yesterday 09:45
|
President of the Slovak Volleyball Federation (SVF) Marek Rojko expressed his disappointment with the results of the press poll “Sportsman of the Year 2022” in Slovakia in the team category.
The Slovakian women’s volleyball team did not make the shortlist, although this year they won their group in qualifying for next year’s European Championships. The hockey players were declared the best team of the year in the poll, the football players of Slovan Bratislava finished second and the men’s quadruple kayak finished third.
“As the SVF President, I take the liberty of expressing my disagreement and my doubts about the results of the Sportsman of the Year 2022 poll in the collectives category. I approach the comparison with some of the presented collectives with great respect. The rare bronze medalist of the hockey players, the results of the Slovan football players in the European Cup, or the other medal of the canoeists are amazing and rightfully deserve the top position in the poll.
Slovakia’s women’s volleyball team won its qualifying group for the 2023 European Championships. We had a full house in the Poprad sports hall and this success placed us among the top in the hierarchy of Olympic team sports in the our country in 2022. With all due respect to some of the award-winning teams, I am convinced that in competitions in hockey, netball, futsal or individual sports team disciplines, our women’s representative should have been in a smaller group of teams,” Rojko said on the SVF’s official website.
REQUIRES ONLY BASIC RESPECT
Marek Rojko
Source: Nike
Former national team coach and currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Slovak Olympic and Sports Committee (SOŠV), Rojko recalled that the Slovak women’s volleyball team is currently in 29th place in the world rankings of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB). Among the European selections, the Slovaks are in 13th place.
“I am convinced that the omission from the group of teams presented in the survey is a mistake, and therefore I find this fact difficult to accept. I want to clarify that I am fully aware of the position of volleyball in our country and this opinion I do not intend to ask in the survey a position that does not belong to us. I ask only for a basic respect for our sport, the result of the national team in 2022 and to think about the criteria for combining collective sports and team disciplines of individual sports, which we consider wrong and restrictive for the general attitude in comparisons of collective sports in our country”. Rojko explained his point of view.
At the end, the leader of Slovakian volleyball congratulated the awardees and sent his message to journalists: “Dear sports journalism community. As a national team coach and I respect your work as president of the SVF, and I want to ask you on behalf of volleyball and also collective indoor sports. Do you significantly influence society’s opinion, public attitudes and perception of the sports family, that’s why I took the liberty of expressing this opinion on the results of the Athlete of the Year 2022 survey in the collective category. I would like to add that since I was elected president of the SVF and a member of VV SOŠV, I have been striving to improve perception and status of collective sports and will continue to do so”.
