The Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) plans to provide full financing for Latvian Olympic athletes Aļona Ostapenko, Toms Skujiņš and Krists Neilands. The participated in sports tournaments together with Russian and Belarusian athletes.
IZM notes that after assessing the situation with the stop to provision of funding for the aforementioned athletes, as well as after listening to opinions from Latvian Cycling Federation and Latvian Tennis Union, amendments were prepared to the agreement regarding state funding for Latvian Olympic athletes.
From Wednesday, the 15th of March, onward the approved amendments allow the continuation of full funding for aforementioned athletes, the ministry stresses.
«The money previously denied to athletes will be paid once amendments have come into force. Those are not any enormous amounts,» said Latvian Olympic Committee Communications Office manager Dace Gulbe confirmed on Wednesday. «This money was not diverted anywhere else, only denied. It is good that, in the end, what happened happened. There were still concerns about it in the morning.»
Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša told LTV programme Panorāma that it is
hard for her to say which level is at fault for this mistake, but it is good that a solution was found.
«No one wanted to offend any athlete personally. Let’s not forget that there is a war going on nearby. We have to be very careful about ways our aggressive neighbour’s actions could affect us,» said Čakša.
As previously reported, LOK decided at a previous meeting to halt funding for athletes Aļona Ostapenko, Toms Skujiņš and Krists Neilands. All of them participated in tournaments alongside athletes from Russia and Belarus. This was confirmed by LOK Secretary General Kārlis Lejnieks on the 8th of March.
At the end of February Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša mentioned in an interview to LTV programme Rīta panorāma stressed: it is unacceptable for funding from Latvia’s state budget to be provided to athletes that participate in tournaments together with Russian and Belarusian athletes.
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