Kaspars Daugavins | Photo: Paula Churkste / LETA
In an interview with the “LSM.lv” portal, the captain of the Latvian ice hockey team, Kaspars Daugavins, expressed the opinion that, in his opinion, the state should guarantee top-ranking athletes with retirement pensions after their careers end.
The 35-year-old forward has 11 world championships behind him, but only this year, when Latvia won the bronze medals, he received some kind of financial support for it for the first time in his career, as bonuses are paid to the national team for reaching the quarter-finals. If Latvia has entered the World Cup five times among the top eight teams, then the previous four times it was done without Daugavins in the team.
“It seems to me that if policemen and army people have a retirement pension, it would be right for the state to support top athletes in a similar way. Namely, if you play for years, representing the country in some top-ranking tournaments or championships, it would also result financially. Not just as an honor. For example, if you play in ten world championships, you are guaranteed the average state pension. If you play another five years, then add something more. Then the players would also be ready to sacrifice themselves, knowing that there is a state guarantee afterwards. It would be solid,” Daugavins said.
“If you received state support for this, you would have a sense of security that you would not be left with nothing. Because at the age of 45, all the old injuries of a hockey player come out, some of the hockey players remain semi-disabled. While playing, doctors are available every day, but at the same time – irons all over the body, broken knees, lame muscles…,” says the captain of the Latvian national team.
“I have already lost 50% of the movements in one arm, but I will not have any social guarantees that I will be able to go and treat it,” admitted Daugavins. “I’ve been away from my youth, I don’t own anything. But the state’s concern that athletes have support even at retirement age would be a way to motivate people to go and donate their bodies to great sports, to represent their country. If you manage to break through to the professional level where you have to decide – to go further in world-class teams or not, then that would be motivation.”
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