On 23 June, the Russian International Olympic University (RIOU) held a graduation ceremony for its students who had successfully completed the professional retraining courses ‘Master of Sport Administration’ and ‘Master of Sport Management’ in academic year 2022/23. The ceremony coincided with International Olympic Day and the XXXIV All-Russian Olympic Day 2023.
The RIOU diploma was awarded to the 10,000th graduate – Xu Weiwei of China, who came to study in Russia back in 2018. The Class of 2023 also included Olympic champions and medallists Lilia Akhaimova (artistic gymnastics), Musa Yevloev (Greco-Roman wrestling), Ilya Zakharov (diving), Alexander Sokolov (volleyball), Uliana Nigmatullina (biathlon), world and European champions Boris Nikonorov (beach football), Natalya Suvorova (cycling), and Daniil Pakhomov (swimming), amongst others.
RIOU Rector, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Education Prof. Lev Belousov said:
"Today the Russian International Olympic University has reached an important milestone: our 10,000th graduate received a professional retraining diploma. It is symbolic that the ‘jubilee’ diploma was awarded to Chinese Xu Weiwei, underlining the university’s international status. Within a relatively short period of time, RIOU has succeeded in providing education to students from 76 countries.”
“The past academic year has been marked by a record number of the already established athletes who took up RIOU’s educational programmes. The 2023/23 cohort comprised 22 Honoured Masters of Sport of Russia and 23 International Masters of Sport, including 27 Olympic and Paralympic Games participants, four Olympic champions and a Paralympic Games winner. We provide a springboard for our students into the world of international sports management, and the fact that our graduates are highly sought-after is testimony to the quality of the education they receive.”
Among the 71 graduates from the Master of Sport Administration and Master of Sport Management courses are 48 holders of grants provided by the Russian Olympians Foundation (ROF). They are winners, medallists and participants in the Olympic and Paralympic Games and other major international tournaments. This is a record number of ROF fellows since the start of cooperation between RIOU and the Russian Olympians Foundation in 2012.
RIOU diplomas were also awarded to the winners of the RIOU Scholarship Competition hailing from five different countries (China, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Moldova and Turkmenistan). Another grant sponsor was the Football Land Foundation established by internationally renowned Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
During the graduation ceremony, Executive Director of the Russian Diving Federation (RDF) Vadim Skoropupov presented a money prize to the winner of the RFD’s grant competition for the best graduation paper dealing with diving sports promotion. Most of the final research papers were supervised by Andrei Selsky, professor at RIOU and head of Innovative Sports Technology at Innopraktika.
The graduation ceremony was also attended by Secretary General of the Russian Olympic Committee Rodion Plitukhin, former President of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) René Fasel, Minister of Sport of the Krasnodar Region Serafim Timchenko, Deputy Mayor of Sochi Sergey Umantsev. Executive Director of the NHL Foundation Alexei Patrakov, head of the Fisht stadium Veniamin Bogomolov, senior coach of the Russian Paralympic cross-country skiing and biathlon team Irina Gromova, and other dignitaries.
Inspiring commencement addresses to the graduates were sent by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko; Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation Oleg Matytsin; three-time Olympic champion, Russian senator Alexander Karelin; and President of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov.
In his address, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko noted that “RIOU graduates are promoting sport and the Olympic Movement around the world using the skills they developed during their university studies”. He added:
“I am confident that the knowledge gained at the Russian International Olympic University will help the graduates to contribute to the further development of Russian sport and the Olympic Movement.”
