The Great People of Bitcoin Cash series will be exactly about what it says ... the great people of BCH. @Crackers is the brain behind the idea and the one who's working hard behind the scene!
Oleksandra Oliynykova @OLICRYPTO will be the first guest of the show and trust me you have a great story ahead. The interview is amazing and I have a big "Thank you!" for Sasha for taking time to answer in details to all the questions.
Sasha is a 20 years old professional tennis player from Croatia and the main character of the OLICRYPTO game. She is the world-first Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Global Ambassador Athlete and during all the tournaments she will wear the Bitcoin Cash-branded tennis outfit & accessories.
The OLICRYPTO game is powered by the OLI token, and is the first and only of its kind as it runs both on the blockchain and in the real world. Oleksandra Oliynykova is the primary character, while the people involved in her athletic life are the secondary characters. The players are the OLI token holders, and the game outcomes are based on the real life performance
The Great People of Bitcoin Cash: Oleksandra Oliynykova (OLICRYPTO) - Part 1
Part one of the interview will be only about tennis, Sasha's life experience and career goals while the second part will cover OLICRYPTO and her crypto story!
Good morning Sasha! Can you describe yourself in 5 words?
Enduring. Stubborn. Straightforward. Impulsive. Tennis-a-holic :-).
The meaning of the “2006” tattoo?
The year I started playing tennis (was 5 years old).
I know you have a brother. Any more siblings?
One is more than enough - no :)
I noticed is that you are born in Kiev. Do you want to share this story?
That’s mainly my parents’ story - not mine. We moved to Croatia as refugees when I was 10. So I know how refugee camps look & smell not from TV news only, but I don’t like to talk about it.
Do I feel myself Croatian or Ukrainian? Definitely Ukrainian. I think the Ukrainian part of my life is ahead of me, not behind.
First ITF title in Heraklion in 2018, and no other title since then. Were the expectations to big from a 17 years old girl?
Nope, absolutely not. The story is actually much more interesting.
From being 15 years old, I was excluded from all the development programs of Croatian Tennis Association. There are some powerful people in Croatian tennis who do not want me to be a tennis player, mainly because I am not “the real Croat” so I can not, by their opinion, represent their country.
As I am from a low-income family - my father is a taxi driver, and my mother is a cleaner in a shopping mall, - they reasonably suggested that cutting me from federation & local sponsor funds will be enough to block me from competitive tennis.
But they were wrong. In the middle of 2017 I got a special scholarship from International Olympic Committee - directly from Switzerland, above the heads of local sports beaurocrats. It was not a huge amount - but it allowed me to practice & play normally, just like I am “the real Croat” having average financing from the federation.
But when I started to win - including the title you mentioned - those people started to be asked very uncomfortable questions - for instance “why this girl never been invited to play for the junior national team - despite by results she is by far the best player in her generation”? So they decided to recall my scholarship - and after some time & multiple attempts they succeeded.
So at the very end of 2018 year I lost the scholarship - without any reasonable explanation, despite the fact that BY PERFORMANCE I was one of the best in that particular Olympic program.
It was quite a hard hit for me, so it took almost a full 2019 year to recover and find out how to stay in tennis further. But I survived again - and at the end of 2019 I played several semifinals and finals, in the very beginning of 2020 won a title in doubles.
And then COVID happened.
So I would say that logistics issues were much more a factor for me than my mentality. Now things been changed, mainly because that incredible support I have from Bitcoin Cash family. So I look very optimistic into the nearest future.
Winning a game when playing bad or losing but having a great match?
Winning the whole match - playing good, bad or ugly :).
Ok, I must say that loss is a part of our job. The world-best players actually win 60-70% of their matches during the season, except maybe top-5. So I can accept loss, but I never say: “It was a good match, I like it”. I hate to lose!
Clay, hard or grass?
I have never played on grass. From two major surfaces now I’d prefer to play on hard, though I grown up on clay. That’s a strange change in my perception happened in 2019-2020 (maybe, it is COVID side effects :)))).
Left handed or right handed?
Right-handed, 2-handed backhand.
The tennis player that inspired you?
What inspires me is not what tennis players they are, but what humans they are. So my answer is - Sara Errani. She is the biggest heart person I know in the women tennis.
Who’s better? Elina Svitolina or Donna Vekic? Why?
Very simple. Svitolina. She is a better player in almost any component of the game.
Who will be WTA #1 at the end of 2022?
I am pretty mainstream here: Barty or Osaka. The former is the world-best all-courter, the latter is the world best aggressive baseliner. As these are two dominating style in modern female tennis, odds are high for one of these two.
Who’s better? Nadal, Federer or Djokovic (or maybe Cilic)? Why?
All three are great champions & legends. So we can speak about personal preferences only, but this is not better, this is “who of three I like more”. My answer is Federer because his game is very aesthetic, his game looks so easy & airy, though you need to work super hard all the life… and you will not be Federer anyway.
Do you support a football team?
No.
Have you ever visited Romania?
Yes, it is actually a very special country for me. I played my first international tournaments in Romania. It was Tennis Europe U12 tournaments, two in a row, and I was 10 years old only debutant. At all it was pretty good start as I even won two matches! Also it was kid’s day there, and I hitted a bit vs. Monica Niculescu.
Tournament final and you serve for match! Strong serve or play It safe?
It should be strong… But it is not always strong in the real life. And this is the issue. Players should hold the play which bring them positive results. I and my team work a lot on the beginning of the point, so I would have my hand up from the first shots. But I am live human, so there is a temptation to just put the ball in… and usually it has bad consequences :))).
*The second part of the interview, covering @Olicrypto unique project and the cryptoverse journey will be posted tomorrow!
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Olicrypto - The first tokenized tennis player
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Waiting for the next interview. 🤗 And she's very young btw, which makes it more interesting.