Tragic reality of Slovak sports

** TRANSLATED WITH GOOGLE TRANSLATE

It was written in 2010 and I stood at the beginning of my first skicross race. Without training, no experience, no need for self-defense, but with great motivation and determination. I was so excited to engage in this sport, and I decided to give it up. I had basics from alpine skiing, I did not know that a lot of work is waiting for me. However, it did not seem to me that 8 years later, we would be our only champion in the world cup that will deal with existential problems.

For the first 5 years in the skicross, I was troubled completely alone. I had no training, no support, and I just tried to go further. It took me a long time to realize that without a team this sport can not be done, yet it is an individual sport. I found a great team that has been shaping for 3 years now and today I can say that I have the best possible team - the coach and team colleagues, what the finances allow me, respectively. even they do not. With the coach, we set our primary goal at the start of our co-operation - participation in the 2022 Olympics and other smaller goals for every season I've been able to accomplish. Last year, we were qualified in the World Cup, which is the first major step towards our main goal. After the last season, I was very motivated for summer training and for the whole summer I was hard drel and I thought things would finally move in the right direction. But as I got closer to the winter, I began to think that even though I was performing well up, the conditions are still the same.

Believe me, I'm still very motivated, I want to jump in the world of skicross and as the first word in history to go to the Olympic Games. I am currently in a situation where I can not fully focus on training and sport as such. I am in the final stage of preparation - the most important and the first world cup has exactly a month. Still, I do not know what November, December and January are paying for. In the next 2 months we will be on the road for about 45 days and one day of training / competition costs about 150 EUR. It hurts me every day and I'm extremely stressed. I know there are countless people in the world who have more serious problems than mine, but I think sport is part of life and can bring a lot of joy, motivation, patterns, etc. to ordinary people in our country and especially to children.

I wonder why this country can not normally support athletes like this in the world? We have 15 individual athletes in Slovakia who really do sport (I do not like private clubs in individual sports). The purchase of fighters will cost EUR one billion a day. Do you know what it meant for a billion euros in sports? Or in healthcare? Perhaps you know the answer ... How can or can other Slovak athletes compete in the world with opponents who have unlimited opportunities, have salary and all costs paid? Trainer, assistant, service, physiotherapist, and I'm not just talking about teams. Just go to the European Cup and you have everything secure. I often imagine what life would be beautiful and where I could have been. But I worked as a programmer and all the money I earned in sports. I know that I will never come back, but he did not know me, because he really does what I do. It is not very hard to do it, just after training my computer and workout, while my rivals have time to relax. There is nothing else to do, just to take things as they do for maximum success even in this inconspicuous situation.

I see this on a daily basis on social networks like the Slovak public and mostly athletes for their performance. I can not remember the unnamed TV Markíza editor during the London 2012 Summer Olympics, which reported on how Slovak athletes traveled to London for a holiday. Hello wake up! Every single top Slovak athlete sacrificed to what a normal person can not even imagine. After all, it is already said that it has only minimal state finances and has no results. This is a mistake, especially for your finances! What better does he say, give him some encouraging words? Should not it ultimately have a better effect? The answer surely everyone knows...

Let's move on, however, to present my current financial situation:

• 50,000 EUR - my ideal budget for the season
• 30,000 EUR - The smallest possible budget that I am currently fighting with
• 12,000 EUR - contribution of the Slovak ski company for preparation and races. In order to specify the SLA, it also has a very limited budget, so in the current situation, I believe that this is the maximum I can give and my situation is not their fault.

So I currently lack in the budget of about 18,000 EUR. This year, I managed to get the first sponsor, which actually helped me financially, but we are still talking about a sum of less than 10% of my budget. What am I and other athletes have? It's exactly five:

• inclusion in the top sports center of Dukla / ŠKP / NŠC - to say so only so much that if you do not know anything or you are in TOP 10 in the world, you will not get there ... But when you look at the athletes, in Dukla, you will have many unanswered questions.
• State Contribution - You must be ranked in TOP 8 at major world events such as OH, MS, SP. All of these criteria are built on the head. If you are the top 8 in the world, you already have your own sponsors, who will cover most of your costs and enjoy the state without the state contribution. But to get into the TOP 8 of the world, you need countless finances and time.
• The Slovak Olympics Committee - financially, you can also support SOV if you are active in Olympic sport. I have no idea how I voted for support, but I tried it. For SOV I created a presentation with results and a complete schedule until the 2022 Olympics. I got the information that during the presentation was one unnamed master (the father of our best skier who finished his career) and told the SOV representatives to get no support because it does not really matter and we never get to the ZOH. This gentleman is probably at home with a ball or else I can not explain it. I wanted to talk to him, but he was not interested ...
• sponsoring - believe me that finding a company in Slovakia that wants to financially sponsor athletes is almost impossible. I thought something was going to change after the new law on sport when the sponsor's representative was considered a tax-deductible expense, but nothing really changed.
• self-financing - if the athlete has a good family background, everything must be funded by his parents. Unfortunately, I do not have such a background and I am all alone.

Suma sumarum I would have to sponsor and own funding. But how do I qualify for Olympics, where are the 32 best men from all over the world in the current situation? Already in September, I thought I'd cough for the whole sport, but I could not do it. For three years I've been fighting for the World Cup and finally it's done. So I'm going all-in this season (all or nothing). It looks like I have to borrow money so that I can finish my training and start the world cup.

I decided to make at least a small financial collection that can help me a little bit financially. So if you want to help me in the current situation, here is the link to the collection. Of course I do not want help for nothing, I have prepared nice rewards for you. If you do not have the opportunity to help me financially, you can at least share this article or collection, which will also help me greatly and I will be grateful to you.

Wish me luck!

Barty