On Friday, June 3, the Russian Skating Union elected a new president at the congress of reports and elections. Alexei Kravtsov who had led the federation since 2009, was replaced by the Olympic champion Nikolai Gulyaev .
The third candidate was Vadim Morozov, he was nominated by the Tver region. However, the elections ended in a confrontation between Kravtsov and Gulyaev. The score is 21:34. Morozov got 2 votes.
“We are fighting for ‘thousandths’ of seconds, but you can’t start voting”
“The result was clear when I suggested holding a secret ballot, but people refused to keep up the pressure,” Kravtsov said after the congress, the first part of which dragged on for a long time. Olympic short track speed skating champion, medalist of the 2022 Games in speed skating Ruslan Zakharov did not hide his emotion at this score.
“The first hour, I was ashamed to be here. We skaters fight for thousandths of seconds, you know how insulting it is to lose thousandths in the fight for gold and silver. I want you to take your job just as seriously and work just as seriously, and not make a decision for an hour and a half on a vote.
Regions Report
The main claim against Kravtsov is the same as at the previous congress – he did not come to the regions, he did not agree locally on the development of infrastructure.
“I was criticized for rarely going to competitions and regions, but I had a different approach. The state develops sports, there are many kinds of sports, and speed skating does not dominate. To bring attention to our species, it was necessary to achieve high results and then use the connections to solve other problems.
The work was organized in such a way that the federation had a team of like-minded people who worked almost selflessly for the benefit of the development of speed skating – those sponsors who existed before the demise of Sochi even before the holding of the Olympic Games.
The question on infrastructure projects (of the regions) is rhetorical. Everyone would like this: I am in the region, I have nothing, my uncle will come from Moscow, go to the governor, and I will have everything. It doesn’t happen, and it never will. For the region to develop, all the hard and most difficult preliminary work is done by the regional federations – credit to you for this praise, otherwise it is impossible. As for our side of the job, not a single request has ever gone unnoticed, they have always been available around the clock,” Kravtsov said before presenting his program.
At that time, the executive committee had already received “failed” for the reference period.
Who will be your general manager?
All candidates had the same answer to this question – they would like Varvara Barysheva to work:
“I am very overwhelmed by the record of our activities over the past four years, we have worked in good faith, and many of you, being uncommitted, would recognize that. Together with many of you, we have resolved issues that are now being hushed up for some reason and recognized as unresolved, as if we haven’t been anywhere and seen anyone Colleagues, as an industry we are in a tough spot, especially now due to conditions in the world … Yesterday the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation wrote a letter to the executive authorities signed by Oleg Vasilyevich Matytsin about preventing interference in the affairs of state bodies. impossible to imagine what it was, and I know these facts.
It is with great pleasure that I will continue to work for the cause, which is my life’s work. Thank you to everyone who has worked with me over these four years – I’m talking about the regions. Thanks to my colleagues for being my support. Thanks to Alexey Yuryevich Kravtsov for everything he has done for Russian speed skating.
new president
After being elected, Gulyaev answered the following question about the pressure exerted on the delegates: “I don’t know about that, although such rumors have been heard from both sides. I am a believer in absolute transparency and creating competitive conditions, because I am used to achieving my goals in a fair fight, it was the same on the skating rink and in public service of the Moscow government.
At that time, it was already known that the lawyer of the Russian Olympic Committee Lev Stepanov and the adviser to the head of the ROC on work with sports federations David Muslims were not allowed to participate in the congress. From the Ministry of Sports, the meeting was attended by Alexei Drozdov, director of the high-level sports department.
The ROC issued a statement in the evening that it would give a legal assessment of what had happened.
Kravtsov, in turn, confirmed to the media that he was not going to contest the election results and would not remain in speed skating – the new president offered the previous “honorary” position, “not provided for in the charter “.
Gulyaev at the congress promised the delegates to be more attentive to the problems of the regions.
— I see the main role in strengthening regional federations and local offices. And our job is to help you do that. I have many relationships with the heads of regional ministries and regions. This is a very important factor in the promotion and popularization of this sport. We can move and draw the attention of the leaders (of the regions) to solving these problems,” Gulyaev said at the congress.
He also spoke in favor of activating the work of coaching councils, improving the quality of the organization of departures, optimizing the competition schedule and popularizing the sport.
— Ready to work in full contact 24/7 with everyone. I think, dear colleagues, that my experience as both an athlete and a manager can be useful in this work.
From this congress, some immediately went to another – to Phuket, where elections for the leadership of the International Skating Union will be held. The same rule will be considered there, which may cost the Russian side a place in the ISU family, for this it will take 4/5 votes of the delegates who came to the congress.
— Neither speed skating nor short track without Russia is possible at world level, — Gulyaev said when approaching the press.
– In Beijing, there were two medals in short track and in skates. What tasks can you set for the next Olympics?
“I wish it was at least as good. But still, the main task at the Games is gold. Those who seek will always find, those who want will always succeed.
In addition to Gulyaev, Alexander Kibalko, Sergey Orlov, Vladimir Chuvakov, Alexander Fedorov, Ivan Bashkov, Alexander Kibalko, Valery Prusov, Nikolai Tretyakov, Lyubov Zarko, Viktor Pavlov, Mikhail Voskresensky, Evgeny Melchakov “will complete” this and other tasks in the composition of the new executive committee Elena Ivanova, Konstantin Starkov, Dmitry Demakov, Andrey Vakhutin.
Source : MatchTV
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