For Sergey Bubka, soaring high above the bar was as natural as breathing.
Breaking World records too was just as natural. He did that 35 times in pole vault.
Often, he was competing with himself, as he broke his own record on 14 occasions. The last of those — 6.14m — stood for 21 years after he set it in 1993.
Bubka continues his association with athletics. He is IAAF vice president, executive member of the IOC and president of National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.
“Athletics is my blood; it is my passion and that is why I was able to set all those World records,” Bubka told The Hindu here during the Laureus World Sports Awards.
“I wanted to improve as an athlete every day, I didn’t want to stop, for someone might overtake me.”
Careful
While athletics is all about such competitive spirit, he feels athletes have to be careful about getting influenced by the wrong people, especially coaches, who could influence them to take performance-enhancing drugs.
“In one survey by the IOC it was found that over 80 per cent of the information an athlete receives is from his or her coach,” said Bubka. “As in any other walks of life, people take wrong decisions in athletics, knowingly or unknowingly.”
One thing he is happy about today’s sport is that politics isn’t as interfering as much as it used to in his time.
“Because of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States, I could not compete at the Los Angeles Olympics, while I was at my peak and could have won the gold,” he recalled.
“The boycott by Soviet Union destroyed my dream, but I could at least compete again at the Olympics and win the gold in 1988, but many athletes were not as fortunate. You know only 50 per cent of athletes last till the next Olympics, so you could imagine the number of dreams the boycotts ended for ever.”
Talking of dreams, Bubka feels India could afford to make a mark on the international arena.
He thinks Neeraj Chopra and Hima Das have had very promising results in global events.
“India is a huge country with so much potential,” he said. “If India could get good coaches, the country will succeed in producing more fine athletes.”
He feels India bidding for the 2032 Olympics is an excellent idea.
“India has the ability to host Olympics,” he said. “And if India does that, it would help its athletics too; after all it is the No.1 sport at the Olympics.”