In the capital, youth sports tournaments are growing in popularity – competitions between schoolchildren and university students in more than 20 sports. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin spoke about this on Sunday, March 15.
— The most popular remain volleyball, football, basketball and chess. He pointed out that the program also includes table tennis, badminton, handball and beach volleyball.
Last year, more than 155,000 young citizens participated in the competition, and over the course of three years this number increased by 40 percent.
Sergei Sobyanin spoke about the growing popularity of youth sports leagues / Video: Max / Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin
Modern training infrastructure is available, including gyms, exercise machines, outdoor areas and the necessary equipment. Matches are held in schools and colleges in the city’s playing fields.
The leagues consist of two stages: first, there are qualifying rounds between regional teams, and then the best teams meet in the finals to determine the city-level winners. The leaders of these stages get the opportunity to represent Moscow in all-Russian competitions.
Muscovites participated in the Presidential Sports Games, the All-Russian Chess Championship “White Lady”, the All-Russian stage of the School Volleyball League “Silver Ball” and other competitions.
School children and students also actively participate as volunteers and organizers of the tournament. They create club icons, broadcast matches, film reports, and publish news on social networks.
In total, there are more than 135,000 clubs for children from 5 to 18 years old in the capital. More than 1.5 million children are enrolled, i.e. 89% of all young people in Moscow. The head of the city wrote that more than 350 thousand people participate in the physical education and sports sections Top.
Deputy Director of the Moscow Center for Educational Practices Ilya Madilov noted that school and student sports tournaments are competitions in the most popular sports developing in the Moscow education system.
— I would like to highlight probably the most popular of them – team sports that are very popular among schoolchildren and students. These are volleyball, basketball and football. But mind sports are also very popular. “Chess is always very popular with us, both children and teachers, because there are leadership teams there,” he stressed.
Madelov also pointed to new modern sports: e-sports and digital sports are now gaining popularity. There are also a large number of participants, both schoolchildren and students.
— Competitions are held throughout the academic year: they begin with the qualifying stages in the regions, and the final parts are held here at the end of the year. The best part is the School Sports Festival which takes place in May, and this year the finals will end there, and we will immediately reward all the winners and runners-up. He concluded: “We have more than 15,000 male and female students participating in school and university sports leagues, and competitions are held in more than 20 sports.”
Earlier, Sobyanin said that in 2025, Moscow athletes will win more than eight thousand medals in Russian and international competitions.