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Skiing championship in jeopardy

Funding fiasco puts Liberec event on a slippery slope

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 1st, 2007 issue

A year and a half ago, Kateřina Neumannová became the nation’s hero. In her last Olympic race, the celebrated cross-country skier outsprinted her opponents in the women’s 30-kilometer (48.3-mile) freestyle race in Turin, Italy.
“Winning the Olympic gold was the biggest task I ever faced, and I’m excited that I could accomplish it,” Neumannová said shortly afterward.
But some four months after her retirement from sports, Neumannová is facing an equally challenging task. On July 26, Education, Youth and Sports Minister Dana Kuchtová named her president of the organizing committee of the 2009 Nordic World Ski Championships in Liberec, north Bohemia. Neumannová must now tackle mounting problems that some ski officials say have put the entire competition in jeopardy.
Neumannová replaces Roman Kumpošt, who had worked in the position since Liberec was selected by the International Skiing Federation (FIS) as the site of the 2009 event.
Kumpošt was dismissed after a series of controversies between the organizing committee and the ministry that brought about major delays in the construction of the championships’ facilities. Those delays have left some questioning whether officials are up to the task of preparing the site in time.
“The situation is critical, and fast progress is needed in order to make the championship happen,” said Czech Ski Federation President Lukáš Sobotka.
The burden has fallen on Neumannová. “We hope she will be able to bring more transparency to the organization, and that the cooperation with the ministry will be better,” Kuchtová said.
Preparations for the 2.2 billion Kč ($107.4 million) championship began in 2004. Since then, some 1.5 billion Kč has been invested in developing sports and accommodation facilities. Last winter, the FIS even declared the Liberec event the best-prepared world championships of all time.
That changed in February, after Kuchtová took over as minister. In June, she requested financial documents after the organizing committee asked for an additional 700 million Kč from state coffers, on top of 569 million Kč the government had already supplied.
“Kumpošt never delivered those documents, apart from some noncomprehensive charts,” Kuchtová said. As a result, she halted further subsidies from the state budget, which virtually froze construction in Liberec.
Kumpošt denied any wrongdoing, characterizing Kuchtová’s actions as unprecedented state intrusion into a civic association. He said lobbyist pressures were at the root of his dismissal, and that one of the most influential lobbyists was Josef Jindra, Neumannová’s former marketing manager. Jindra denied any involvement in the affair.
The Education, Youth and Sports Ministry is now expected to release the additional 700 million Kč subsidy that will restart construction. But Neumannová sounded a cautionary note.
“I cannot make guarantees for something I could not control,” she said, adding that her first priority is to quickly build up a team of experts to replace the 16 executives who left the organizing committee in protest of Kumpošt’s dismissal.
Sobotka admitted finishing construction by next winter will be difficult. “We’re on a very tight schedule,” he said.
This isn’t the first time the Czech Republic has encountered difficulties hosting a major international sports event.
Organizers of the World Ice-Hockey Championship in Prague had to swap the dates of the 2003 championship with Finland because Prague’s Sazka Arena was not ready in time. The Finns hosted the championship in 2003, while the Czechs took over the tournament in 2004.
A similar breakdown in preparations for the 2009 World Ski Championships could deal a major blow to the country’s effort to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The Czech Olympic Committee and Prague City Hall have announced they will file an official bid with the International Olympic Committee in the fall.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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