Boris Chait elected Chef de Mission
IISF President Boris Chait talks about the pre-Olympic season, the current situation, and his election as Chef de Mission for Israel at the 2010 Winter Games.
Photo by Elena Magalina
-Boris, what can you say about the pre-Olympic season on the whole?
-There’ve been positive and negative moments in it, as in any competitive season. About our senior ice dance team, the Zaretsky, – they have qualified for the Olympics by the IOC qualification criteria, and, to my mind, these criteria should be given priority in the decision of the National Olympic Committee of Israel. And, of course, another positive moment has been Alexandra and Roman’s win at the 24th Winter Universiade.
Tamar Katz went to Worlds in LA after just two weeks of on-ice training due to the injury she sustained earlier in the season, but she gave a good performance to the best of her ability at that time. Maxim Shipov is working on the technical and artistic content of his routines, which shows in his gradual improvement. There’ve been disappointments, however. Our senior pairs’ team, the Sokolovs, hasn’t made any progress this year, and has left their coach, Nikolai Velikov. They have to demonstrate their determination to work hard and to get better.
Regarding our short-track team, Vladislav Bykanov is now in Calgary, as part of his Olympic preparation plan and we hope he will qualify.
Speaking about the situation in general, we’re still having problems with the quality of the ice at the Canada Centre and with the flow of funds. The budget we receive from the Sports Department has not been authorized for the year 2009, and we’re already almost half way through with the year, while having to pay the bills – for the training, for the equipment, for the upkeep of our skaters, and other expenses their preparation requires.
-What’s your opinion about our junior skaters this season?
-Our new junior ice dance team, Ariana Weintraub and Avidan Brown, debuted at Junior Worlds in Sofia. They are spending long hours of strenuous training both on the ice and off the ice to demonstrate better results next season. Sofia Bardakov, our junior single skater, has shown slightly better results this season compared with the past one, but she has to make a real breakthrough to get to higher performance levels.
-You’ve been elected the Chef de Mission of Israel in Vancouver. What are your rights and responsibilities under this role?
-Well, I don’t know what my rights are, but the responsibilities are more than few – to check on the accommodation of our team, the flights arrangement, to oversee the practices and the competitions of athletes on-site and the security of the Israel delegation.
