Oleg Belozyorev : it’s important that we have an international front

Translated from R Sport.  What the President says about relations with the FIG and IOC is echoed by Nagorny in another short interview.  Nagorny wants there to be international competitions with Russian gymnasts - but this doesn’t account for the sanctions.  Given his work as a TV/online producer he may be looking for a form of cultural exchange that sidesteps the usual structures.  But I wouldn’t bet on it happening …

Now read on, via Rsport:

Oleg Belozerov, head of Russian Railways, who was elected president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation, said that the unification of gymnastics federations of countries was the most important element for direct interaction with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

🙏"I would like to thank all the participants of today's conference for electing me president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation: the Ministry of Sports, the Russian Olympic Committee, and delegates. The most important element is the unification of five sports so that we can interact directly with the FIG and the Olympic Committee. There is no unification in the subjects, each federation remains separate. We can relay the best practices between sports to create better analogues.

👉 The key task is to popularize gymnastics, it has always been a basic sport, a person involved in gymnastics is a systemically thinking person. And this is a citizen of Russia, along with gymnastics, a certain attitude towards our country is absorbed," Belozerov told reporters.

🧮 "The most important issue is refereeing, it must be unshakable and honest, this principle must be observed, it is necessary to conduct training for judges, introduce digital systems that could objectively evaluate the performances of participants. We will consider the remaining issues later, the main principle is to do no harm, move forward and support our wonderful champions," he added. 

Belozerov also spoke about the need for additional training for coaches and targeted training in all types. 

🎓 "It is necessary to conduct additional training for coaches, support them. Life is developing very quickly, it is necessary to complete their studies. It is possible to provide basic training on the basis of ten educational institutions of the Ministry of Sports. I believe that it would be possible to carry out targeted training in sports, I am going to discuss this with the Ministry of Sports, and also conduct additional training events," the head of the Russian Gymnastics Federation concluded. 

🤸"It is important to see what elements, despite the illegal sanctions, can be implemented on the international stage, we will make every effort to return to the Olympic movement, to the international stage, but if the illegal sanctions continue, we will develop other formats - this includes BRICS and other possible options in order to maintain a good level of competition," Belozerov told reporters.