Deputy Svischev: Friendship Games postponed due to sports load in 2024
The Friendship Games have been postponed due to the large number of sporting events in 2024 and the heavy workload on the organizing committee, said Dmitry Svishchev, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports. In a conversation with Lenta.ru, he confirmed the information about the change in the event dates.
“The Friendship Games have indeed been postponed, there is no secret or mystery here. Whether it will be 2025 or 2026 – I personally do not have such information. But there is nothing surprising here – so many important sporting events have taken place in Russia and will take place, that in today’s difficult situation, it seems to me, we need to calmly accept this information and prepare to hold the Games. The organizing committee is working, meetings – I constantly participate in them, sports facilities are being prepared, built, teams are preparing,” the deputy explained.
There are many events, this places a great responsibility on the organizing committee, and the financial issue is not the last one. I don’t see anything so insoluble here. We’ll move it
The parliamentarian claims that Russia wants to see strong and talented athletes and hold the event at the highest level.
“This year, the Future Games, Children of Asia, BRICS Games, Spartakiad and many other international sporting events took place. The Olympics – no matter how you look at it, the strongest athletes will participate in the Olympic Games. We want our Games to be powerful and interesting. We don’t want it to be just one time, we want to constantly hold Friendship Games, so we need them to be held at the highest level – the way Russia can and will do it,” he added.
On July 16, the President of the Russian Weightlifting Federation (RWF) Maxim Agapitov announced the postponement of the Friendship Games. The event was to be held in September in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. “Officially, I know that these Games have been postponed until next year, so we were targeting these competitions as international ones,” he said.
At the same time, the President of the Russian Wrestling Federation (RWF) Mikhail Mamiashvili and the head coach of the Russian synchronized swimming team Tatyana Pokrovskaya reported that they know nothing about the postponement.
Source: Lenta
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