The ROC Executive Committee approved the number of the Russian Olympic team members to participate in the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing

The first meeting of the new Executive Committee, elected at the Olympic meeting on 29 May this year, was held on Friday, July 4, in the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). There were two items on the agenda:

1. Composition of the Russian Olympic team  that will take part in the II Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in 2014;

2. Awarding ROC Honorary Badges For Merits in the Development of the Olympic Movement in Russia to the members of the all-Russian Olympic sports federations and councils.

The 2^nd Summer Youth Olympic Games will be held from 16 to 28 August 2014 in the Chinese city of Nanjing, located in the south-east of the country. 3,808 young athletes aged 15-18 (born in the period from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 1999) from 204 countries will participate, competing in 222 disciplines within 34 sports.

The Russian team will be represented by 84 athletes and 39 officials (coaches, doctors, masseurs and members of the Operational Headquarters). Executive Committee members headed by ROC President Alexander Zhukov unanimously approved the size of the Russian delegation.

It should be noted, that when determining the team composition, members of the working group, which includes representatives of the ROC, Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the FMBA of Russia and Federal Training Centre of the Sports Reserve (FGBU) were guided by the Procedure and principles of forming the Russian Olympic team to participate in the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, developed in accordance with the Federal Law On Physical Culture and sports in the Russian Federation (3 paragraph of Item 3 of Article 11) and by the requirements of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the regulations of international sports federations.

Thus, according to IOC rules, the number of Individual sports athletes may not exceed 70 people, however the number of Russian athletes who have received licenses far exceeds this number. Ninety eight Russian athletes of individual sports were selected. Besides that the delegation may include athletes, representing one girls team of and one boys teams of team sports (handball, rugby, football, hockey). Our team at the Nanjing Games in will be represented only by the Girls Handball team.

“When establishing the Olympic team  it was important to select promising athletes who can really fight for first places at the Games – said the Director-Head of the Main Directorate for Participation in the Olympic Sports Events Igor Kazikov. – Priority was given to those who have won prizes at the World and European Championships, those holding leading positions in the rankings of the international sports federations.”

It was, however, impossible to do without substitutions. Injured diver Nikita Schleikher and his synchronized diving partner have been replaced by one representative of the shooting sport and one representative of the modern pentathlon.

Taking into account the dramatic aspect of the selection, Executive Committee members decided to award ROC Diplomas, prizes and gifts to those athletes who would not go to Nanjing.

“We have a very strong and young team. We can not send to Nanjing many of young athletes, who have honestly earned the right to go there because of the strict maximum quota. In many sports, our young athletes are holding top positions of the world rankings. For example, in Athletics, in Wrestling, in Swimming – said ROC President Alexander Zhukov.

– In general, according to the International Olympic Committee the Youth Games is not a kind of competition where athletes should win as many medals as possible, it’s more of a cultural and sports festival, – Zhukov said. – However this is a real competition, involving very strong athletes. Many 18-year-old boys nad girls will surely fight for the medals in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Since these Youth Olympic Games will be held in China and last time the hosts of the competition took first place in the unofficial team standings, I think that in Nanjing they will be presented by a strong team. However I am sure that our athletes will become their worthy opponents. At the previous Games athletes from China won a lot of medals in swimming and diving. This time we have strong athletes in these sports. They will fight.”

Turning to the second item on the meeting agenda, Executive Committee members unanimously approved the list of 11 people to be awarded ROC Honorary Badges For Merits in the Development of the Olympic Movement in Russia :

• Anatoly Balykin, Vice-President of the Equestrian Federation of Russia;
• Viktor Biryukov, President of the Judo Federation of the Republic of Mordovia;
• Olga Bukina, Honoured Worker of Physical Culture and Sports of the Chuvash Republic;
• Gennady Gromov, President of the Wrestling Federation of the Republic of Mordovia;
• Valeriy Ivanov, Chairman of the Chuvash Athletics Federation;
• Anatoliy Kostryukov, Veteran of sports, Master of Sports and Honored Coach of the USSR, Hockey;
• Sergey Lavrentyev, General Director of JSC Alza, Chuvash Republic;
• Viktor Nekrasov, member of the Second World War, Honored Coach of the Republic of Bashkortostan in Artistic Gymnastics;
• Yury Plotnikov, veteran of labor and veteran of sports, sports journalist,  member of the Russian Union of Journalists;
• Dmitriy Popov, head of the city of Surgut;
• Yevgeniya Trofimova, Honored Coach of Russia, coach of two-time Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva.