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What Stanislav Pozdnyakov was remembered for in his positions in the ROC
On October 15, the Chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov announced his resignation. A highlight of his career as Vice President and President of the ROC is the mention in Kommersant.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov was elected first vice-president of the Russian Olympic Committee in December 2016 amid a high-profile doping scandal involving Russian athletes. Doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov spoke out in favor of the existence of a national doping program in the Russian Federation.
As a result of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigation, South Korea was suspended from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in December 2017, and Russian athletes were forced to compete according to the rules at the upcoming Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. Neutral flag with a reduced composition.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov led the Russian delegation to the Olympics and received positive feedback for his work from IOC President Thomas Bach. Russia finished 13th in the medal count, its lowest ever, but the IOC reinstated the ROC in March 2018, and in May of that year, Pozdnyakov replaced Alexander Zhukov as the ROC’s elected president. During his inauguration, Pozdnyakov said he would seek to restore trust in sport in the country. That summer, the ROC hosted its first anti-doping forum in Moscow, attended by representatives from WADA and the IOC.
In November 2019, the ROC President called for a complete replacement of the leadership of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF), which was stripped of its membership by the International Association of Athletics Federations (World Association of Athletics Federations) for doping violations in 2015. At the same time, Mr. Pozdnyakov announced the creation of a new department in the ROC - the Sector for Ensuring Cleanliness in Sport - to work more effectively on the formation of a sustainable anti-doping culture.
At the end of 2019, the doping crisis returned to Russia. WADA sanctioned the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory for “manipulating” its database, resulting in the Russian team being banned from major international competitions: The next four years will be neutral, and the Olympic Games will also be held in a reduced format.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov described WADA sanctions as "inadequate and excessive" and formulated the main arguments of the Russian side in the dispute over the restoration of status. He noted the absence of any claims from the IOC to the ROC and the fact that: According to the Olympic Charter, it is the national Olympic team that is part of the Olympic Committee team.
At the beginning of 2020, Stanislav Pozdnyakov headed the working group on the restoration of the ARAF in world athletics, and the ROC took on part of the financial burden, allocating about 25 million rubles each month for the competition.
In September 2020, Stanislav Pozdnyakov headed the reform of the domestic sports industry and proposed strengthening and transferring control over the activities of Russian public sports associations to the ROC.
Since the start of the SVO in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian athletes, teams and sports organizations have been subject to sanctions. In March, the International Biathlon Federation suspended the Russian Biathlon Federation for violating “humanitarian obligations.” The President of the Russian Orthodox Church, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, said the decision was “political” and “not based on any legal document.”
In June 2022, an extraordinary meeting of the European Fencing Federation stripped Stanislav Pozdnyakov of his rights as president of the organization. In December 2022, he was unanimously re-elected as president of the ROC. In October 2023, the IOC suspended the ROC for an indefinite period due to its inclusion in the Olympic Councils of the DPR and LPR, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. Stanislav Pozdnyakov later stated that the IOC "lost its autonomy and independence."
Stanislav Pozdnyakov called the restrictions for Russian athletes competing at the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024 "illegal and inhumane." In April 2024, Russian tennis players participating in the Paris Olympics were subjected to neutral criticism.
In August 2024, Mr. Pozdnyakov presented a new ROC project, “Olympic Reserve – the Best for Children,” aimed at training young athletes.