FISU President speaks at Press Conference of 2019 WU Volunteer Programme Launch

MOSCOW – On 21 May the Organising Directorate of 2019 Winter Universiade Krasnoyarsk launched a recruiting campaign for its volunteering programme. The official start of the programme took place at Bobrovy Log mountain resort in Krasnoyarsk, and on 7 June FISU President Oleg Matytsin, General Director of the 2019 WU Organising Committee Maxim Urazov and Vice-President of Norilsk Nickel Yelena Bezdenezhnykh held a joint press-conference on this occasion at the TASS information agency in Moscow.

Speaking to journalists, the FISU President expressed his confidence in the eventual success of the programme, saying that 2019 WU Organising Committee proved to be a very pro-active and reliable partner for FISU. “We consider these volunteers as ambassadors of the Universiade and FISU. Sport is an essential tool for international peace, and our volunteers are bright and creative representatives of this peaceful movement”, Mr. Matytsin commented.

The FISU President also stressed the importance of cooperation with Siberian Federal University, the main educational hub in the Siberia region in Russia. The university will host the 2018 FISU Forum and the FISU World Conference on Innovation-Education-Sport, which will take place alongside the Universiade.

This year, FISU for the first time will organise an international forum dedicated to sports volunteering. According to FISU President Matytsin, The Volunteer Leaders’ Academy in Kazan will bring together representatives from more than 100 countries for a whole set of lectures and master-classes. The aim of the forum is to give an additional boost to grassroots university sports in campuses and to engage more people in physical activity.

Maxim Urazov shared the basic information about the newly launched volunteering campaign. The Directorate plans to engage more than 5,000 people with 4,000 representing the Krasnoyarsk region and some 1,000 from other Russian regions. The organisers expect about 100 international volunteers as well.

The volunteering activities will be separated into 44 main functional areas, including accreditation, transportation, media and communications, translation services, medical services etc. According to Mr Urazov, although the Directorate provides all necessary material conditions for volunteers, they are mainly motivated by the idea to get fantastic experience of contributing to the Universiade. As he said, “Young people’s lives are highly affected by trendy events. If you are part of the event, you are cool, and your mates will appreciate it.”

Yelena Bezdenezhnykh, Vice-President of Norilsk Nickel, the partnering company both for FISU and the Organising Directorate of 2019 WU Krasnoyarsk, spoke about the necessity of investing in human capital. According to Mrs Bezdenezhnykh, Krasnoyarsk is a region of great importance to Norilsk Nickel, so the company is naturally interested in its social development and creating a ‘friendly social environment’. However, Norilsk Nickel doesn’t expect any material gains from this project. “Social responsibility is crucial for any business. We feel it our duty to spend on culture, sports and education. We want to make this world better”, said Mrs Bezdenezhnykh. 

At the end of the press conference, the official uniform of 2019 WU Volunteers was revealed.