The president of the Russian Olympic Committee, four-time Olympic champion Stanislav Pozdnyakov, announced his resignation from his post after six years in office.
“The geopolitical challenges facing our country dictate the need to optimize and centralize the management of key areas of activity, including elite sports. To further strengthen the Russian Olympic movement, there are now timely prerequisites, including economic ones, for a change of leader and team.
In this regard, I am sure that the Executive Committee of the Republic of China at the next meeting on November 7 will support my proposal and set a date for the Olympic meeting to hold early elections of the new leadership of the Russian Olympic Committee. Until that time, the head of the organization, the executive committee and the ROC apparatus will continue to perform their duties in full compliance.” – quotes words Pozdniakova Press service of the organization.
It is worth remembering here that on October 12 of last year, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee until further notice. Consequently, the ROC has not had the right to act as an NOC for more than a year or to receive funding from the Olympic movement, the organization clarified.
In addition, the IOC noted that it reserves the right to decide on the participation of individual neutral athletes with Russian passports in the Olympic Games.
Well, now the comments of relevant experts, former and current athletes and, of course, deputies on the decision of the legendary fencer.
Two-time Olympic hockey champion, State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Fetisov:
“I don’t know what to say. People usually don’t leave those positions. At a difficult time, he was assigned the presidency of the ROC by an inexperienced official at the time. I did not participate in his work, I did not follow him, but there were successes with him. It’s not my place to evaluate his work, but he tried to do it well. He is an athlete, multiple Olympic champion. She raised her daughter to be an Olympic champion. I find it strange that a four-time Olympic champion would resign. “It’s not very clear.”
Honored coach of the USSR in figure skating Tatiana Tarasova:
“We worked before Pozdnyakov, we worked during his time and we will continue to do so. Personally, I didn’t remember anything about him. I am not familiar with his activities, so I don’t know about his contribution to the sport. But I wouldn’t blame us for not going to the Olympics. It is unlikely that [МОК] they know his name. In my opinion, the person who will lead the ROC in the future must know and love sports. But I don’t know Pozdnyakov, so I can’t say the same about him.”
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitri Chernyshenko:
“Today there are global changes in world sport that require strategic decisions on our part. President Vladimir Putin instructed to strengthen the sovereignty of national sports. It is necessary to strengthen the vertical management of the sports industry, to consolidate the aspirations and resources of all levels of government, corporations, companies and public organizations.
I thank Stanislav Pozdnyakov, our illustrious Olympic champion, for his work. “He effectively led the Olympic team for many years and represented the interests of Russia in the Olympic movement, which is now going through difficult times.”
CSKA deputy director for military-political work, two-time Olympic champion Svetlana Ishmuratova:
“It’s a shame that such wonderful people are leaving (leadership positions). Stanislav Alekseevich went through the entire complex and difficult sports path to the Olympic podium. He knows very well what athletes need and how to manage the process.
A great athlete and a knowledgeable and high-level official. There are very few leaders who know their job down to the smallest detail, and of whom we are not ashamed. Furthermore, I am proud that a four-time Olympic champion heads the Russian Olympic Committee.”
Here are two questions and answers from a recent interview with a commentator and television host. Dmitri Guberniev Metaratings.ru website.
—How hard did the suspension affect Russian sports?
– A lot. Only an idiot wouldn’t understand this.
— You communicate with the top leaders of Russian sports. How do you perceive this situation?
“I am not a civil servant, so in this sense it is easy for me. But I like the sensible position of the Minister of Sports. Degtyarevaand Stanislav Pozdnyakov’s stupid position is outrageous and annoying. He went from being a great champion to a bureaucrat who, for some reason, stopped loving athletes.
Many people, I would even say the majority, because I walk on the street, I meet, I even communicate with many officials at different levels, they support me. Because my position is fair. I love people, but that doesn’t mean I don’t criticize them.
Here, the “voice of Russian biathlon” remembers April of this year, when the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, wrote on his Telegram channel that the Russian tennis players who are going to go to the Paris Olympics should be called “a “team of foreign agents.”
Pozdnyakov’s publication was a response to the statements of the then president of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation (VFKhG) Irina Vinerwho described the athletes who decided to go to the Games as a “homeless team.” According to her, acting in a neutral state (without a flag or anthem) is humiliating.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov said that his opinion fully coincides with Irina Viner’s statement. But he proposed a different formulation instead of “homeless team”, “foreign agent team”:
“So what is more correct, from my point of view, is a ‘foreign agent team’.” For whom there will definitely be no obstacles to representing themselves at the Olympic Games. In addition, individual Olympic entrepreneurship is actively promoted from Lausanne.”
The head of the ROC then emphasized that he respects the achievements of Russian tennis players: “But from a human and civil point of view, our attitude to the current situation is diametrically opposite.”
As a result, fifteen “homeless people” and “foreign agents” went to Paris in a neutral individual status (without flag, anthem or shield), where they won a silver medal “but not for the country, but for themselves.”
And then our Paralympic athletes went to France with exactly the same status, but they were called heroes who took medals for themselves and the country. In addition, the Minister of Sports, Mikhail Degtiarev, stated that the winning Paralympic athletes will receive state awards.
By the way, Telegram channel “Rise” for some reason it is reported that Mikhail Vladimirovich can become the new president of the Russian Olympic Committee and, if elected, he will combine two positions.
Why not, as they say? In addition, the ROC now, in the context of the suspension, exists purely nominally, and its functions have been delegated to it by the IOC, determining which of the athletes living in Russia are worthy of performing in official tournaments in the state of “nobody”. , strictly without national identification.
Now look at your hands and appreciate the following news that “the Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus Ksenia Sankovich He visited the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee.”
During her visit to Lausanne, Switzerland, Ksenia Sankovic met with the president of the IOC Thomas Bachas well as with representatives of the organization’s relations department with the national Olympic committees and “discussed with officials the issues of participation of Belarusian athletes in international competitions, as well as the results of the recent Paris Olympic Games.”
In addition, Ksenija Sankovic, who “is a two-time Olympic medalist in rhythmic gymnastics, left her signature on the wall of honor for Olympic athletes at the IOC headquarters.”
Tell me, would you be very surprised if, after such news, Belarusian athletes fully returned to international tournaments under the auspices of the IOC with the flag and the anthem?
That’s all. And we, of course, will be happy for our friends. The main thing is that, in exchange for patriotic symbols, they are not asked to “judge someone harshly and disown you-know-who.”
