Alexander Katushev: in the seventh cycle of the program "Sports Management", a new discipline appeared - "The system and mechanism of spending money in the public sector in regards to the sports industry"
- First, I want to note that the year 2015 is the anniversary of "The Russian Olympians Foundation", - said Alexander Katushev. - A little more than 10 years ago, July 27, 2005, the Fund was officially registered. And for this anniversary, another pleasant event “caught up”. Today, September 23rd, ends the seventh cycle of the program "Sports management", which we are implementing jointly with the Russian International Olympics University. In all, 150 people have been trained from 52 regions of Russia.
- What distinguishes the seventh cycle from previous ones?
- I would like to note that the candidates for the training program "Sports management" in RIOU offer us a variety of sports organizations - unions, regional sport committees. Typically, an application is justified based on the fact that the candidates will continue to use their knowledge in their practice. This time we received two applications directly from the heads of the largest federations - Vadim Zelichenko (track and field athletics) and four-time Olympic champion Vladimir Salnikov (swimming). So participants in the program became "winter" European champion in the women's 1500m, Anna Alminova and Olympic champion and eight-time world champion for swimming in open water, Larisa Ilchenko. The heads of the federation based the application for their training on the fact that after the end of the course both will be appointed to senior positions. It is very pleasant and important because the program "Sports management" is build on the principle of practical usefulness. In the seventh cycle there was a slight faculty change, and now the overwhelming majority of them are practitioners, not theorists. That is, professionals, who work every day with what they teach. Note that the program "Sports management" was discussed at a meeting of the Board of Trustees, "The Russian Olympians Foundation" under the chairmanship of Prime Minister RF Dmitry Medvedev - and on June 4th, was recommended to continue. Then it passed a peer review at a high government level, resulting in us being asked to expand the nomenclature of the subjects taught in financial topics. We, of course, did this. And in the seventh cycle of the program the discipline "system and mechanisms for use of funds in the public sector in reference to the sports industry" appeared. Let me remind you that the students not only defend their own projects, but are anonymously surveyed, evaluating the usefulness of the subject and the professionalism of teachers. Let's see how the students of the seventh cycle will evaluate the new subject.
-Are other changes possible?
-Of course, the program "Sports management" will evolve and improve in the future . Should we, once and for all, set the range of subjects - no. Almost all of our students are quite young (average - 33.8 years). Virtually all have significant achievements in their career. In the seventh cycle, two Olympic champions are training - swimming in open water, Larisa Ilchenko and rhythmic gymnastics group exercises, Tatiana Gorbunova, two Games medalists - in Judo, Lyubov Bruletova and in speed skating, Svetlana Vysokova. Since 2009, the "Fund" has been supporting the specialized youth sports school of Olympic reserve. So, in the program "Sports management" 20 percent of the students - represent SYSSOOR. It turns out that we are helping schools, not in just transferring cash grants to them, but also helping them spend these funds wisely and preparing specialists for the program "Sports management".
- Satisfied with the effective collaboration with RIOU?
- The University was established in the framework of Russia's bid to host the Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi. This project is relatively new, not only for us but also for all other countries. Everything starts from scratch: the planning of the educational process, the formation of the teaching staff, and so on. I believe that RIOU operates successfully and adequately performs the function for which at one time it was created. I believe that in the future "The Russian Olympians Foundation" and RIOU cooperation can be extended. First of all, I mention the project to launch the program "Masters of sports administration," which is designed to be at least one year of study.
