What must athletes do for their future?

What must athletes do for their future?

JAKARTA (JP): Life can be thick or thin for athletes after
their competitive days are over. The Jakarta Post asked several
athletes and an official from the National Sports Council (KONI)
about what athletes should do to plan for their retirement.

Syamsul Anwar Harahap, 48, former boxer, now a commentator and
columnist: We have to look at the situation in Indonesia today.
Our GNP is still very low, so the government has to take care of
other issues, such as food, rather than sports. Our athletes
sacrifice their youth, their time education, their time for work,
for their training. If they are a student, they have to give that
up; if they are an employee who is called to centralized
training, then they give up their job.

They are left with a big zero when it comes to those matters
because the goal is solely prestige in their sport. If they
concentrated on other things, they might not be able to achieve
prestige in sports.

It means athletes have to be clever in deciding their future.
Like when I was in national training, and I was also studying at
night. I did them both so both the prestige and my education
could proceed at the same time ...

Purnomo, 38, the country's number one sprinter in the 1980s
and now a sports company executive:

As former athletes ourselves, we are concerned about the
situation for former athletes and the fact the general public
believes athletes have a horrible future after they retire.
That's why we have set up Yayasan Prestasi Anak Bangsa for
athletes and ex-athletes. We are planning for our launching in
November or next January.

The National Sports Council (KONI) doesn't think about the
future of ex-athletes; once they've been used, that's enough
already. How can our sports possibly advance if we only think
about now and parents don't want their children to go into sports
because they will probably have a pitiful future?

But it also comes back to the athletes themselves. If they
don't have a desire then it won't happen; I often think about
myself, that if I hadn't wanted to study then I would be like
those who are having tough times.

All of the athletes' time is devoted to training, they don't
have time for education. It's actually KONI's responsibility but
KONI doesn't care. It's a problem of management but the will must
come from the government.

KONI is always complaining about money, but actually it has a
lot of money, it just gets frittered away on unnecessary
expenses. Like for the contingent to Sydney; there were about 48
athletes, about 16 coaches, but the total number was more than
100 because the team needed "supporters" ...

Fritz E. Simandjuntak, director of sports business development
for KONI and also an IBM executive: There are two aspects to the
issue. Athletes can make their own realization that they have to
develop their skills, their education, outside of their
organization, because their involvement in sports has already
provided them with the opportunities. It's then up to how they
take the opportunity in developing their personality and skills.

Or the opportunity is for the development of the sports
industry so that athletes are prepared to go into the business
world. But they must have the skills that are needed ...

Remember that KONI is a non-governmental organization.
However, we have tried to help the athletes through insurance
schemes, which many of them weren't happy about because they
wanted cash ... There should be attention to the athletes
throughout their lives, some form of assistance, but I don't know
what form it should take ...

Our other problem is that there is a lack of competition for
our athletes ... There isn't anybody snapping at their heels, so
they are not thinking about what lies ahead, about planning for a
career or education.

Ivana Lie, 40, a former badminton player and now the owner of
a sports garment business: First of all, sport has yet to become
an industry here like it is in the United States and Europe. The
product is prestige, but we have yet to create the industry.

Most athletes only get to enjoy it when they are at the top,
although tennis and a couple of other sports are exceptions ...
after the athletes are finished with their careers, they can
become coaches but there is such a great difference with the days
when they were competing. And that is at the national level; it's
so much worse at the regional and club levels ...

I was lucky that my family was involved in the garment
industry. Eventually I decided I would make sports garments, and
I invested my prize money. I had seen for myself how people came
back to a normal standard of living once their careers were over.
I saw that people have to be clever in taking care of their money
and themselves.

Martha Kase, 28, a former runner who owns a small food stall
in front of the Senayan main stadium:

I think athletes today are very lucky to get bonuses of up to
Rp 1 billion (US$118,000) ... When I was still an athlete, it
didn't work that way. When I won the gold medals in the 800m,
1,500m and 3,000m at the Asian Championships in Singapore in
1986, I only received S$125 from the Indonesian Amateur Athletics
Association (PASI), which was about Rp 75,000 at the time ...

In the 1987 SEA Games, I earned a silver and received a Rp 1
million bonus from PASI. It was quite a large amount and I bought
a lot of land in Atambua, which is close to the border with East
Timor. With only Rp 300,000 I could buy 100 square meters of
land, which I divided with my brother. My father planted some
fruit trees but never sold the fruit. He gave it to his
grandchildren.

I never got a bonus from KONI. All bonuses came from Pak Bob
Hasan as PASI chairman. That's why I say athletes now are lucky
to get cash bonuses. (ivy/yan/brc)