Post by Global on May 8, 2010 20:47:38 GMT
15.01.2010
Boris Skrynnik, President of the Federation of International Bandy
The merited coach of Russia Boris SKRYNNIK, an Archangelsk native, a heriditary coast-dweller and an arduous enthusiast of this sport discipline, has been the president of the Federation of International Bandy (FIB) for the last five years. It is not that he merely loves the game (he played for “Vodnik” and later has been the club’s executive director and president), he basically lives it, taking everything about and around it very close to the heart.
- Boris Ivanovich, now you have even more concerns than before, since last year you were elected the president of the All Russian Bandy Federation (ARBF), replacing Albert Pomortsev, who had been in charge of it for 17 fruitful years...
- Yes, he was the most competent and successful leader, as befits the experienced captain, and I’m very grateful to him. We see the results of his work: well developed connections, productive contacts with regional governors, mayors, local sport authorities and sponsors went a long way towards increasing the ‘influence’ of the game and its popularity. The filled to the capacity stands of the venues, even in -30C or below, in Siberia, Ural, Far East, and, closer to the center, in Povolzhie, my native Archangelsk, Moscow Region, Kirov, Novgorod have become commonplace. Just like in Sweden and Finland. 25-30 thousands spectators. Not every football game can boast such attendance.
It is from those sources that we draw the reserve of great players for the national team and leading clubs. I won’t even mention the fact that in those regions bandy, due to its simplicity and easy access, also plays an important social role: it’s a great way of improving one’s health, of active recreation and attracting kids and teens to the sport. In this respect we are very grateful to the popular “Wicker ball” tournament.
Going back to Albert Ivanovich Pomortsev I would like to stress that he did a lot for promotion of bandy worldwide, he has been the president of our international federation for years, and it was during his time that IOC on its August 2004 session in Athens officially confirmed the Olympic status of bandy and its recognition of the sport. Therefore, we got official right to use Olympic symbols. So me and my colleagues, both in FIB and in ARBF, have no other choice but to continue all of it, to keep the momentum going, especially, since taking into account everything said above, we are facing a very serious challenge.
- Obviously, one could guess it in one try: gaining the official admittance to the Olympic Games for bandy. I have no desire to stir a rivalry between bandy, golf and rugby-7, but were you not envious then in October in Copenhagen IOC promoted these two disciplines from the “recognized” list, on which they had been together with bandy, to full Olympic status for 2016 Games?
- Well, I have nothing to hide: I was a bit upset and envivous, I was slightly pained on bandy’s behalf, but at the same time I was optimistic that one day we would also conquer the wall of, shall we say, lack of understanding and would be fully admitted to the Olympic family. You will see it for yourself once again at the Vancouver Games: the Games are lacking spice with only one team sport (whereas the summer Games are packed with them), ice hockey, on the schedule. Of course, there is also curling, but it could hardly be called a spectacular event.
Which steps have we undertook in the recent time? Quite a few. We have invited Mr. Jacques Rogge to Moscow and presented our sport discipline. “I’m glad, we made the right choice in Athens then we promoted FIB from temporary to permanent IOC membership. The game is captivating, it’s dynamic, expressive and easy to understand.” said IOC President. He gave us few useful advices and recommendations and formulated certain requirements. I was told that Juan Antonio Samaranch was also rather partial to the game in his time. So it is not a recent development, there is a history. Another important step to clarify our position and to promote the sport was the meetings at IOC headquarters, including the one with former IOC Director General Francois Carrard. In our talks with him we were actively supported by Olympic “heavyweight” Vitaly Georgievich Smirnov. Recently we had another opportunity to present bandy, at the IOC stand in Lausanne.
We have joined WADA, World Anti-Doping Agency, fully financed World Women Bandy Championship, relieving national federations of that burden. Another important step is the creation of the Asian Association and inclusion of the game into the program of 2011 Asian Games. It should certainly give new impetus to the development of the sport on the continent. They should not limit themselves to badminton and table tennis, in which they are masters...
It is a lot, but even more is yet to be done. It concerns further geographical expansion, development of women bandy, attracting major sponsors. We have to gain the attention of TV and media, so we have to step up our advertisement campaigns. It short, we have to work on our image and on increasing our authority, we need new management. In FIB we have created a special Olympic Development Committee (Alexey Kylasov became the head of it), which will work on those issues. One of the tasks is to encourage national Olympic committees to actively support their national bandy associations.
I would like to stress that we consider it a major achievement of all coaches, specialists, players and fans that at the last year FIB Congress we have decided to hold 2014 Championship during the Olympic Games in Sochi. Are we breaking Olympic rules and regulations? No. Every Games had its own cultural program, organized by the host city and we are planning to be a part of it. We have to thank cunning Chinese for the idea, they had staged Wu-shu World Championships this way during the 2008 Summer Games. By the way, China is one of the new countries, which are seriously interested in the development of bandy, and we expect it to become FIB member during Moscow Championship. If it happens, it will be 26th member. Just for starters the head of our Development Committee Lars Wennerholm has already hosted a special seminar there last summer.
We, and I’m speaking both on behalf of FIB and ARBF, are prepared to assist China in every way, including proving them with specialists. Mongolia has already taken the chance to employ Russian coaches. Perhaps you will be interested to learn that there is a bandy sport school in Ulan Bator, which unites more than a hundred of kids. And who is the host? Russian Orthodox Church, the idea belongs to a local priest. He was inspired by the words of Partiarch Kirill: “In our days spirituality and sport are the basics of the national security of Russia”. My intuition or my natural optimism tells me that the whole world will start to play bandy, and 2010 Moscow Championship is an important step in its further development.
- Let’s return to the Championship. It almost did not happen?
- Unfortunately, that is true. I don’t want to go into details right now, they are well known. There is nothing to be done about it, it’s recession. We cannot allow the cancellation for the reasons mentioned above. To sum it up: it would have been a heavy blow to our Olympic perspective as we would have gotten a lot of negative resonance in the international sport circles. We have explained all of it, our situation and its consequences, to Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov and we were met with full understanding, supported by the approval of holding the tournament in Moscow. On behalf of FIB, I thank the Mayor of Moscow.
- Certainly, the Russians, as the hosts, will be highly motivated to win, to take their own back on “Tre Kronor” for the last year defeat in the final. Are you concerned that their main national team goalkeeper Andreas Bergswall, who has been named the best goalkeeper of the recent world championships, now plays for “Dynamo” Kazan and therefore is quite familiar with the best Russian masters’ manner and would be hard to beat?
- I’m not worried, he had known our players pretty well even ‘before’ and we had plenty of troubles with him already because of his impenetrability. On the contrary, there is a certain challenge it, which should stir the interest. Recently we have held a youth competition in Kemerovo, do you know who was the captain of the Swedish club “Norrtelje”? Russia’s Klim Tarasneko, the son of the famous Khabarovsk hockey player Alexander Tarasenko, who now works in Stockholm. For us such ‘exchanges’ on club level are very common, not only with Sweden, but also with the Finland, I think it improves the overall level of the game. The world, including the sport one, is small. We are all one Olympic family and I’m certain that the time when we would take our rightful place in it is not far away. See for yourself how many competitions do we have under FIB auspice: world championships for various ages, World Cups, European Champions Cups and so on... We are only missing Olympic tournaments, which bandy most certainly deserves. And Paralympic Games as well, we cannot overlook people with disabilities.
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.sportforumrussia.com/doc/86541b63-5539-4322-8e4b-5f7e68e164ef
=============================================
P.S. See also Boris Skrynnik's blog (in Russian):
b-skrynnik.livejournal.com/
Boris Skrynnik, President of the Federation of International Bandy
The merited coach of Russia Boris SKRYNNIK, an Archangelsk native, a heriditary coast-dweller and an arduous enthusiast of this sport discipline, has been the president of the Federation of International Bandy (FIB) for the last five years. It is not that he merely loves the game (he played for “Vodnik” and later has been the club’s executive director and president), he basically lives it, taking everything about and around it very close to the heart.
- Boris Ivanovich, now you have even more concerns than before, since last year you were elected the president of the All Russian Bandy Federation (ARBF), replacing Albert Pomortsev, who had been in charge of it for 17 fruitful years...
- Yes, he was the most competent and successful leader, as befits the experienced captain, and I’m very grateful to him. We see the results of his work: well developed connections, productive contacts with regional governors, mayors, local sport authorities and sponsors went a long way towards increasing the ‘influence’ of the game and its popularity. The filled to the capacity stands of the venues, even in -30C or below, in Siberia, Ural, Far East, and, closer to the center, in Povolzhie, my native Archangelsk, Moscow Region, Kirov, Novgorod have become commonplace. Just like in Sweden and Finland. 25-30 thousands spectators. Not every football game can boast such attendance.
It is from those sources that we draw the reserve of great players for the national team and leading clubs. I won’t even mention the fact that in those regions bandy, due to its simplicity and easy access, also plays an important social role: it’s a great way of improving one’s health, of active recreation and attracting kids and teens to the sport. In this respect we are very grateful to the popular “Wicker ball” tournament.
Going back to Albert Ivanovich Pomortsev I would like to stress that he did a lot for promotion of bandy worldwide, he has been the president of our international federation for years, and it was during his time that IOC on its August 2004 session in Athens officially confirmed the Olympic status of bandy and its recognition of the sport. Therefore, we got official right to use Olympic symbols. So me and my colleagues, both in FIB and in ARBF, have no other choice but to continue all of it, to keep the momentum going, especially, since taking into account everything said above, we are facing a very serious challenge.
- Obviously, one could guess it in one try: gaining the official admittance to the Olympic Games for bandy. I have no desire to stir a rivalry between bandy, golf and rugby-7, but were you not envious then in October in Copenhagen IOC promoted these two disciplines from the “recognized” list, on which they had been together with bandy, to full Olympic status for 2016 Games?
- Well, I have nothing to hide: I was a bit upset and envivous, I was slightly pained on bandy’s behalf, but at the same time I was optimistic that one day we would also conquer the wall of, shall we say, lack of understanding and would be fully admitted to the Olympic family. You will see it for yourself once again at the Vancouver Games: the Games are lacking spice with only one team sport (whereas the summer Games are packed with them), ice hockey, on the schedule. Of course, there is also curling, but it could hardly be called a spectacular event.
Which steps have we undertook in the recent time? Quite a few. We have invited Mr. Jacques Rogge to Moscow and presented our sport discipline. “I’m glad, we made the right choice in Athens then we promoted FIB from temporary to permanent IOC membership. The game is captivating, it’s dynamic, expressive and easy to understand.” said IOC President. He gave us few useful advices and recommendations and formulated certain requirements. I was told that Juan Antonio Samaranch was also rather partial to the game in his time. So it is not a recent development, there is a history. Another important step to clarify our position and to promote the sport was the meetings at IOC headquarters, including the one with former IOC Director General Francois Carrard. In our talks with him we were actively supported by Olympic “heavyweight” Vitaly Georgievich Smirnov. Recently we had another opportunity to present bandy, at the IOC stand in Lausanne.
We have joined WADA, World Anti-Doping Agency, fully financed World Women Bandy Championship, relieving national federations of that burden. Another important step is the creation of the Asian Association and inclusion of the game into the program of 2011 Asian Games. It should certainly give new impetus to the development of the sport on the continent. They should not limit themselves to badminton and table tennis, in which they are masters...
It is a lot, but even more is yet to be done. It concerns further geographical expansion, development of women bandy, attracting major sponsors. We have to gain the attention of TV and media, so we have to step up our advertisement campaigns. It short, we have to work on our image and on increasing our authority, we need new management. In FIB we have created a special Olympic Development Committee (Alexey Kylasov became the head of it), which will work on those issues. One of the tasks is to encourage national Olympic committees to actively support their national bandy associations.
I would like to stress that we consider it a major achievement of all coaches, specialists, players and fans that at the last year FIB Congress we have decided to hold 2014 Championship during the Olympic Games in Sochi. Are we breaking Olympic rules and regulations? No. Every Games had its own cultural program, organized by the host city and we are planning to be a part of it. We have to thank cunning Chinese for the idea, they had staged Wu-shu World Championships this way during the 2008 Summer Games. By the way, China is one of the new countries, which are seriously interested in the development of bandy, and we expect it to become FIB member during Moscow Championship. If it happens, it will be 26th member. Just for starters the head of our Development Committee Lars Wennerholm has already hosted a special seminar there last summer.
We, and I’m speaking both on behalf of FIB and ARBF, are prepared to assist China in every way, including proving them with specialists. Mongolia has already taken the chance to employ Russian coaches. Perhaps you will be interested to learn that there is a bandy sport school in Ulan Bator, which unites more than a hundred of kids. And who is the host? Russian Orthodox Church, the idea belongs to a local priest. He was inspired by the words of Partiarch Kirill: “In our days spirituality and sport are the basics of the national security of Russia”. My intuition or my natural optimism tells me that the whole world will start to play bandy, and 2010 Moscow Championship is an important step in its further development.
- Let’s return to the Championship. It almost did not happen?
- Unfortunately, that is true. I don’t want to go into details right now, they are well known. There is nothing to be done about it, it’s recession. We cannot allow the cancellation for the reasons mentioned above. To sum it up: it would have been a heavy blow to our Olympic perspective as we would have gotten a lot of negative resonance in the international sport circles. We have explained all of it, our situation and its consequences, to Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov and we were met with full understanding, supported by the approval of holding the tournament in Moscow. On behalf of FIB, I thank the Mayor of Moscow.
- Certainly, the Russians, as the hosts, will be highly motivated to win, to take their own back on “Tre Kronor” for the last year defeat in the final. Are you concerned that their main national team goalkeeper Andreas Bergswall, who has been named the best goalkeeper of the recent world championships, now plays for “Dynamo” Kazan and therefore is quite familiar with the best Russian masters’ manner and would be hard to beat?
- I’m not worried, he had known our players pretty well even ‘before’ and we had plenty of troubles with him already because of his impenetrability. On the contrary, there is a certain challenge it, which should stir the interest. Recently we have held a youth competition in Kemerovo, do you know who was the captain of the Swedish club “Norrtelje”? Russia’s Klim Tarasneko, the son of the famous Khabarovsk hockey player Alexander Tarasenko, who now works in Stockholm. For us such ‘exchanges’ on club level are very common, not only with Sweden, but also with the Finland, I think it improves the overall level of the game. The world, including the sport one, is small. We are all one Olympic family and I’m certain that the time when we would take our rightful place in it is not far away. See for yourself how many competitions do we have under FIB auspice: world championships for various ages, World Cups, European Champions Cups and so on... We are only missing Olympic tournaments, which bandy most certainly deserves. And Paralympic Games as well, we cannot overlook people with disabilities.
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.sportforumrussia.com/doc/86541b63-5539-4322-8e4b-5f7e68e164ef
=============================================
P.S. See also Boris Skrynnik's blog (in Russian):
b-skrynnik.livejournal.com/