On 15 September, the Russian International Olympic University (RIOU) held an opening ceremony for the new academic year 2023-2024 in the city of Sochi. The ceremony was attended by head coach of the Russian rhythmic gymnastics national team, Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation Irina Viner, President of the Russian Rowing Federation, Olympic champion Alexey Svirin, first Vice-President of the Russian Athletics Federation, Olympic champion Irina Privalova, deputy Mayor of Sochi Elena Kanyuk, and representatives of RIOU’s partner organisations, among other special guests.
This year RIOU welcomes 78 new students from 11 countries, who will study on the university’s flagship courses of professional retraining –Master of Sport Administration and Master of Sport Management delivered in Russian, and the international Master of Sport Administration (MSA) with instruction in English. RIOU’s teaching team includes visiting professors from 8 different countries.
RIOU Rector, full member of the Russian Academy of Education Prof. Lev Belousov said: “The RIOU campus was inaugurated exactly ten years ago. Students from the first intake on the international MSA were fortunate enough to be involved in the staging of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Now the champions and medal winners from those Games come to RIOU to study. I try to meet every new student in person to get to know them better and understand their motivations. Talking to our new arrivals, I saw a genuine desire to discover new knowledge, fulfill their potentials, set ambitious goals and achieve them. Many of the current RIOU students have applied to our courses several times. This will make the time they will spend at RIOU studying sport management all the more valuable and exciting.”
The 2023 cohort were also addressed by Alexander Katushev, Executive Director of the Russian Olympians Foundation, which is providing 43 grants to Russian athletes, members of Russian Olympic teams, to study on RIOU’s programmes this year. A record number of Russian Olympic champions and medal winners are joining RIOU this September, including Sochi 2014 skeleton champion Alexander Tretyakov, fencing Olympic champions Timur Safin and Adelina Zagidullina, Sochi 2014 three-time cross-country skiing silver medallist Maxim Vylegzhanin, and two-time figure skating (pairs) Olympic silver medallist Evgenia Tarasova. The new intake also includes UEFA Euro medal winner Vladislav Radimov, and participant in two Paralympic Games (para triathlon) Anna Bychkova, among other accomplished Paralympians.
Three national sports federations nominated the largest number of their athletes to study at RIOU – the Russian Athletics Federation (7), the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation (5) and the Russian Rowing Federation (5). Their senior officials signed RIOU’s distinguished visitors’ book, and RIOU Rector Lev Belousov presented Irina Viner with a catalogue of the Vladimir Potanin Olympic Collection, which was last displayed in Saint Petersburg this June.
Irina Viner said: “The Russian International Olympic University is indispensable, because when athletes finish their competing careers, they have no understanding of or experience in business, whatever training they have received earlier. So sports federations have to attract the necessary specialists from other areas, who only know sport ‘from the outside’, while the athletes who are studying here at RIOU know it ‘from the inside’, and have a good understanding of the current issues and needs. But these athletes must come back to the federations that nominated them and apply the knowledge they have gained to benefit their sport. The facilities that RIOU provides are really world class, with a great sea view, superbly equipped lecture rooms, an interactive history museum and a dedicated library. All this creates an excellent learning environment!”
The students were adressed by the president of the Russian Paralympic Committee Pavel Rozhkov. Since its inception, RIOU has provided training to 12 Paralympians, and this year’s cohort includes two more participants of the Paralympic Games.
Eighteen students on the 10th international MSA are winners of the RIOU Scholarships competition. For many of them, this stay in Russia is their first. Congratulations and words of encouragement to them were offered by international guests, including Pranav Chendke, RIOU graduate and Head of International Relations at Shree H.V.P. Mandal, India, and Ms. Tsui Shan, President of the Russian-Chinese Foundation for the Development of Culture and Education.
RIOU and Shree H.V.P. Mandal, one of India’s leading sports universities, are cooperating in a broad range of educational programmes, including student internships. The Russian-Chinese Foundation for the Development of Culture and Education is RIOU’s long-time partner in various educational and cultural projects across Russia and China. In February 2022, the Foundation worked with RIOU to organise a virtual exhibition of the Olympic artefacts from the Vladimir Potanin Collection for millions of visitors and local residents of Beijing during the Olympic Games.
Diallo Mama C from Mali, who is a FISU (Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire) Ambassador and now a RIOU student, presented the RIOU Rector with an official letter and a souvenir statuette from his country’s National University Sports Association (FEMASSU). It should be noted that university sports is one of the main ‘suppliers’ of students for RIOU’s international MSA, with Mali becoming the 86th country whose citizens have undertaken training on this ground-breaking programme.
The opening ceremony saw the signing of two agreements, expanding RIOU’s partnership network, which now includes some 40 Russian and international organisations in the areas of professional, university and grassroots sport, higher education, culture and international cooperation. PBC Lokomotiv Kuban became the first professional basketball club to engage in cooperation with RIOU, which will focus on the training of management specialists, delivering professional enhancement courses and provision of placements for RIOU students. The partnership agreement was signed by RIOU Rector Lev Belousov and the club’s Executive Director Vladimir Belchikov.
RIOU continues to develop its productive collaboration with the Olympic sports federations in Russia. President of the Russian Rowing Federation Alexey Svirin and RIOU Rector Lev Belousov signed a memorandum, under which RIOU undertakes to train new specialists for the federation and provide professional development for its current employees, both in the coaching and management areas.
Alexey Svirin said: “The Russian International Olympic University and the Russian Rowing Federation have been working together for a number of years to deliver awareness-raising and educational projects, professional training and retraining of specialists for the rowing sport. This highly effective cooperation brings rowing in Russia to a new level, producing top-notch specialists for both participation and elite sport, and highly-skilled management professionals to work within the Olympic movement. The signing of the memorandum cements our mutually beneficial collaboration and opens us new avenues of cooperation.”
