Luís Monteiro was a pentathlon athlete, he was at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and kept a close eye on the historic medals of Carlos Lopes and Rosa Mota. Since 2021, he is president of the Association of Olympic Athletes of Portugal (AAOP), founded in 2003.
What do you think of the government’s new support measures, which propose tax exemptions, financial aid and quotas of up to 5% for government jobs for Olympic and Paralympic athletes?
They are positive. The Secretary of State has committed to solving some of these structural problems, but resources are limited and proposals sometimes remain in the drawer. I hope that’s not the case. About employability, I was told that there are few competitions with vacancies for 15 people, to have 5% available for athletes. Let’s see in a year… The current number of athletes working in public organizations is weak not to call them miserable. There is a good practice of municipalities to employ Olympic athletes, but it is not structured at all, it is the result of local affection. It would be great to expand this good practice nationwide.
Just affection is not enough…
It is necessary to give dignity to those who devote themselves to a career in sports and represent Portugal. And for this it is necessary to think about the post-career. Athletes are entering the labor market later and later and know no other reality than practicing sport. Even those who are studying and training have no experience to enter the labor market. There is more literacy and more certified athletes, but even with the course in hand, it’s hard to find a job. Integrating a work environment gets complicated and companies don’t hire people close to 40 for their first job, let alone athletes. And it is not by putting money on top of the problem that we solve it.
Similar?
Sports policy is about money. The federations only know how to ask for money, the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) only knows how to ask for money. No matter how much money you give, the results are always the same because structural problems are not solved. Just a few days ago, the Secretary of State said that we should hold a national reflection. Let’s do it. We need to think about how we’re going to line up and think about all the players in the sport in 10 or 15 years. That’s a problem and that’s what’s missing. No one wants to do it because it forces choices. Someone has to assume “we’re going to bet on this modality, for this and more this…”. The purpose must be revealed so that people do not think about their farm without seeing the global situation. That is why it is so important to professionalize structures and not let a sport be led by self-interest and weekend calibers.
Did I say this to whom?
Already. They all feel uncomfortable when I say that it is not a matter of money, for they live on little, but are satisfied with little. Athletes have no voice in this country. Zero. Why are we not part of the Sports Federation? How many athletes are on the National Sports Council, the highest body with 44 members? Deliberations should be a spectacle. There’s the Olympic Athletes Commission represented there, which is independent, within the scope of the COP, and then there’s the individual athletes. AAOP should be there and I already told the Secretary of State.
Do job quotas solve the problem or do they create even more stigma for the given privilege?
Transparency is needed. Athletes must answer questions of merit and ability, but they cannot be limited to jobs that no one wants in public service. We were more ambitious and proposed making career years a criterion for retirement purposes and asked for life insurance. These are legitimate requests for fast-burning careers. The Secretary of State has shown a lot of initiative and has already moved forward with important reforms, but it remains to be seen whether there will be an overall plan because athletes can and must contribute.
You have to stop and think, even sacrifice an Olympic cycle [quatro anos]?
Even if you sacrifice an Olympic cycle. Because the logic of results means you never plan long term. We signed a program contract with the goal of medals… [silêncio]. We think short term and with the aim of justifying the funding so that we can ask for more in a few years. Sport cannot withdraw into itself. Even we have trouble getting into some circles.
The speech may not help…
I am only arguing for making choices based on a strategy. There is someone missing who will not come to terms with God and the devil.
What major concerns are former athletes revealing?
There are 811 living Olympians and 10% are active. The elders, those who paved the way and broke down barriers, are very hurt. When I arrived in 2021 I called some and they told me to take a turn, some were not interested in hearing about the association or sport. Today they are more engaged and recognize that we want to give dignity and have intervention capacity, whether it’s university courses, entrepreneurship or talking about mental health. The athlete cannot think about the post-career in an almost traumatic way. I know athletes who have put off the end of their careers to keep the support and the small subsidy and that worries me on many levels, starting with the fact that they don’t have the resources to do anything else. It is necessary to give them an outlet within the sports system itself. Athletes can’t all be leaders, but the current percentage is small, even miserable. And even the federations don’t comply with the basic law that says they must have a representative of the athletes.
Don’t you think the athlete sometimes shuts himself out?
That’s true, but they have to open that path, which seems blocked.
How do you ask the athlete to have a voice, when he has been told for years that he only has to worry about training and competition?
Here’s the point. People’s perception of the athlete is reductive, stigmatizing and discrediting, with few exceptions. See Rui Costa. He himself admitted this during a meeting he had with me. When that happens to Rui Costa, a footballer par excellence, and president of Benfica, one of the country’s biggest institutions… Hearing people say “you are here to train and not to talk, like the bible of training” and retrograde not to say disgusting. Athletes are not stupid, even the way people train today reveals a lot of intelligence, knowing how to improve their physical abilities. It is necessary to end the stigma, which often leads the athlete to silence his own voice, held hostage by this and that.
Source: DN
