Opening Address at the Joint Meeting of the State Council Presidium and the Council for the Development of Physical Education and Sport.Part 1
October 14, 2008
Odintsovo, Moscow Region
Вступительное слово на совместном заседании президиума Госсовета и Совета при Президенте по развитию физкультуры и спорта.
14 октября 2008 года
Московская область, Одинцово
PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good day dear colleagues!
This event has turned out to be very representative. If everyone in this room is involved in sports this would already be good, and if it is part of their professional duties then it is doubly good. Because we are here to discuss measures to promote the development of physical culture and sport in our country. This joint meeting of the Presidium of the State Council of Russia and the Presidential Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sport has been planned for a long time.
I will not speak in platitudes: of course you all understand the importance of this issue. Therefore without any superfluous words I will get right to the heart of the matter. I will start with a brief analysis of the Russian team performance at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and make a short summary. Even though this has already been done it will be useful to start the discussion this way.
Victory in such competitions is a crucial indicator of the level of sports development in any country and in ours too. Such victories provide a clear picture of the level of development of individual sports.
At the Olympics Russia maintained its leadership position and was ranked third in the medal standings. And in general this is an important and positive result. Our team performed honourably.
Of course not all our predictions came true: we won less medals than in previous games. At the same time, our main rivals -- the People's Republic of China and the United States -- won more than they did in previous Olympics.
We unfortunately lost some of our achievements in team sports, and in certain ones we performed as one says below capacity.
As for our Paralympians, they gave their best performance ever at the Summer Games. One in two Russian athletes was a champion or a medal winner.
There is no doubt that all these results will ultimately fuel our national pride and strengthen the international authority of the Russian Federation. You know how fans share in the results and what they feel when a Russian flag is raised. These are incomparable emotions both for athletes and for millions of Russian fans. But it is clear when we think about the future that we will face very tough competition. We need to prepare very seriously even to maintain the position that we achieved at the Olympics this year.
I think that we need to analyse the pluses and minuses in the preparation of the Olympic team and have a frank conversation about the effectiveness of the entire sports sector.
Today I will touch on the urgent measures that we need to take in the foreseeable future and in the strategic period up to 2020.
I will recall that the State Council addressed the theme of sport already in 2002, when the sports industry was in critical condition. The implementation of the measures discussed by the State Council ultimately resulted in some positive changes in the sports sector and increased respect for sport among society.
A separate document a federal law on physical culture and sport and other normative acts were adopted. The federal target programme for 2006-2015 actually earned a total amount of funding of more than 100 billion rubles.
Since 2002 we have built nearly 24,000 sports facilities. Is this a lot or a little? The answer is obvious: it is few. Nevertheless regional programmes have been active and some of them are very good, including with respect to the physical education of children, adolescents and young adults. By the way, a whole range of Russian territories took away a great deal of medals from Beijing.
The corresponding Presidential Council was formed and has convened, a sports channel was established. Our entrepreneurs -- and we should thank them for this as well organised a fund to support Olympians and generally became more involved in the social protection of athletes; they intend to continue to do so in the future. As a result, of course the importance of sport and the opportunities for people to maintain a normal physical condition have increased, but this is still very little.
I cannot fail to mention another encouraging fact. Russia defended its applications to host the 22nd Winter Olympics in Sochi and the Summer World Student Games in Kazan with honour. Both of these achievements are important results, but we must not stop there.
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