Under the sanctions, Russian sports will continue to develop – by strengthening cooperation with friendly countries and expanding the program of domestic events, the participants of the forum “Russia – a sports power” agreed. It was held in Kemerovo – this city was supposed to host two world championships next year – in bandy and volleyball. The competitions have already found a replacement, instead of them there will be festivals of summer and winter sports, as well as Paralympic athletes. About what other events will appear in the Russian Federation, how officials intend to fight the politicization of sports and what losses Western championships will suffer without the participation of Russians – in the material of Izvestia.
local development
Most of the meetings of the forum “Russia – a sports power” were held in the Kemerovo Ice Palace “Kuzbass”opened just a year and a half ago. It hosts home matches of the local bandy club of the same name, one of our flagships in this sport.
In 2023, this palace was supposed to host the World Cup, but it was taken away from Kemerovo after February. As well as the World Volleyball Championship, the matches of which were to be held among other cities of Russia and in the capital of Kuzbass. Local authorities are now figuring out how to occupy facilities through internal competition.
– We discussed many issues, the key of which is – how do we develop in a new paradigm, – Sergey Myaus, Minister of Physical Culture and Sports of the Kemerovo Region, told Izvestia. – First of all, it is necessary to debug the infrastructure throughout the country so that people go to competitions with pleasure. Second: to develop coaching staff who are aging, and we still have not enough influx of young people. Third: provide athletes with good facilities for training and competition. And it is necessary saturate their internal tournament program with the invitation of our friends from Belarus, the CSTO countries and other potential allies. So that when we are returned to international competitions, the athletes are ready for this.
For example, Kuzbass plans to hold a number of events on its territory in 2023.
– We have agreed to [с представителями Минспорта России] about three festivals in our region: a winter sports festival in March, a summer sports festival in August, a festival for Paralympic athletes,” Sergey Tsivilev, Governor of the Kemerovo Region, told Izvestia. — We discussed the development of many infrastructure projects for the further development of our sport. In particular, two hotels – one of them is a sports one. For Kuzbass, this is a very serious acquisition. Well, once again, our residents could touch the Olympic champions, the legends of our sport.
Return to the world
Of course, the participants they did not bypass the topic of Russia’s absence at international competitions. On the negative nature of the politicization of sports Presidential Aide Igor Levitin, RF Minister of Sports Oleg Matytsin, Belarusian Sports Minister Sergei Kovalchuk, President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov, President of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus Viktor Lukashenko and other speakers spoke.
Elena Vyalbe, president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation, spoke about relations with the West – she joined one of the sessions from Zurich, where she attended a meeting of the executive committee of the International Ski Federation (FIS).
— We hope that prudence will prevail, because all consider losses. Moreover, according to the FIS report, Russia leads by a wide margin in terms of cross-country skiing broadcast audience. Even Norway and Sweden are far behind. Ski jumping and Nordic combined have good performance in this regard, – said Elena Vyalbe. — There are interesting moments on the sidelines of the FIS. The Norwegian association wrote that they were boycotting the visit here because representatives of Russia are here. But they are here – they see each other, say hello, shake hands. Duplicity. Or they are so strangled that they have to express such remarks. And now the Finnish federation is working to remove us all.
The President of the Figure Skating Federation, Alexander Gorshkov, also spoke about the popularity of Russian athletes. According to him, many domestic competitions can surpass international audiences in terms of audience. Under the current conditions, the calendar of Russian figure skating tournaments in the upcoming season will be synchronized with the main international starts, Alexander Gorshkov shared. This will make it possible to compare how popular domestic and foreign events are with spectators, Deputy Sports Minister Alexei Morozov noted. He added that the ministry, like the ROC, has not yet stopped trying to convince the IOC and federations to restore Russian athletes to their rights, removing the political factor.
With no exceptions
In the context of the partial mobilization announced at the end of September, the question of how it will affect athletes was also discussed.. Moreover, many of them wear shoulder straps of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (CSKA) and the National Guard (the Dynamo Society). It was announced that the Ministry of Sports, together with other authorities, will develop criteria according to which lists will be compiled.
“We are actively dealing with this issue together with the government and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation,” said Oleg Matytsin. “But I have repeatedly stated that everything is within the framework of the law.
The minister stressed that the department “will in no way single out athletes in any separate exceptional categories that will not correspond to the general position of the state”.
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