Ural Federal University: University to Create Center for Development of University Sport
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to consider creating a Center for the Development of University Sport in the Ural Federal University, this order was given following a meeting of the Presidential Council on Physical Culture and Sports in April, the Kremlin website reports.
“We are working systematically to solve the task set by the President of Russia – to increase to 70% the number of citizens regularly engaged in sports by 2030. Only last year we held sports events in which more than 2 million people participated. We built, renovated and equipped 30 sports facilities. Sverdlovsk athletes have won more than 200 medals of the international level,” Evgeny Kuyvashev, Sverdlovsk Region Governor, said earlier.
“Engaging young people in a healthy lifestyle is one of our key tasks, our so-called third mission along with education and research. The Center for Development of University Sport can become not only a training ground for athletes, but will also allow us to accumulate the university’s experience in conducting major sport events and educational and methodological support of physical education classes, which confirms the university’s status as a driver of regional development,” emphasizes Victor Koksharov, Rector of UrFU.
Proposals for the establishment of a Center for the Development of University Sport should be prepared by December 30 this year. According to Leonid Rapoport, Minister of Physical Culture and Sports of the Sverdlovsk Region, the region has a good base for the development of university sports.
“Student sport is the basis of high-performance sports and by its nature combines both mass and amateur sports. This assignment will make it possible to create regulatory, organizational and resource foundations for a new round of student sports development in the Sverdlovsk Region. It will allow transferring these approaches to the whole country in the future. In the near future, we will submit proposals with the management of Ural Federal University to create a center,” said Leonid Rapoport.
“We work closely with our Siberian colleagues who are responsible for hosting the 2019 Winter Universiade, and I am sure that by the fall we will have prepared regulations on the centers and other documents that will allow us to prioritize their creation,” adds Evgeny Shurmanov, Director of the Institute of Physical Education, Sports and Youth Policy at Ural Federal University.
The regional department of information policy reports that in Sverdlovsk Region about 40 thousand students of higher education institutions and more than 60 thousand students of professional educational organizations are engaged in physical culture and sports. There are 12 student sports clubs in the region. The Ural actively participate in the championships of student sports leagues of Russia in the following sports: basketball, volleyball, rugby sevens, soccer, ice hockey, boxing, and also take part in the All-Russian Summer and Winter Universiades.
“It has become traditional for the region to hold the regional Universiade in 32 types of competitions, in which more than 2.5 thousand students take part every year. All in all, about 12 thousand sport events are held in the Middle Urals annually,” the report says.