Olympic challenges: who has been elected to the new leadership of the ROC

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has formalized the status of Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev as president of the organization. On Friday, he was elected by the Olympic Assembly on a non-alternative basis. Although back in October, when the minister's candidacy was approved at the presidential council on the development of physical culture and sports held in Ufa, it was clear that the minister would have no competitors.

Degtyarev will lead the ROC for at least the next four years. A new executive committee of the organization was elected for the same term. There are four new influential members - Arkady Rotenberg, a major businessman, first vice-president of the Russian Judo Federation and chairman of the board of the Russian Hockey Federation (RHF); Dmitry Mazepin, a well-known businessman, former president of the Uralchem company and president of the Russian Aquatics Federation; Pyotr Fradkov, chairman of PJSC Promsvyazbank and chairman of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (VFLA); and Alexander Dyukov, chairman of the board of Gazpromneft and president of the Russian Football Union (RFU).

President of the ROC

The idea of nominating Mikhail Degtyarev as a candidate for the post of ROC president emerged in October, when the previous head of the organization Stanislav Pozdnyakov announced his impending resignation. Then in his post in his Telegram channel he wrote that "the geopolitical challenges faced by the country dictate the need to optimize and centralize the management of key areas of activity, including high-performance sports".

Given the phrases about optimization and centralization of management, as well as the importance of the role of the state, few people were surprised when, literally the day after that statement, it became known that Degtyarev would be nominated for the presidency of the ROC. Never before in the history of our Olympic Committee has it been led by a sitting sports minister.

But with the uncertainty of the ROC's role after February 2022, such a combination seemed logical to many. The fact is that the Olympic Committee is largely in charge of relations with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as the preparation of athletes for the Olympic Games, including ensuring their accommodation, training camps and legal procedures directly at the competitions.

Given the absence of Russians at the Olympics, the ROC, in fact, found itself without certain functionality. Therefore, it was decided to temporarily make it an organization duplicating the Ministry of Sport. Hence, in October, at the council meeting in Ufa, when the issue of Degtyarev's nomination was raised, the minister himself told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he was ready to take the post if the head of state agreed on his candidacy. The approval from the first person of the country was received.

Expectedly Degtyarev turned out to be the only candidate. Therefore, his election at the Olympic assembly was a pure formality. It is interesting that out of 199 delegates of the assembly not all of them voted for him - two abstained. It is difficult to know who went across the general line, as the voting procedure was secret.

In his speech before the Olympic Assembly Mikhail Degtyarev again mentioned the optimization of management processes, but at the same time he emphasized that the ROC will retain its autonomy and there will be no merger with the Ministry of Sport.

- It is necessary to optimize management processes in our national sport and create a single channel of communication with the international sports community, - said the new head of the ROC. - In fact, we are talking about the formation of a "single window" and a single legal and media headquarters for all sports issues. This will make it possible to conduct multilateral negotiations and gradually expand equal international sports cooperation. This is a key component of the process of Russia's return to world sport. At the same time, the autonomy of the Russian Olympic Committee will be preserved. There will be no merger of the Ministry of Sport and the ROC. We are talking about unified and coordinated actions in the interests of Russia's return to the international Olympic movement. A public organization cannot cope with coordinated political pressure from outside alone.

The Minister of Sport called the goal of his work the removal of all restrictions and full participation of our athletes in all international competitions under the national flag, the integration of Russian representation in the governing bodies of international sports organizations (councils, executive committees, committees, commissions), as well as the restoration of the status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the status of the ROC in the IOC.

- Today Russian sport is facing unprecedented external pressure," Degtyarev said. - Thousands of our athletes are being discriminated against. The purpose of these sanctions is obvious: not only to discriminate against our sport, but to provoke us to retaliate, to make us slam the door. The result is predictable: Russia's return to the world sports arena after self-isolation would be virtually impossible - there would simply be no one to perform at the high level to which our national sport has been moving for more than 100 years. To avoid this fatal scenario, it is now especially important not to give in to unnecessary emotions and to preserve any opportunity for our athletes to win medals at international competitions and bring them home to Russia. They are not renouncing their Russian citizenship, the whole world knows what country they represent. And we should not create additional obstacles for them from within.

The new head of the ROC called for an end to aggressive rhetoric against international colleagues.

- Many of them, including members of the IOC, have long ago realized that global sport without Russia "does not fly", - emphasized Mikhail Degtyarev. - During numerous unofficial contacts they directly say that they want Russia to return to the international Olympic movement. For the same reasons, all new interstate formats such as the BRICS Games, SCO Games, Future Games, Union Games and other competitions organized by Russia are held not instead of, but together with traditional international competitions and in accordance with the international sports calendar.

The new head also noted the importance of strengthening the legal fight for the return of the Russian flag to the Olympic, Paralympic and Deaflympic Games, being surprised by the small number of specialists in this field in the staff of the ROC.

- It is necessary to strengthen the staff of international lawyers who defend the interests of Russian sport in international courts and other instances, - Degtyarev noted. - It is surprising that the ROC has only three lawyers on its staff.

The delegates of the Olympic Assembly expressed hope that the new president of the ROC will be able to bring our sport back into the international orbit.

- Degtyarev's candidacy satisfied everyone at the general meeting," Natalia Gart, president of the Russian Luge Federation, told Izvestia. - Personally, in the speech of the Minister of Sport and the new president of the ROC, I heard the main thing for me - where we are going now. And we are on our way to the warming of international relations. I believe that this is a very wise approach - to do everything possible to ensure that our athletes return to the international arena and perform there, despite all the resentments we have for the unfair sanctions to which Russian sport has been subjected over the past two and a half years. Mikhail Vladimirovich has clearly outlined this position, and we hope that with his arrival in the ROC the process of mass return of our athletes to international competitions will begin.

Executive Committee

The main event of the elections to the Executive Committee was the return of a soccer representative to its composition. It became the president of the RFU Alexander Dyukov. Considering the fact that due to the managerial specifics of this organization rarely overlaps with the ROC in its work, the November decision of the bureau of the executive committee of the union to nominate its representative was quite surprising.

Russian soccer has not been represented in the Olympic movement since 2018, when Nikolay Tolstykh, who had been on the ROC's executive committee since 2014 and served as RFU president from 2012-2015, left. At that time, the union did not nominate anyone to replace him. Vyacheslav Koloskov, the honorary president of the organization, who attended the Olympic meeting as a delegate from the RFU, called Dyukov's election logical.

- "Today the RFU is one of the leading sports federations in Russia," Koloskov told Izvestia. - I can confidently say that no other federation does as much work as the RFU does. We can mention everything that is done by the organization in school soccer, youth soccer, soccer of secondary and higher educational institutions, soccer in the regions, the creation of soccer academies, academies of coaching skills, not to mention a huge number of competitions. And the international activity, despite all the sanctions, is quite successful, taking into account the difficult situation. The RFU has not been expelled from FIFA and UEFA and has not suspended its membership in them. Plus, the RFU's gigantic budget shows that it is one of the leaders in Russian sports. Previously, after Tolstykh, no one was nominated to the ROC because no one was sitting in the RFU leadership. And Dyukov has been heading the organization for more than five years, is going to be re-elected for another four years in February, and has proven to be a very successful manager. It is logical that now he and Degtyarev will try to join forces in the development, including the work on the return of our athletes to international competitions.

The election of Mazepin, Belozerov and Fradkov to the executive committee of the ROC was expected, as only in the fall they headed major federations, and Mazepin and Belozerov actually fulfilled one of Degtyarev's main strategic messages - to unite a number of federations to match the structure of international analogues. Thus, the federations of swimming, synchronized swimming, diving and water polo were united under the Aquatics Federation. And under the Russian Gymnastics Federation, the All-Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, the Russian Federation of Sport Gymnastics, the Russian Trampoline Federation, the Russian Federation of Sport Acrobatics and the All-Russian Federation of Sport Aerobics were united.

Previously, these structures were managed separately, while FINA (International Aquatics Federation) and FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) historically represent a single governing body in their respective sports.

In addition to President Degtyarev, the new ROC executive committee will have a total of 28 members - 22 representatives of national federations, one representative of the ROC Athletes' Commission (its chairman, Olympic track and field champion Yuri Borzakovsky), one IOC member (President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev), two honorary members of the IOC (Honorary President of the ROC Vitaly Smirnov, four-time Olympic swimming champion Alexander Popov), as well as ROC Director General Roman Kramar and Secretary General of the ROC, who were elected to their positions on Friday.