Non-sporting Ukraine: how many adult Ukrainians are systematically involved in sports
30 September 2024 15:02
EXCLUSIVE
In Ukraine, only 15.6% of adults go in for sports regularly. These figures were cited by Serhiy Bykov, Deputy Head of the Strategic Planning and Communications Department of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, during a media special project by "Komersant Ukrainian", Children’s Sport: A Business That Is Impossible Without …
“We have conducted a study: 15.6 per cent of adult Ukrainians regularly go in for sports more than 2 times a week,” said Bykov.
The average figure for EU countries is 38 per cent.
“That’s because the EU, unlike Ukraine, has adopted a system of developing sports clubs. There are about 2,000 sports clubs in Ukraine, and if you divide the number of citizens by the number of clubs, you get about 18,500 Ukrainians per sports club. To put it mildly, this is quite a lot. In the UK, for example, there are more than 150,000 sports clubs, and in Norway, more than 12,500,” said the deputy head of the Strategic Planning and Communications Department at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
In order to change this situation, the government is preparing a new draft law, said Serhiy Bykov.
“We are now preparing a new draft law on sports, it is already at the final stage of coordination with stakeholders, according to which the club system will be the basis of this process and it will replace sports federations in this matter (…) It should launch the process of improving the health of the Ukrainian nation and more and more people will start playing sports,” said Serhiy Bykov.
We would like to remind you that a media special project “Children’s Sport: Business that is impossible without …” was recently held in Kyiv.
It was attended by Vadym Drobashko, owner of the Shakhtar Football School franchise, Olena Gulyamova, professional basketball player, entrepreneur and mother of four, Oleksiy Trofimov, professional boxer, winner of the World Amateur Championship (1999), multiple champion of Ukraine, coach and founder of the Oleksiy Trofimov Boxing School, Oleksiy Martynenko head of the private sports school “Academy of Sports A” of the educational network A; Serhiy Frolov, professional swimmer, international medallist, Olympian, coach; Anna Rizatdinova, gymnast, coach, Olympic bronze medallist, owner of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy in Kyiv; and Vlad Sotnikov, producer of the football club of stars FC Maestro.
