Stanislav Pozdnyakov: “There are no obstacles for our athletes to participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo”

One of the main decisions taken today at a meeting of the Executive committee of ROC was the approval of the Development program of mass sport for 2019-2022 “The Olympic country”. This was reported to press by the ROC president Stanislav Pozdnyakov.

– The new program “Olympic Country” is a follow-up of the previous one started in 2015. Its main objectives, as before, are improvement of the health of the nation by engaging citizens in physical culture and sport, noted Stanislav Pozdnyakov.

ROC has a number of its own unique projects aimed at promoting mass sport and the Olympic values. For example, “The Olympic patrol” in which our Olympic champions and prize-winners participate, or the All-Russian Olympic day – the most mass sports festival under the auspices of ROC.

And on February 10 in Gorky Park in Moscow and in many other regions, the Day of winter sports dated for the fifth anniversary of opening of the Olympic Games Sochi-2014 and the anniversary of the Games Pyeongchang-2018 will take place. On this day, fans will have a rare opportunity to learn something new, test the strength in all Olympic winter disciplines, meet our prominent athletes and take their autographs.

ROC will organize, in total, 16% of all mass sports events held in Russia. It is a lot, but the main objective of the new program “Olympic country” is to almost double it.

Moreover, members of the Executive committee approved the structure of the Olympic team of Russia for the participation in the XIV European youth Olympic festival in Sarajevo from February 9 to February 16.

— On February 7, the farewell ceremony of our young athletes leaving for the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina and an anti-doping seminar of RUSADA will be held in Novogorsk, reported the head of ROC. I would like to note that this year the Russian Olympic athletes will participate in three complex sport events. Apart from EYOF in Sarajevo, we will be at the II European games in Minsk and the XV European youth Olympic summer festival in Baku. By the way, ZASPORT company, our official outfitter, presented at the meeting of the Executive committee a new collection of clothes for the Russian athletes to perform at the II European games in Minsk.

The Executive Committee supported the application of Kazan for holding the III European games in 2023. The decision of the interdepartmental commission has already been made, and we enter a pre-election race, which will be finalized in June in Minsk.

Also, ROC supported the decision on holding the World Games TAFISA in Russia in 2024. We are preparing documents necessary for the official application.

We also discussed reinstatement of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency. ROC fully supports the decision of the WADA compliance commission on preserving of the RUSADA status, emphasized Stanislav Pozdnyakov.

– I would like to note again that the position of the IOC about possible new sanctions against the Russian Olympic Committee was sounded by Thomas Bach in December last year. ROC fulfilled all the requirements of the Executive Committee of the IOC dated December 5, 2017, and upon completion of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, ROC was completely reinstated. No repeated punishment for the same matter can be applied and it is impossible.

So, at all youth Olympic festivals and the European games in Minsk our athletes, including representatives of temporarily suspended sports federations, will perform under the Russian flag and in the clothes of the Olympic team of Russia.

As for doping tests in the Moscow laboratory, the latest of them are dated 2015. The probability of athletes applying for the Olympic team of Russia to participate in the Games-2020 and making tests back then is extremely low. I believe that there are no obstacles for our Olympians to compete in Tokyo.

Traditionally, a year before the Olympic Games the IOC begins to distribute invitations to National Olympic Committees to participate in the next Games. We expect to receive such invitations in the summer this year, summed up the ROC president.