Chief of Russia’s governing Olympic body Pozdnyakov plans to step down before end of year

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), has proposed that the ROC Executive Committee hold early elections in December, at which time he will resign, the ROC’s official website announced in a statement on Tuesday.
The ROC Executive Committee is scheduled to hold its regular session on November 7, when it will decide on ROC President Pozdnyakov’s proposal.
“I am confident that during its next session on November 7, the ROC Executive Board will uphold my proposal and set a new date for the [Russian] Olympic Convention in order to elect a new executive committee for the Russian Olympic Committee,” the statement quotes Pozdnyakov as saying.
“Geopolitical challenges that our country faces today dictate the need to optimize and centralize the management of key spheres of activities, which include high performance sports,” the ROC president said.
“The government’s role today is more important than ever: to ensure the most effective results with appropriate financial support, creating and holding new formats of high-level competitions, as well as forming quality conditions for training future generations of strong, competitive athletes,” he continued.
“In order to further strengthen the Olympic Movement in Russia, timely preconditions emerged, including economic ones, to elect a new [ROC] leader and reshuffle the [executive] team,” Pozdnyakov added.
Pozdnyakov, 51, has helmed the ROC since 2018. From 2016 to 2022, he served as the chief of the European Fencing Confederation. He is a four-time Olympic champion in saber-fencing, in addition to being a ten-time world champion.
Following Pozdnyakov’s statement about his possible no resignation no applications to run for the post ROC president’s post were received.
“Global changes are underway today in the in world of sports and they force us making strategic decisions,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said commenting on Pozdnyakov’s decision against running for another presidential post in the Russian Olympic Committee.
“President Vladimir Putin instructed earlier to strengthen the sovereignty of national sports,” he continued.
“It is essential to enhance the vertical of the sports industry’s management, consolidate the aspirations and resources of all levels of the government, corporations, businesses and public organizations,” Chernyshenko, who oversees issues of sports, culture and tourism in the Russian government, added.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board convened for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20 and following the opening day it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in the Parade of Athletes and also exclude them from the 2024 Olympics overall medal standings.
The IOC, however, ruled that Russian athletes, cleared to participate in the 2024 Olympics, would not have to sign anything denouncing their country’s special military operation in Ukraine.
On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.
The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.
The suspension meant that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.