gold, silver and bronze ones.

Gold medals were won by two pupils of the fencing school in Khimki, on the basis of which they plan to create a modern center of fencing. If this is done, if the money is invested and received by people who can use it properly, in the future it will bring new gold medals.

There are caring people in handball, they support these kinds of sports in the south of Russia, in the Rostov region, Krasnodar Territory. Generally natives from these regions play in the Russian national team.

The situation is different with the Swimming Federation. The money is allocated, but it is not very clear who receives it. The state supports sports, but it is necessary to revise the federations. And the Russian Sports Ministry should also be revised, because the officials will cover their mistakes at work by the good performance at the Olympics achieved by our athletes' sweat and blood.

- Is there any hope that the WADA pressure on the Russian athletes will decrease after the Olympics?

- It will never diminish. This is only a stage in a long journey. The next stage is the football championship in 2018. If FIFA, UEFA and the IOC could not fend off the attacks that are hitting these organizations like waves, it will lead to the dominance of countries that want to rule the roost. They are talking about the bribes for which Michel Platini supposedly received 2 million Swiss francs in the space of a few years. This is ridiculous, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on transfers of football players from one club to another, when FIFA and UEFA conclude billion-dollar contracts, but we are talking about a two-million bribe. Where is the subject for discussion, where is the struggle for purity?

- Have you been following the performances of Russia's neighbors at the Olympics? What countries would you distinguish?

- Firstly, I should note Ukraine's worst result for its history in the Summer Olympics. Such a failure never happened before. The Ukrainian national team has never performed so badly.

Secondly, there was a quite good performance by Uzbekistan. Traditionally, there were strong wrestlers and boxers.

Thirdly, all the Transcaucasian republics performed well. Not to say that it was the best performance. There have been better years for Azerbaijan and Georgia. If I am not mistaken, Armenia won a gold medal at the Summer Olympics for the first time. Azerbaijan's number of medals is very impressive, but not everyone was lucky – they were losing in the finals.

On the other hand, all the Transcaucasian republics were better than Austria or Norway, which are quite prosperous countries, where sport is well developed.