MOSCOW, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Olympic long-jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva has decided to give away 10% of the TDK Golden League $1 million jackpot she won in Berlin September 4.
"At the World Championships [in Helsinki in August], I decided that if I recover [from an injury], I will fulfill my dream - give to those who are worse off," the 29-year-old athlete said at a press conference.
Lebedeva said she has already chosen to give the money to people she knows.
"I will help people who I can monitor, because this money didn't come easily," she said.
This year has been a difficult one, she said.
"I haven't had so much injury trouble before," Lebedeva said.
She considers her exit from the World Championships in Helsinki to have been the right decision. After her injury in Oslo on July 29, she said doctors "tried to put me on my feet within a week," but that it was too soon.
"I didn't want it to be the beginning of the end of my career," she said.
The athlete said she had not been certain she would recover in time for the final stage of the Golden IAAF Golden League.
"I did not wait for the end of the World Championship and went home to recover in peace. This was the right decision."
When asked by the Russian national field-and-track team trainer, Valery Kulichenko, whether she will be focusing next season on national team performances, Lebedeva said that in the winter she would be training very seriously for the world indoor championships in Moscow in March 2006.
"I will try to get the world record. I may also take part in the [IPC] European Championships and the [IAAF] World Cup," she said.
Lebedeva won the TDK Golden League Jackpot of $1 million after winning the triple-jump at all six stages of the IAAF Golden League tournament in Berlin Sunday.
