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The famous skier and Olympic medalist Ivan Lebanov has been a municipal councilor for several months. We invited him to a conversation on the topic of how he sees the problems and the future of sports in Velingrad:
- Mr. Lebanov, what is the state of the sport in Velingrad and will the new Municipal Council make efforts to help it?
- We have to divide sports into winter and summer. Summers, especially traditional swimming, kept the base and coaches and have good results. While winter sports have almost totally died. They lack a base, and this leads to poor results and weak deductions from the money that the Sports Totalizer devotes to sports purposes. We develop ski-running, biathlon and orientation with 7-8 children, which is not normal and natural for an old ski center like Velingrad. There are no municipal competitions such as the Vela Peeva International Cup, and it is the big competitions that are an irritant for children and adolescents and attract them to sports. Not to mention sports such as athletics and basketball, as there were in Velingrad years ago, but they no longer exist. The problem to be solved by the new Municipal Council has been the main contradiction for years: the one who manages the base has no interest in sports results, and those who develop the sport have no opportunity to manage and maintain the sports base. These are two sides of a whole that cannot be separated and the Municipal Council must resolve this contradiction.
I hope that with the forthcoming adoption of the budget, an option will be found for a financial injection and assistance for sports activity - to restore traditions, to restore the conduct of international competitions, to increase the number of athletes. A way must be sought for unemployed coaches to receive at least a minimum wage. In winter sports, all coaches are unemployed and work on a public basis, driven solely by a love of sports. In 2003 According to the budget report, there are 85,000 levs in the "Sports Activities" column. Of these, only 1,000 are for sports activities (school championships and one winter city event on Yundola). Everything else is for the maintenance of the sports base. In municipalities such as Samokov, Bansko, Troyan, Smolyan it is not so. In Samokov, the municipality gives 80,000 leva only to the ski club because they insist on this sport and freak it out.
The other thing to do in Velingrad is to have one class with a sports profile in any of the high schools in order to maintain a training process. Otherwise, with one workout a week we are behind and will not be competitive.

- This winter seemed to feel a stir on Yundola, were there more tourists and skiers?
- You really felt a stir, thanks to the new track of "Starina" and the tracks of Yundola, which are suitable for beginners and attract them with the tranquility here. Bansko and Borovets are more difficult for beginner skiers, around them they are constantly more prepared. There are definitely more people this winter, but we are suffering in terms of advertising. State championships for disabled people, small age groups and veterans were also held on Yundola. Many good skiers have come, next year they will bring more people.
- Are there any real chances for us to come teams for pre-Olympic preparation for the summer games in Athens?
- Velingrad has fallen behind in this regard. In other municipalities for years are preparing for this moment, waiting for teams from Africa and Asia - in Stara Zagora for example. In Velingrad we failed to build a strategy. The stadium can attract football and basketball teams, but a program must be made with the Olympic Committee. For swimming, they'll want an Olympic-sized pool, which we don't have. Even if teams come to prepare for 2 weeks, it does not lift the local economy. We should not have missed the chance that the Ministry of Youth and Sports allocates funds to modernize sports facilities in connection with the Olympic Games in Athens. But we are not united athletes, everyone makes a club not because of the many willing to play sports, but because of interpersonal conflicts. And apart we are not effective - Khan Kubrat's chopstick law applies to us as well.
I see the future with a united sports club: all clubs under one umbrella, retaining legal autonomy, with their own boards of directors. We need the sports base and the sports activity to be together, such an opportunity gives the form for a united sports club to manage and manage. It should be reviewed whether the municipal enterprise "Sports Properties and Beaches" is effective. When it was being created, we wanted each club to have one representative on the Board and all issues about the sports base to be decided there. But it happened in a different way, which is inefficient.
In the future, we will also build an Olympic Club in Velingrad. There are such clubs to the Bulgarian Olympic Committee in most cities. Their task is to promote the Olympic movement and its principles, to assist older athletes. There are a dozen participants in Olympiads in Velingrad, BOC allocates funds to support the clubs and to hold competitions between children on an Olympic basis. That is why we will invite the boss of BOC Ivan Slavkov, will provide room and will make a club "Olympics" in Velingrad as well.
Elena Baeva