Stanislav Pozdnyakov, four-time Olympic fencing champion, was elected as the new President of the Russian Olympic Committee. 214 delegates of the Olympic Assembly voted for his candidacy. Another candidate, four-time Olympic champion in swimming Alexander Popov received 56 votes.
The fight against doping should become a priority objective for the Russian Olympic Committee in the near future, said the newly elected President of the ROC in the course of communication with journalists.
– In this regard we prepare a whole range of measures, said Stanislav Pozdnyakov. The main part of those will be of promotion and education nature. The first anti-doping Forum of Young Olympians will be held in Moscow on June 1, the children’s day. We specifically appeal to the young audience to raise among our athletes the rejection of prohibited drugs.
On the issue of fighting doping, we certainly have a full understanding with the IOC. But the return of trust depends on concrete actions. Therefore, all our scheduled events, will be held under the auspices of the IOC. WADA experts and representatives of anti-doping organizations will be invited. Moreover, not only from friendly countries, but also from the opposing countries.
Our first step will be to prepare a large four-year agreement with the Olympic Solidarity (the IOC programme for coordinating the activities of national Olympic committees), which will allow us to jointly implement more than a dozen international projects with the participation of the ROC and the all-Russian sports federations.
The President of the ROC stressed that one of the priorities in his work will be to ensure the participation of the Russian Olympic team at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo in full composition.
He also said that he was not surprised at his convincing victory in the struggle for leadership in the ROC.
— I prepared for the elections very seriously. That is why this result was not a surprise for me. Our team has been updated, but only for so much to solve the tasks standing before us. Moreover, their decision requires expanding the scope of the Executive Committee of the ROC, and therefore in the near future the working group will propose changes to the Charter of the organization. We will seriously approach the issue of attracting people who value the ideals of pure sport and the spirit of Olympism.
