Gorbachev changed the face of world sport with Soviet political overture

When Valeri Borzov won the gold medal in the 100 meters track at the 1972 Munich Olympics, The New York Times ran the headline: “The fastest man in the world is a communist.”

The Soviet would take bronze four years later, in Montreal. In terms of athletes, before the race, Trinidadian Hasely Crawford described Borzov as someone who “didn’t seem of this world”.

Those were words that other people would use to talk about the athletes of the former Iron Curtain, the geographic zone of political influence of the Soviet Union in Europe. It caused astonishment when Ladislav Petras, from the now extinct Czechoslovakia, celebrated a goal against the Brazilian team in the 1970 World Cup by making the sign of the cross. For many, the image of a “Catholic Communist” was unimaginable.

“We knew absolutely nothing about them,” Brazilian striker Jairzinho would later confess.

Mikhail Gorbachev changed world sport by making the face of athletes from the Soviet Union visible and accessible in the West. Glasnost, the state policy of political openness and freedom of expression implemented by him in the 1980s, started a process that allowed athletes to go to other countries, become world stars and earn money that would have been unimaginable before.

Gorbachev, Soviet leader between 1985 and 1991, died on Tuesday (30), aged 91. The 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner succumbed, according to the Central Clinical Hospital of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to a “serious and prolonged illness”.

He became general secretary of the Communist Party, a post whose holder de facto commanded the Soviet Union, in March 1985. The previous year, communist bloc countries had boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics. In 1980, nations allied to the United States had done the same for the event held by Moscow.

“I had heard about the possibility [de boicote], but I didn’t take it seriously. Why would they do that? When they told us we weren’t going to Moscow, I was… I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. Because? How would our presence or absence change the situation in Afghanistan?” Sheet American swimmer Craig Beardsley. He was qualified for the 200m butterfly and was a favorite for gold.

US President Jimmy Carter’s argument for not going to the 1980 Games was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

With the Soviet Union under Gorbachev’s command, the country went to Seoul-1988, as did the United States. North American publications called that Olympic edition “the Glasnost Games”.

The political and economic opening implemented by him would lead to the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Athletes from the region competed in the Barcelona Olympics the following year under the acronym CIS (CIS, Commonwealth of Independent States). At Atlanta 1996, each nation competed under its own flag, and Russia came second in the medal table.

Gorbachev’s economic management caused foreign companies to enter Russia. One of the consequences was sponsorship of athletes and national teams. It also opened the door for local sportspeople to openly complain about government payments.

One of them was Serguei Bubka, world record holder in the pole vault. He claimed his pay was “degrading” compared to his western competitors.

In 1989, he received a monthly allowance equivalent to US$ 240 (R$ 1,244, at the current rate). If he broke his own world record, he would receive a $2,950 (R$15,300 updated) prize. Political freedom made him seek to reinforce the box wherever possible.

At a competition held in London, the organization asked Bubka, already guaranteed first place, if he would try to beat the world record.

“Yes, in exchange for a new car,” he replied.

Gorbachev also paved the way for changes in American sports such as ice hockey, which was named after the Iron Curtain. Before 1985 it was almost impossible. One of the greatest examples was Igor Larionov, three-time champion of the Stanley Cup, the final of the professional league of the sport (NHL), for the Detroit Red Wings (1997, 1998 and 2002) and included in the Hall of Fame of the sport.

Nicknamed “Professor”, he came to the United States in 1989 and, before that, accused Soviet national team coach Viktor Tikhonov of being a dictator in the service of the State Sports Committee.

There was the side effect, of course. The dismantling of the Soviet Union and the sale of state-owned companies at below-market prices to friends of the regime, already under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, gave rise to a new caste of millionaires. Several of them decided to invest in football.

The most famous case was that of Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea, from England, from 2003 to 2022. One of the main responsible for inflating the European football market with millionaire signings.

“For athletes in the Soviet Union, Glasnost implemented by Gorbachev opened up a range of possibilities. It was a completely new world for us”, analyzes former defender Sergei Baltacha, born in Ukraine and one of the first players in the Soviet Union to be able to play. in other European countries. From 1988, he passed through English Ipswich Town and Scottish St. Johnstone and Inverness.