The President presented the state decoration to the athletes
Vladimir Putin finally presented the state award to the winners of the Beijing Olympics and congratulated the winners. There were no major stars among those present in the Kremlin – figure skater Anna Shcherbakova and skier Alexander Bolshunov. To the rest, the president said that the great traditions of Russian sport would certainly continue: alternative international competitions were organized for athletes in all sports. Putin has sharply criticized the Olympic and Paralympic movements and accused its curators of “bagging” and degradation.
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Olympic winners in Beijing are clinking with the president – skier Denis Spitsov and figure skaters Kamila Valieva and Anastasia Mishina. Photo: kremlin.ru
The Olympics in China ended 4 days before the start of a special operation in Ukraine – February 20. Foreign media wrote that Vladimir Putin was specifically waiting for the end of the games at the request of Chinese President Xi Jinping, but neither Moscow nor Beijing confirmed this information. Be that as it may, the Russian Olympians managed to compete and win 32 medals, but the Paralympians did not. The authorities had to organize alternative “Winter Together” winter games for them in the autonomous district of Khanty-Mansi. However, the athletes who came to the meeting with Putin represented not only the Olympic and Paralympic teams, but also the entire Russian professional sport, which, with the launch of the military special operation in Ukraine, faced the age-old Hamlet question “to be or not to be?”. Russian athletes are now deprived of money and incentives to conquer new heights, and the big issue is access to the usual inventory, on which the results depend to a large extent. .
Sports Minister Oleg Matycin reacted somewhat nervously to questions about the prospects of the exodus of Russian champions to foreign jurisdictions and the import replacement of equipment necessary for victory. However, after the government allowed parallel imports, they can be expected to get some of the most significant sets of good skis and poles. It was planned that Vladimir Putin would personally appreciate all the gold medalists from the Olympic Games. However, not everyone survived the quarantine: figure skater Anna Ščerbaková preferred the ice show in Nizhny Novgorod to the Kremlin. And Alexander Bolshunov “just got sick.” However, the president did not spare warm words to address the absent. Russian single skaters, Putin noted, have no equal in the world. And Bolshunov deservedly brought the symbolic title of “King of Skis” from Beijing. For Kamila Valiyeva, the reception in the Kremlin coincided with her 16th birthday. The gift was not only a bouquet, but also the Order of Friendship, obtained for “plasticity, beauty, strength and tenderness.” “Such perfection cannot be achieved dishonestly, by any means and manipulation,” the VVP recalled the already forgotten doping test incident. Putin wished all victories to all Olympians. “They certainly will,” he assured him.
The conversation about future competitions and victories continued at the meeting, which was attended by “non-guaranteed” Olympic medalists, as well as Paralympic athletes. (Previously, they also received state honors and certificates, but only from Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshenko.) Vladimir Putin said he would continue the great traditions of Russian sport. All program plans and plans related to sports are subject to implementation. “We will do everything we can to ensure the rights of our athletes, we will hold competitions open to all our friends and real partners, such as the World Olympics Association and the International Military Sports Council,” the president said. He criticized the dependence of the Olympic and Paralympic movements on “the pride of money” and stressed that this commercialization was a direct path to degradation. Regarding the exclusion of Russian athletes from international competitions, Putin said is nothing more than “discrimination on purely political grounds on the basis of citizenship and nationality.” In his view, such sanctions violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. And some decisions – for example, about swimmer Yevgeny Rylov, who was suspended for attending a concert meeting on March 18 – are simply “absurd.”
It is noteworthy that none of the Olympians present at the meeting publicly expressed concern about the situation in professional sports. According to skier Veronika Štěpánová, the athletes understand that Russia is becoming “strong, proud and successful again” and “not everyone in the world likes it”. “We will definitely win, just as we won at the Olympics,” she said, apparently referring to Ukraine. Paralympic athlete Alexei Bugayev again asked Vladimir Putin to build a sports infrastructure adapted to people with disabilities, organize more competitions and create conditions for the arrival of foreign athletes. The president promised. According to him, the difficulties will only strengthen everyone.
At the meeting of the Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sport, which took place after the awards ceremony, Vladimir Putin made it clear that he was not completely satisfied with results of Russian Olympians. “The final ranking is lower than planned in the sport's development strategy,” he said. Recall that Russia was in 9th place overall, fifth place promised to fans. According to “gold”, two awards were not enough to meet the standard of the national team. Minister of Sports Matycin explained the shortcomings due to insufficient centralization of management and training of national teams, lack of facilities for year-round training in a number of disciplines and also coronavirus, which on the eve of many promising athletes became ill.
Putin sipped champagne with figure skaters: Kremlin Awards
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