Honorary President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Deputy Chairman of the RIOU Board of Trustees

Born on 10 October 1946 in Dedenev, Dmitrovsky, Moscow region

Attended a special ski school from the age of seven.
Took part in USSR and Russian alpine skiing competitions, and later became Master of Sports of the USSR, due to his success in competition and his commitment to his national team.
During the same period of time, he also enjoyed football; his football team won USSR competitions for amateur teams. He became Master of Sports in football.
1971: appointed senior alpine skiing instructor of the Moscow region
1973: graduated from the Moscow Regional Pedagogical Institute
1971-1975: studied at a specialist alpine school in Austria, where he trained as a professional instructor and coach
1976: appointed general coach of the Soviet alpine team. Before this he worked as personal coach and helped a number of athletes train to become a part of the Soviet Olympic team. His apprentices include: A.Zhirov and V. Zelenskaya, four-time winners of the World Cup; V. Tsiganov, World Cup winner; V. Andreev, N. Andreeva, and V. Makeev, repeated World Cup winners; S. Gladisheva, World Championship bronze medallist and Olympic Games silver medallist in 1994.
Acknowledged by FIS as the best alpine coach of the 1980-1981 season.

1995-1999: Chairman of the Russian State Sport Committee. For the next year and a half he was First Vice-President of the Russian Olympic Committee
Until 2007: President of the Alpine and Snowboard Federation of Russia, then Honorary President
18 July 2001: unanimously elected President of the Russian Olympic Committee
22 December 2005: re-elected President of the Russian Olympic Committee
2007-2010: member of the Council of Federation from the Rostovskaya region
2006: elected Vice-President of the FIS
2008: re-elected Vice-President of the FIS

He was one of the initiators of the programme of winter sports development in Sochi, as well as the city's bid for the Olympic Winter Games in 2014. After Sochi bid's victory, he became a member of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee's Supervisory Board, and SC Olympstroy.

Awards:
Honorary Physical Culture Worker of the Russian Federation
Medals and orders from the USSR, the Russian Federation, as well as other countries across the world
The Olympic Order