The President of the Wrestling Federation of the Chechen Republic, the triple Olympic champion Buvaysar Satiyev told in an exclusive interview with a ‘VK’ correspondent on the development of sports, particularly wrestling, in the Caucasus. Above all, he drew attention to the fact that in this regard a lot of things depend on the leadership of the republic.
‘‘A lot of attention is paid to the development of this kind of sport in Chechnya. The head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov goes in for sports every day and upload trainings in social network. Probably, there is not too many people in the republic who attend sporting section. We have conducted major international competitions. Even Maradona visited us and played football," the head of the wrestling Federation of the Chechen Republic said.
Speaking of other North Caucasus republics of Dagestan, he noted that "the Sporting Ministry of Dagestan works very well. A huge number of youth schools are opened in the republic of Dagestan every year. It's probably one of the best ministries now. As for the other republics, I can note North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. So, there are no problems with the financing in the North Caucasus. The republic's authorities are doing their best for the development of sport during today's crisis conditions," he explained.
At the same time, he noted that the main Russia’s opponent in wrestling is Azerbaijan at the moment. "Azerbaijan has made the largest investment in the development of sport during the last five years. It is very important is the fact that Azerbaijan has become the first country, which held the First European Games, as well as that Baku was the venue of the event. It is a great success for the country," the athlete said.
"Speaking about Georgia, it is one of the leaders in this kind of sport. The country pays great attention to the development of wrestling. As for Armenia, this kind of sport is not being developed well there, despite the fact that the country has very rich traditions in this kind of sport,’’ the Olympic champion noted.
Speaking about the Olympic plans, the athlete expressed a hope that all "clean" athletes will participate in the Olympics in Rio.
"I still hope that the IOC will test each athlete. If this principle is not supported and the whole team will be disqualified because of one offender athlete the organization will lose all its leading participants of the Olympic games,’’ the athlete concluded.
