The meeting of the Presidential Council of development of physical culture and sports at the forum “Russia is a sport country” in Moscow won’t take place

The meeting of the Council of the RF President of development of physical culture and sports, preparation and holding the XXII Olympic Games and XI Paralympic Games in Sochi 2014 and XXVII International Summer Universidad 2013 in Kazan, planned at the International Sport Forum “Russia is a sport country”, which will be held in Moscow on July, 29 - August, 1, won’t take place. The Agency of sport information “All Sport” informs about this decision.

The information about holding the meeting of the Council of the RF President of development of physical culture and sports at the International Sport Forum “Russia is a sport country” in Moscow appeared in the middle of April on the web-site of the forum, referring to the secretary of the Presidential Council, the deputy chief of the department on maintenance of activity of the State council of Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, the chairman of the board «The Russian Olympians Foundation» Alexey Kulakovsky. They have even announced two main themes of the meeting: “About the using of experience of the countries-leaders of the Olympic movement of preparation of the athletes to the Olympic Games and other international competitions” and “About realization of programs of preparation the sport teams of the Russian Federation to the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games 2012 in London”.

Yesterday, on July, 26, the minister of sports, tourism and youth policy of the RF Vitaly Mutko announced at the meeting, devoted to the discussion of the course of preparation of the Russian national teams to the Olympic Games  2012 in London, that the meeting of the Council of the RF President of development of physical culture and sports at the International Sport Forum “Russia is a sport country won’t take place. According to the information, it has been moved to the middle of October. It became a real surprise for all the participants of the Russian sport community. 

 It is known nothing about the reasons of the carrying over the meeting of the Council of the RF President of development of physical culture and sports, planned on July, 30. The officials refuse to give any comments. According to the information of the Agency of sport information “All Sport” the RF President Dmitry Medvedev has shown dissatisfaction of the quality of the materials prepared for the meeting, in particular, the concerning analysis of prospects of performance of the Russian national teams at the nearest Olympic Summer Games 2012 in London and Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi. Anyway, at yesterday's meeting on preparation of the Russian national teams to the Games-2012 the minister Mutko has addressed to the representatives of the All-Russia federations of summer Olympic sports with a desperate request to reconsider indicators of complex programs of development of sports.

According to the present forecasts and demands for financing, the Russian national team at the Olympic Games 2012 in London should win 37 only gold medals. At the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing Russian athletes took the third place in total medal standing, having won 23 gold medals, and become the second the team of the USA has received 36 gold awards (the winners from China won 51 gold medals). Following to the results of the summer season 2009 the Russian national team for the first time for the decade has conceded the third place in total medal standing to the German national team, having won 22 gold. And medal obligations have executed only some sports – wrestling, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronous swimming... It seems that the president of the Russian Federation has wanted to receive the objective (adequate) information on prospects of the Olympic Russian team not to test the same shock, as after the Winter Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver.

In spite of the fact that the meeting of the Council of the RF President of development of physical culture and sports has been canceled, the RF President will support the status of the forum “Russia is a sport country” by his personal presence. As minimum, Dmitry Medvedev will meet on July, 30, with the leaders of the International sport organizations, which will come to Moscow.