Olympics did not expand sports culture and country became more sedentary, says Moser

For Sports Minister Ana Moser, the legacy of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 boiled down to high performance results —such as the medal record at Tokyo-2020— and is insufficient when taken into account the amount of money invested In the event.

“The base of practitioners has not expanded, nor has the culture of the sport increased. Today we are a more sedentary population than we were before”, he tells the Sheet.

Now at the head of the ministry, she says that her main secretariat will be Amateur Sports, Education, Leisure and Social Inclusion, which will focus on partnerships with other departments, such as Health and Education, in order to expand access to the practice in the country.

“We don’t know today which population is served by some kind of sports program. Nor how many people, nor where. How can you do politics without knowing that?”, he says.

What will your management do in the early days? As soon as possible, we will establish lines of conversation with other ministries, write proposals for legislation [da Lei Geral do Esporte, Plano Nacional do Desporto e Sistema Nacional do Esporte] and review the hundreds of ongoing contracts. Programs we will design later on. In February we will do our general planning.

What should be the main secretariat or investment area? I’ve been here for three days, these are my thoughts, which will still be elaborated in a proposal, which will be closed with President Lula.

The main office will be for Amateur Sports, Education, Leisure and Social Inclusion. These are the main fronts for expanding access to the practice. But we haven’t done the planning in terms of resources yet. One thing is the idea in the head, which needs to be incremented in the debate, go through the legal design and then be approved.

How will the dialogue with other folders be? Both Health and Education will renew their national plans in the coming years. Education, for example, has almost no goals that relate to physical education, such as the volume of motor practice offered to children or indicators and goals that qualify human resources in the area. Simplifying a bit: by incorporating these goals, sport is naturally structured within education. Also [o ministério da] Health, which has an intersection with sports in preventive health. Today more medicine is given than physical activity is promoted.

What is your assessment of the General Sports Law, the National Sports Plan and the National Sports System, laws being debated in Congress? These laws define the federal design and establish a path to mirror this in states and municipalities.

The General Law has some issues to work on, such as the sports fund and the national register —a tool to map who practices sport. Because we don’t know today which population is served by some kind of sports program. Not how many people, not where. How to do politics without knowing this?

In the National Plan, for the area of ​​sport for all —which are its guidelines one and two—, they each have about five pages. The high income has 25. It is obvious that the political vision itself needs to be structured. We want to elaborate a feasible proposal of indicators and targets. There is no point in setting a goal that 100% of students practice physical education three times a week, if we do not know how many students do physical education, nor do we say how to achieve this 100% in five years. It is a goal without commitment to reality.

We need concrete goals: create a planning commission with Health and Education, design an implementation program… goals to be achieved and then move on to other goals. If it’s approved like that, it’s better not to pass it at all, we’ll end up in jail for a law that doesn’t help build the reality we want.

So far, you have announced the names of two former athletes and a former councilor linked to physical education. What should be the final portrait of your ministry? I’ve been wanting to bring this generation that, in the last two decades, was together in the trenches. Athletes, NGOs, public managers, managers of international bodies… I am part of a generation that has been working these two decades for sport as a right for all. Maybe I won’t be able to bring them here, because it’s not easy, it could happen little by little, but it’s already creating a certain body.

And these people will be supported by qualified servants to make the machine work.

What do you intend to change, from the Bolsonaro administration, and what do you intend to maintain? There was the Incentive Law, which is something that has remained in operation. The Parque Olímpico da Barra seems to have about one event a week, it has a certain amount of occupancy, but it needed to be more than that.

We arrived here and some programs only had one name, they had no director, no budget, no design. Occasional things were done, but effectively there was very little politics.

What is your assessment of the Olympic legacy? Very punctual. In sporting terms, the COB [Comitê Olímpico do Brasil] and the confederations gained a lot. It was a period of good times —with sponsorships, direct agreements with the ministry and money from lotteries— that gave great development conditions to the modalities. They hired foreign coaches, prepared youth and adult teams. That’s cool, there was structure in grass hockey, rugby, BMX, canoeing, Greco-Roman wrestling, boxing…

But much less was invested in the base. So we had a good result in Rio, in Tokyo and it’s likely to be maintained in Paris, due to this technical gain. But the base of practitioners has not expanded, nor has the culture of the sport increased. Today we are a more sedentary population than we were before.

For the level of investment, this legacy had to be more permanent, beyond the core teams. He was partial, and we have the chance to continue this. Today Brazil deals with sport in a more mature way.

Should the Olympic Park go back to União, stay with Rio City Hall or be shared? We don’t have a decision yet, we’ll evaluate.

What did Mrs. intend to change the Sports Incentive Law? Let’s evaluate what the bottlenecks are, because it will double [o percentual de] exemption this year, which will inevitably increase the volume of projects and operations. And the servers will not increase at the same rate. And we need to seek a more coherent use, such as the TCU [Tribunal de Contas da União] alert for a long time. Because the law says that the priority is the educational and training categories, but most [dos projetos] is geared towards [esporte de alto] Yield.

In order to increase the participation of educational projects, we need to qualify the network of institutions [voltadas ao educacional e formação]. Because many do not have the capacity to formulate, present, approve, capture, execute and then report on a project.

Should state sponsorships for sport return? Let’s evaluate, we have no position.

Having regulated the sports betting law, which the current government has not regulated, would it be important? There are many people debating this. I particulary, [acho difícil] take a stand on this.

And will we have an adjustment in the Athlete Scholarship? The announcement is for this month, I don’t think we’re going to make big changes to it. I know that there has been no readjustment for years, but I have no government position on this and it is a subject that involves high appeal. And at the beginning of the mandate, the tendency is not to make big expenses. But I am sensitive to time and we are going to study it before releasing the notice.

After years of corruption scandals and abuses at COB, CBF and other confederations, how should the government’s relationship with these institutions be? It is the ministry that approves the transfer of funds and they have to approve accounts with the ministry. The role of the ministry is to regulate, to enforce legislation. Governance laws were created, Articles 18 and 18A [da Lei Pelé] guarantee the participation of athletes, prevent more than two terms in a row by leaders. And it is the government that issues the certificate [de cumprimento da lei] for these institutions [para que elas possam receber recurso público]. There is talk of monitoring the performance of institutions and adding this to certification, but these are still conversations. I didn’t delve into that.