R.T. Burganov, Minister of Youth, Sport and Tourism
Ministry of Youth, Sport and Tourism, the Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan

Key words: legacy, kinds of sport, results of competitions.

Universiade 2013 successfully held in Kazan showed that university sport is developing and getting more popular in our country and all over the world. The high level of the Universiade organization is obvious. President of the Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin and FISU President Mr. Claude–Louis Gallien mentioned this fact more than once.

Six hundred sixty three young, persistent and hard-working athletes represented Russian Federation. The Russian team became the largest team during the Games. We are proud that coordinated teamwork of the territorial authorities in the field of sport and Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation helped so many students to participate in the second largest international competitions in the world.

Russian athletes finished Games in Kazan with triumph and won the first place of the team. All medal records of the previous Universiade were broken. In 5 day our national team set an absolute record in the amount of medals after the Universiade in Moscow in 1973, where national team got 69 gold medals. Two days after Russia broke the record of the Chinese national team set in Shenzhen in 2011, by getting 100 gold medals which no team had got before.

Four athletes of the Russian team became four–times winners of the Universiade in four sports: Margarita Mamun (rhythmic gymnastics), Vladimir Morozov (swimming), Viktoriya Andreeva (swimming) and Julia Efimova (swimming). 17 athletes became three times winners of the Universiade in shooting, swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and artistic gymnastics, synchronized swimming and canoe rowing.

The analysis of the athletes’ performance at the Universiade 2013 in Kazan and in Shenzhen 2011 indicates that in 2013 the Russian team won 122 medals more among them plus 77 gold medals comparing to the result of the Universiade 2011. We left behind even such strong giants of the world sport like Chinese athletes. Chinese athletes are leading in different sports. In Kazan the Chinese team got the second place with the result of 77 medals, 26 out of them are gold, 29 silver and 22 bronze.

Totally, Russian team got 292 medals, more than half of them are gold medals. It makes 44 % of all medals during the Universiade 2013. This is an absolute record regarding the amount of medals over the history of the Universiade. Russia was waiting for such a triumph for very long time. We hope that Russia will win the victory during Winter Olympic Games in Sochi 2014 and get to the top of the podium.

It is important that athletes from the Republic of Tatarstan also contributed to the success. For the first time 54 athletes represented the Republic of Tatarstan within the Russian team (for comparison 38 athletes from the Republic of Tatarstan were at the Shenzhen Universiade). They competed in such sports like belt wrestling (Koresh), field hockey, athletics, swimming, volleyball, shooting, table tennis etc. Athletes from the Republic of Tatarstan participated in 20 sports out of 27 sports of the Universiade. They won 40 medals 20 of them are gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze medals. This makes 13, 7 % from the total number of medals won by Russian athletes. In Shenzhen, our athletes won 10 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze medals.

The Government of the Republic of Tatarstan rewarded the winners of the Universiade 2013, their personal trainers and specialists assisting to athletes, besides the money reward for sports achievements set by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation.

150 thousand rubles for gold medal (per person), 90 thousand rubles for silver (per person) and 60 thousand for bronze (per person) were allocated to athletes from the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan. Trainers get 50 % of their athletes’ prize money. Besides, according to the Cabinet of Ministers’ Decree, monthly bursary was introduced for leading athletes of the Republic of Tatarstan for high results. Winners and prizewinners of the Universiade will get 40 thousand, 30 thousand and 25 thousand rubles accordingly.

Winning a record amount of medals during the Universiade in Kazan confirms that efforts and means directed to the development of physical training and sport, sports facilities and training of elite athletes bring results. Due to the Universiade 18 sports facilities were given to the universities. We create wonderful conditions for 70 thousand students to go into sports and physical training close to their university campuses. Nowadays schoolchildren get 1 hour for physical education lessons on all Universiade sports facilities. Students of sport schools have their trainings on weekdays from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Over 20 thousand students from 38 youth sport schools specializing in 43 sports can use gyms and swimming pools for trainings.

Citizens visit sport facilities from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. on weekends for free. These conditions enable an increase in the number of people going in for sports on the regular base and improve the level of these trainings. Citizens use modern high quality sports facilities (gyms, swimming pools, ice rinks) designed for top-rank competitions. This contributes to greater popularity and enhancement of the prestige of physical trainings and sport. The average amount of citizens attending sports facilities (gyms, swimming pools, ice rinks) is over 33 thousand people per month.

International and all–Russian Championships, Cups and other competitions are held in the Universiade facilities on the regular base.

Universiade showed once again that sport is a great uniting power, that this is a bright page in our life and a worthy page in the sports history of Tatarstan.

References

1. Rafis Burganov presented awards to the employees of the directorate of Student Games [Electronic source]: official web site of the directorate of the XXVII World Summer Student Games-2013 in Kazan. – Kazan – URL: http://kazan2013.ru/ru/news_items/11062 (In Russian)