Stanislav Pozdnyakov: “Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration is being discussed throughout the sports community”

ROC President summed up the results of the VII Olympic Summit held in Lausanne on December 8.

The day before this major event, Stanislav Pozdnyakov had a working meeting with the IOC President Thomas Bach. They discussed issues of the current agenda and agreed on plans for future cooperation in all areas.

Stanislav Pozdnyakov:

— One of the main topics of the Summit was the Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration. This document outlining the leading role of athletes in present-day Olympic and sports movement was adopted in October during the IOC Session in Buenos Aires and is now being discussed throughout the sports community.

It is gratifying that the Russian Olympic Committee was one of the first to join this work.

On 4 December, ROC Athletes’ Commission discussed and adopted the Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration as guidelines in its activities. It was decided to distribute the Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration among all Russian sports federations, their Athletes’ Commissions and other stakeholders of the Russian sports community. It is very important that our athletes should know main principles of the Declaration and use it as guidelines in their career.

At the Summit, much attention was paid to other areas addressed in the Olympic Agenda 2020, in particular those related to new norms of bidding to host Olympic Games and other major sports events.

Olympic bids of the countries should be compact and cost-saving. Applicants should use existing sport and other venues where possible.

As ROC President, I am very glad that, after a certain break, Russian Olympic Committee was again invited to the Olympic Summit where only three NOCs took part – Russia, China and USA. This once again proves that our relations with the IOC have been fully restored and are now developing in the spirit of partnership and mutual understanding.