National Athletes Forum kicks off at Belarus’ NOC headquarters

Belarus’ first National Athletes Forum kicked off at Belarus’ NOC headquarters on 23 April. It has brought together many leading Belarusian athletes and experts from the Russian Federation.

In the course of two days, on 23 and 24 April, participants of an interactive training seminar-conference will discuss many important issues related to adaptation to athletic retirement, the use of athletes’ potential, search for new opportunities to integrate into different professional communities, acquisition of new knowledge and skills to build a successful career and promote a personal brand.

Welcoming the participants of the forum, President of Belarus’ NOC Viktor Lukashenko thanked representatives of Russian International Olympic University and forum speakers. “I am sure that the event will be useful for everyone. It will present new knowledge that will prove useful in the future. For the first time a forum has brought together active athletes and those who have retired from sport. I think such communication will be very useful as everyone will be able to share their experience. Some retire at 30, others at 40 but still there is life ahead, and the experts of the first National Athletes Forum will talk about finer points of career transition," Viktor Lukashenko said.

Viktor Lukashenko noted that the country pays a lot of attention to active athletes and sport veterans. "In this difficult time, when sport and sports ideals give way under political pressure, it is you, decorated athletes, who can help young people find the right way " Viktor Lukashenko said.

“An important problem that exists in international sport today is social adaptation of athletes after sport. Russian International Olympic University has been paying increased attention to this issue since its founding. IOC President Thomas Bach, while visiting our university, noted that the main goals of the university are to keep the Olympic heritage and to help athletes adapt to everyday life. Over the years we have gained a lot of experience that we are ready to share with our Belarusian colleagues at the first National Athletes Forum in Minsk. We will talk about different situations, give examples of what to do and how to make a successful career outside sport. There will be a lot of interesting topics raised at the forum,” said Rector of Russian International Olympic University Lev Belousov.

Outstanding Russian sport commentator Georgy Cherdantsev is the moderator of the forum.

The best practices will be shared by Russian experts: two-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Svetlana Khorkina, Rector of the Russian International Olympic University Lev Belousov, managing partner of sports marketing agency Newman Sport, co-founder of international triathlon competitions IRONSTAR and the running festival ROSA RUN Vladimir Voloshin (Russia) and others.

The forum will also elect new members of Belarus’ NOC Athletes Commission. Only athletes participating in the event will be bale to vote for the candidates. Twenty athletes have been nominated to the NOC Athletes Commission, but only ten of them will make part of it (six will be elected at the forum, and four more will be named by the NOC Executive Board).

The forum will run through 24 April.

The National Athletes Forum has been organized by the National Olympic Committee of Belarus and Russian International Olympic University.

Press service of the NOC of Belarus

Photos by the NOC of Belarus