Raised a star — gave them to the neighbors: in Mykolaiv, there's renewed talk about losing athletes

The issue of lack of funds for the sports sector was discussed by deputies during a meeting of the city council’s budget commission. According to Yelyzaveta Trishchanovych, due to weak support talented athletes are leaving Mykolaiv and moving to compete for other regions, where they are offered better conditions for training and development. As one illustrative example she named boxer Elmir Nabiiev, who previously won a championship title for the Mykolaiv region.

In the deputy’s opinion, the city should already allocate additional resources in the budget for those sports where results and people can still be retained. This concerns two separate directions:

• 2.6 million UAH — for the basketball club “Niko-Basket”
• 1 million UAH — for the boxing federation in the Mykolaiv region.

During the discussion a more restrained position was also voiced. Deputy Oleksandr Bereza noted that an increase in funding by itself does not automatically mean the return of those athletes who have already left. He suggested first more clearly determining which specific sports have the greatest prospects for the city, and only then distributing funds. At the same time commission member Maryna Mazanko supported the idea of additional assistance, emphasizing that without it Mykolaiv risks continuing to lose its sporting potential and its very name at the national level.

In the end the budget commission agreed to the proposal for additional funding for the basketball club and the boxing federation. Against this background the discussion seems particularly telling: on the one hand, “Niko-Basket” continues to play and achieve results, on the other — the lack of stable support is increasingly becoming a subject of political and budgetary disputes. In 2025 the city authorities also separately approved scholarships for 68 top athletes, so the problem of retaining staff in sport for Mykolaiv is not new.

As a reminder, earlier we wrote:

• Mykolaiv’s female boxers brought medals from Latvia, and judokas — from Odesa
• Mykolaiv athletes received awards for their 2025 results
• Fight in the ring for a future Olympics: Mykolaiv — with a medal at the Ukrainian championship
• Niko-Basket secured a convincing victory over the Cherkasy Monkeys
• “Niko-Basket” creates a sensation: Mykolaiv players snatched a victory in a dramatic SuperLeague match