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)