23.05.2022

On May 23, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconferencing on measures to popularize sports and train high-class athletes.

In our country, the sports infrastructure is consistently developing. The interest of youth in sports is being stimulated. Over the past five years, 118 sports complexes have been put into operation and 110 have been reconstructed. For the first time, the five-stage competitions have started at all makhallas (the local residential communities) to involve the youth in sports. More than 3 million young people took part in the first and second stages, which took place in April-May this year.

Along with this, not enough attention is paid to the selection of gifted youth and the training of professional athletes. There is no interaction between sports schools, which are the initial link in training and the colleges of the Olympic reserve and schools of higher sportsmanship. For example, in 190 youth sports schools only 10 Olympic sports are trained. The sports federations do not systematically deal with colleges of the Olympic reserve.

In this regard, the meeting has defined the introduction of a new system of training and selection of athletes.

Thus, from now on, the competitions shall be held at each makhalla in April-June and September-December, the youth with good results will be enlisted in the electronic list and will have the opportunity to train free of charge with qualified coaches at a local sports school. Depending on the level of physical fitness and category, they will move on to the next stage of training. The sports schools shall become the base for certain Olympic sports. The salaries of coaches shall be increased by 35%.

The responsible persons were instructed to introduce this system and stimulate makhallas that have shown good results. By the end of the year, the multifunctional sports grounds will be built at 508 makhallas.

Today, the teens over 14 years of age are admitted to Olympic reserve colleges, as a result of which the preparation of youth for the Olympic Games begins late.

Therefore, based on the study of the best practices of developed countries, the system of professional training of athletes shall be reformed. Thus, the sports colleges shall be reorganized into training centers for Olympic and Paralympic sports. They shall create Olympic schools for grades 5-9, Olympic and Paralympic colleges for grades 10-11 and 1-2 courses. These educational institutions will accept the youth who show good results in sports schools and competitions.

At the Ministry of Sports Development a Council of Coaches shall be formed from leading coaches and international experts, which will select the youth, known to have achieved the best results in competitions to colleges. The college graduates shall be able to continue their studies at the Institute of Higher Sports Excellence in the future. Thus, a continuous system of training professional athletes shall be created.

The Ministry of Sports Development was tasked with identifying 20 promising Olympic sports and creating regional support bases for them.

It was also noted that the potential of sports science is not fully used. The domestic scientists have not developed methods or programs for any of the sports. Today, the training of athletes is based on programs of 30 years ago. The specialists in sports nutrition, pharmacology, psychology, sports engineering and cardio training are not trained.

In this regard, the need to develop programs for physical and psychological training, healthy nutrition for athletes focused on Olympic sports was emphasized. It was instructed to organize training from the next academic year for specialists in the field of sports nutrition, engineering and cardio training at the University of Physical Culture and Sports, in sports medicine and pharmacology at the Medical Academy.

The ministers and khokims (governors and mayors) reported on the issues discussed at the meeting.