People's health and longevity should be the main qualitative indicator of the development of sports in Russia. Vladimir Putin stated that in Nizhny Novgorod today where he convened the Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sport. The president is sure that at least 55% of Russians will begin to participate in sports regularly within the next five years. There are already some achievements. Also, the discussion was about professional sports today, as well as what's expected from sports and what has recently hindered them.
Olga Armyakova has the details.
Swifter, Higher, Stronger! These are classical, simple, and useful morning exercises.
"Exhale. Draw up, 20 times!"
Volunteers begin a sports marathon. Amateur athletes joined them. Wearing jackets and ties, they do exercises to get a GTO badge. It's the sixth time.
Russia, which gave hundreds of names and records to the world, continues to set new records. Younger people have been doing sports. Life expectancy has been increasing. But there's no reason to stop.
Vladimir Putin: "I'm very pleased to note that the WHO has recently noted that Russia has sharply reduced, and that's a very good thing, the consumption of spirits and is more engaged in sports activities in recent years. This led to a significant increase in life expectancy in Russia. We plan to engage over half of all of the Russian citizens in regular sports activities by 2024. We'll discuss what improvements our legislation requires, what additional measures should be taken to make sport not just an ordinary thing but a vital necessity".
The popularity of different sports also depends on the achievements of Russian athletes at the international level. They win despite any circumstances.
Vladimir Putin: "Of course, we know the problems our athletes also come across. We'll calmly work on these problems. I mean the issues connected with the anti-doping events. We did, do, and will cooperate with WADA. I only expect that all such issues will be solved on even terms, fairly, and in accordance with the current sports legislation, and nobody will be discriminated by some political reasons".
They discussed victories with the winners at the Summer Universiade in Napoli. The Russian team was the first in the medal table. It won 22 gold medals. That's an incredible result.
Vladimir Putin: "You have great prospects. We've already made plans. There are requests to hold various large-scale events. You'll have a place to perform and demonstrate your skills".
They're actively preparing to hold the Summer Universiade. Yekaterinburg will host it in 2023. There's no doubt that everything will be held perfectly.
This trophy wasn't awarded yet. The winner in the continental football championship will have the cup next year. One of the Euro 2020 games will be held in Saint Petersburg. They've already prepared for a big football festival.
Vladimir Putin: What other cities will host it?
- They're Bucharest, Budapest, London, Rome, Bilbao. It'll be a serious challenge for us in terms of logistics. But we worry about Russia the least.
- That's a good idea to hold the event in different countries and cities. Football will unite everyone.
Russian boxers gave the president an invaluable gift — a diamond glove.
- The global boxing community would like to give you this.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you so much.
- This is a diamond glove.
- She's a beauty.
- Here are the initials of our world champions.
- Thank you very much.
- We wish you good health.
- Thank you. The same to you.
- We'd like to ask you to visit our training.
- I'll do it. There'll be joint training.
- The first sport I did was boxing. I had my nose broken and gave it up pretty quickly.
- Did you visit a doctor?
- No, I didn't see a doctor. It took a long time to heal. I lost a lot of time and then I began practicing another sport.
One can watch happy victories and bitter defeats live on Match. Strana sports channel. Almost 60 million people now watch spectacular broadcasts. This is an exclusive opportunity to see not only big championships but regional ones. The channel's presenter Dmitry Guberniev hopes that new names, which are yet unknown, will soon appear in big-time sports. They'll come from various regions.
Dmitry Guberniev: "On the Match. Strana channel, we'll cover this. And we'll triumphantly shout, "Russia!"
Vladimir Putin: "You can triumphantly shout. We're well aware of that. What the channel does is great. The channel is developing. It's very young but millions of fans have already gotten used to it".
This was about high-performance sports. At the meeting, they discussed how they can make sports a part of everyday life.
Vladimir Putin: "We should think about introducing sports instructors to personnel charts of labor collectives and municipal organizations and the measures to encourage employees, who do sports, and their employers".
Big sports victories begin with small things. It turns out that there are no sports departments in some regions. The situation is most difficult in municipalities.
Pavel Kolobkov, Minister of Sport: "In the last 18 months, new heads of those departments were appointed in 23 regions. Had the Ministry of Sport an opportunity to influence the region's employment policy, the situation could be changed. As to municipalities, there are no sports departments in some settlements".
Vladimir Putin: "According to the Constitution, they don't belong to public administration. They make independent decisions on the issues within the scope of their exclusive competence. We once agreed with it and set it forth in the Constitution. There are over one million residents in some municipalities. Officially, they're still municipalities. Over one million residents. If we propose something, it can be done in the framework of some arrangements or agreements".
The sports school where famous Yelena Isinbaeva went is a good example.
Yelena Isinbaeva, Olympic champion: The gymnastics school where I went when I was five, where my career began. My daughter now goes there. The gym is in terrible condition. It needs to be repaired. The municipality says that it doesn't have money and it can't do it. They'd be happy but they don't have money. Whom shall I turn to for help?
- The Artistic Gymnastics Federation won't solve the problem of interaction with municipalities, but I think that we can help this school. We have a program for re-equipping schools.
- The president's magic gaze.
- We didn't gather here in vain. Our work is already bringing results.
The path to victories often begins from a simple sports ground in the courtyard. The governor of Kaliningrad Oblast proposes to build prefabricated module gyms.
Anton Alikhanov, Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast: "Our region is very peculiar. There are old buildings where no rooms can be fitted for doing sports. The construction of module gyms, which will be accessible for schoolchildren and other residents... We think that they're pretty cheap and can be built quickly. It solves the problem of the accessibility of sports for residents quickly, especially in rural areas".
Vladimir Putin: "I fully agree. Construction technology and materials are such that they allow making projects several, I reiterate, several times cheaper. And the quality is very high".
Businesses, but not only the state, should support the development of sports. At the meeting, they proposed to create a common foundation of sponsorship.
Vladimir Putin: I think that this collective organization would be much fairer than what we see now. There's a competition of wallets now. I don't know how easy it is to implement. Will they contribute money there?
Alexander Dyukov, President of the Russian Football Union: Being acquainted with state corporations and private companies…
- You're well-acquainted with them.
- Right.
- You're the head of one of them.
- Vladimir Vladimirovich, I think that to convince them will require serious effort.
Five years ago, the GTO program was introduced in Russia after a long break. But Irina Viner-Usmanova, a well-known rhythmic gymnastics coach, thinks that it isn't enough. She proposed to improve this system.
Irina Viner-Usmanova, president of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation:
- Nobody speaks about GTO. Let's go back into the future. Take the practice when having high GTO scores, people took part in district, city, all-Russian competitions. Only competition is the driving force for the development of sports and the engagement of people in doing sports and fulfilling your tasks.
Vladimir Putin: We'll keep that in mind when making the list of tasks as well. We'll work on that.
- It's the second time that you give that task.
- We'll see to it to be finally fulfilled.
Russia is a sports power indeed. The Sochi Olympics, the World Cup, the Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk proved that. There are an unprecedented scale and incredible emotions.
Vladimir Putin: Anzhelika Sidorova won a gold medal. Yelena, I think that you can be happy with such results.
- Yes, I'm happy. Most importantly, she won over an American athlete.
- No matter whom.
- It matters to us. It's very important to us.
- Okay, I think that sports should be far from the political context. But the fact that they won that medal is great. And finally, Mariya Lasitskene. She's a three-time champion in the high jump. That's a unique achievement. I called her before this meeting and congratulated her on this outstanding result on our behalf. Let's congratulate all of the guys and wish them success.
Our country will hold world volleyball, hockey, and water sports championships in the next five years.
Olga Armyakova, Konstantin Morozov, Andrey Greshnev, Alexandra Terpugova, Viktor Vinogradov for Vesti from Nizhny Novgorod.
