Ishmuratova: Ovechkin Monument Is Premature

Svetlana Ishmuratova, Olympic biathlon champion and a former State Duma deputy, has weighed in on the proposal to erect a monument to Alexander Ovechkin.

"Alexander is, of course, a major figure in sport, especially in hockey, but when you compare him with other Olympic champions who competed for our country, preference should go to them. And Ovechkin's career will end at some point, he will decide where he goes next: into sport or into politics. Then monuments and busts can be put up for him. For now, we have a mass of other athletes of the highest calibre. You look at their biographies and marvel at how they showed the Russian spirit and character on the field of play. That is comparable to a sporting feat. While Ovechkin is still playing, while he still has an active sporting life, I think it is too early to put up a monument to him. I would put up a monument to Viktor Chukarin, Nina Ponomaryova, Anatoly Bogdanov, Ivan Udodov. That is the generation of post-war champions. The Germans spared nothing, they bombed everything. The whole country lay in ruins: hunger, cold, terrible losses across the country. And these wonderful people… Viktor Chukarin passed through 17 concentration camps… By the age of 35 he had won 7 Olympic gold medals, a truly great man. They are the ones who should have monuments. These people must be remembered and marked and celebrated in some way. Young people should be raised on their example, not on money: who earned how much, whose contract is worth how many dollars in size," Ishmuratova said.

Ovechkin, 40, captain of the Washington Capitals, holds the NHL's all-time goals record. Chukarin, a gymnast, won 7 Olympic gold medals between 1952 and 1956 after surviving Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War.