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Track and field has found a heavyweight
The trend of appointing domestic business leaders to the posts of heads of major sports federations will continue with the appointment of Promsvyazbank Chairman Petr Fradkov as President of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF). ARAF became the main victim of the doping crisis, which deprived Russian track and field athletes of the opportunity to participate in top-level competitions for several years. However, even after the restoration of track and field as a representative Olympic sport, various problems have not disappeared, and experts call the situation a “catastrophe.”
The fact that serious changes will soon occur in the leadership of the All-Russian Athletics Federation became clear from the posts of the Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev in his Telegram channel. In it, Degtyarev reported that his department supports the candidacy of the chairman of Promsvyazbank Petr Fradkov in the elections for the president of the ARAF. It is planned to be held in Moscow on November 23. The current president of the federation is Petr Ivanov. Mikhail Degtyarev reported that he discussed this issue with Mr. Fradkov "at a working meeting."
He also noted that Petr Fradkov, the son of former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, served as chairman of the board of directors of the All-Russian Athletics Federation for more than two years and "invested a lot of effort and money in the development of Russian track and field." "For two years, his program to restore the federation's position in the international arena has been implemented, and systematic work is underway to improve the quality of competitions. "In addition, the board of directors, headed by chairman Petr Fradkov, voted to implement a long-term development strategy for the All-Russian Athletics Federation until 2030, strengthening cooperation with regional federations, which is also a positive signal for the world of athletics." Degtyarev.
There is no doubt that Mr. Fradkov will win the election. In fact, a similar plan, when Mikhail Degtyarev publicly expressed support for his candidacy, has already been applied twice to the new structures that emerged from the merger of gymnastics and water sports. The head of Russian Railways, Oleg Belozerov, already held the post of president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation, and the only candidate in the elections to the Russian Swimming Federation is Dmitry Mazepin, a well-known businessman and co-owner of Uralchem.
The nomination of Pyotr Fradkov, another leader of the domestic business sector with close ties to the ruling elite, appears to be yet another confirmation of the trend started by Mikhail Degaryov. This is about strengthening the “state vertical” and “centralization” of Russian sports, including similar personnel decisions (see Kommersant of October 16).
Petr Fradkov created a no less amazing and complex alliance than Oleg Belozerov and Dmitry Mazepin.
Track and field, which is usually called the “royal” sport of the Olympic program due to its huge “share” and popularity, was once one of Russia’s undisputed trump cards. But in the middle of the last decade, everything changed dramatically. The first and main victim of the doping crisis was track and field, which had suffered greatly for a long time. In 2015, the ARAF received the status of an unrecognized federation due to violations related to doping and corruption. This forced Russian track and field athletes to compete in international competitions in a neutral status and with a significantly reduced composition, and they were unable to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Five years later, at the Tokyo Olympics, only 10 Russian athletes won two medals. Silver was won by pole vaulter Anzhelika Sidorova, and gold was won by the famous high jumper Maria Lasitskene.
As the crisis unfolded, the president of the ARAF changed several times. In late 2020, businessman Petr Ivanov, who had previously headed the Russian Triathlon Federation, became its head. It was down there that the structure was finally restored. World Athletics approved it in 2023. However, the event did not have a positive impact on the promotion of Russian athletes on the world stage. The reason is that World Athletics took a surprisingly tough stance on Russia after the start of the special operation in Ukraine. Almost all the well-known federations overseeing summer sports approved participation in the Games on a neutral basis after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) relaxed its recommendations on the “quarantine regime” last year and must meet a number of criteria. The Athletics Federation, led by Britain’s Sebastian Coe, was almost the only exception. So even if that were the case, the ARAF would not have been able to send a team to the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
However, sports manager Andrei Mitkov told Kommersant that international isolation is far from the most pressing problem for track and field. He called the events of recent years "a disaster in every respect except doping."
The expert said: “Despite the fact that the ARAF charter does not comply with the international charter, there are many cases where the federation itself does not follow it,” and noted that the sporting part of its work has also “failed.”
Andrey Mitkov noted that only five Russian track and field athletes met the Olympic standards this season, and only high jumper Danil Lysenko topped the list of best results shown in the framework. According to Andrey Mitkov, thanks to the appointment of Petr Fradkov, we see that "the sports minister sees problematic stories and tries to solve them in a broad sense through influential people with good resources" and "we can conclude that "I am interested in developing" sports."