Sport as a National Priority and Element of International Politics
Valdai Discussion Club Conference Hall (42, Bolshaya Tatarskaya st., Moscow, Russia)
List of speakers

A meeting on an unusual subject and in an unusual format took place at the Valdai International Discussion Club on June 27. Russian university students spoke with Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation Pavel Kolobkov, who is, incidentally, a brilliant fencer. It was a useful and enthusiastic meeting.

The Valdai Club mostly deals with international politics, and sports, as its Research Director Fyodor Lukyanov noted, is a new subject for it. However, today sports and politics are interrelated: it is enough to recall the rivalry between different countries in a bid to host the Olympics or other events. Sports and politics have become inseparable, for better or for worse. “Today, sports and politics are being discussed in this exact context, and sports is not leaving the international agenda,” Kolobkov agreed. “This is a fact of life, and it has been so since the first Olympics. Ideally, they should be separated, but this is impossible, so all sports leadership should understand sport’s significance for politics and the great importance of this aspect,” he said. He noted that an active role in the development of sports is played by such international organizations as UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the World Ant-Doping Agency (WADA), which monitors the manipulation of sports results.

The minister’s speech and answers to questions from students were far from politics for the most part, and focused on the situation and trends in international and Russian sports. He called Russia a “great sports power” and noted that since 1980 Russia has hosted five major sports events, including two Olympics in 1980 and 2014. In 2018, Russia also hosted the FIFA World Cup, which drew millions of fans and was recognized by FIFA as the best in history. Owing to these successes, Russia has again positioned itself as one of the world’s top sports powers.

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“We are guided by the best models and sectoral laws. Today, the priorities in sports are moving from top achievements to grassroots sports,” the minister said. “Not so long ago, the first federal sports project was included in the list of national proprities.

“In his May executive orders, the president set the task of increasing the involvement of people in sports to 55 percent. Now it is about 40 percent. However, our task is not just to reach this figure, but also to change the attitude of people to sports and their heath,” Kolobkov said.

However, there is yet much to be done. Kolobkov mentioned the need to improve the system of training sport reserve as well as personnel in different sports, and also to upgrade competition regulations. When asked by Lukyanov about the biggest changes in sports in the past quarter century, Kolobkov noted the appearance of new players from Asian and Latin American countries. He observed that some countries like Brazil mostly work on one event whereas Russia’s strengths are multidiscipline events, with all-round development of many skills at once.

In their questions to the minister, students covered a wide range of issues, such as the status of martial arts and cybersports, women’s football, limits on foreign athletes (the so-called “legionnaires”), problems of student sports teams and the development of sports in Russia’s regions. The minister emphasized the special influence of the construction of stadiums and new infrastructure on the regions and the reduction in the number of negative sport-related incidents.

He made a special statement on the 2015 doping scandal when Russian track-and-field athletes were accused of massive doping.

At that time, this issue was strongly politicized. However, Kolobkov said it is best not to fuel panic. “Violations are committed in many countries,” he said. “Guilty athletes will certainly be punished, but this is a global problem, not just a Russian one".

"Any suspicions of violations lead to an increase in checks. I wouldn’t say that each case is politically motivated and would approach such cases calmer, without excessive emotions,” he said.

Considering the attention Kolobkov devotes to sports and his calm attitude to political issues, there is nothing to worry about. So let’s hope next time sports will be discussed in the Valdai Club in the same positive vein.