Vitaly Smirnov:
- In 1992, our team, called the "Olympic Team," participated in the Olympic Games in Albertville and Barcelona under the Olympic flag, despite the opposition of leaders from countries like Ukraine, Georgia, and several others. We performed brilliantly back then - winning 45 gold medals. The same can be said about the Winter Olympics - an outstanding victory was achieved in hockey.Right now, we are going through a very difficult time. We need, more than ever, a clear program and a clear vision of what we strive for. I believe that our president, his team, and the ROC Executive Committee clearly understand how to organize the work and deserve to continue the work they started throughout the next Olympic cycle. Therefore, I support the leaders of the Russian Olympic movement.
I also want to highlight the very good, constructive, and businesslike relationship that the Russian Olympic Committee maintains with government bodies, the Ministry of Sport, and the All-Russian sports federations. This hasn't always been the case, so this is very important.
In the cultural life of humanity, there is no event that attracts as much attention as the Olympic Games. Billions of people follow the competitions. Therefore, naturally, the performance of athletes from our country on this arena takes on special significance. That "soft power" that is currently being talked about in diplomacy is increasingly based on sports, although not long ago the main tools were art and culture. In sports, the image of the modern man and the man of the future is shown. And any attempts to push our athletes and our team off the podium can only be made by our opponents.
When a certain group of people, who, in my opinion, have absolutely nothing to do with sports, appear on our TV channels, in our programs, calling for Russians to be deprived of the right to participate in the Olympic Games, I believe we are very peaceful in our view of such statements. These people think we should find alternative ways. But such rhetoric arises not because these people are guided by any beliefs. It happens simply because these people are incompetent. They don't really understand what they're talking about. And here, it seems to me, there are certain misunderstandings on our part.
We need speakers like Tanya Tarasova, only a bit younger and stronger.
A year ago, I was present at the ceremony honoring our champions at the Kremlin, and the awarded young people were speaking. How they spoke! How they performed! How they conducted themselves! I think we absolutely must have our representatives - both from the government, from our federations, and from the Olympic Committee.
And lastly. This year marks the 70th anniversary of our athletes stepping onto the Olympic Games arena in February 1952. In connection with this, we, together with a team of leading sports journalists (your humble servant and a few others), have set out to create a 12-part series. The material has already been written, and soon we will begin filming, planning to finish by the fall of next year. We would very much like it to be a national project, in which all of you would participate.
Let's make a film that will tell future generations what the past, present, and hopefully future generations of Olympians from our great country were like!
