Russian President met with Russian WU Athletes

MOSCOW – The Universiade, held in Granada, Spain, and Strbske Pleso and Osrblie, Slovakia, brought together 2,440 athletes from 42 countries. Russia’s team came top in total medal count with 56 medals, including 20 gold, 18 silver and 18 bronze.

After the triumphal winning, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the Russian athletes, winners of the 27th Winter Universiade.

During the meeting Vladimir Putin congratulated the Russian student team with its most successful performance. “You exceeded all our previous achievements in overall medal count. Previously, our best results were in Harbin, when we won the same number of medals as our Chinese hosts, but this was the best performance by our team in the history of the Universiade.”, the President said.

He pointed out that they have managed to reassert their standard of excellence in traditional sports: cross country skiing, biathlon and ski jumping. “After the not so successful performance in Sochi, it was a pleasure that you showed good results in curling. We saw how hard both the men’s and women’s teams fought and obviously, they have great prospects, but those who took part in the Universiade demonstrated that we have a great reserve of human resources. Our ice hockey players also did a great job – both the young men and women: you beat the Canadian men’s and women’s teams. This is very impressive.”

Special words were addressed to the head of the Russian team, President of RSSU and FISU 1st Vice-President Oleg Matytsin. “The leadership of student sports also deserve recognition and praise; here I am referring to the President [of the Russian Student Sports Union] who is very active both here in this country and in international sports. My special thanks to you.”

President Putin also mentioned the future Winter Universiade on Russian soil. “We are getting ready to host the 2019 Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk. I am certain that all our achievements of the previous years, namely the Universiade in Kazan and the Sochi Olympics, and your performance this year will all work for our future success. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and talk about future results, but our fans are sure to expect a great performance at the next Universiade.”

At the end of the meeting Vladimir Putin thanked all athletes for their outstanding results and wished them further success and new victories.

(Source: RSSU)