ICSD President's Update - December 2014

I have so much information to share with you and there are quite a few.

Winter Deaflympics, in Khanty-Mansiysk is progressing very nicely, moving forward and no stepping back.
Firstly, let me share some information with you – government officials whom I have met previously were only in the position of giving advices but now they have taken the lead in ensuring that the Winter Deaflympics is progressing.

Minister of Russian Sports, Mr. Vitaly Mutko, told the Organizing Committee, “We give full support to this Winter Deaflympics and must raise the bar, equivalent to Olympic Game in Sochi in 2014.”

I am pleased to receive supporting comments from various levels of governments.
I personally thanked them for their enormous support and for supporting ICSD in ensuring the future of Deaf sports.

Just after organizing committee’s (OC) meeting, the Ugra Governor of Khanty-Mansiysk, Ms. Natalia Komarova, approached me and invited me to join in the Press conference in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Both, Alexander Romatsov, the President of Russian Committee of Deaf Sports, and I flew out to Khanty-Mansiysk.
We were very surprised to see so many journalists from around the world and they were asking us numerous of questions.
One of them asked why in K-M, what was so special about it?
Why choose to have the Winter Deaflympics in Khanty-Mansiysk as it’s in remote area and especially nowhere in Russia?
They also asked about the organizing committee in Magnitogorsk and so on.
Questions from Chinese journalist were asked and one of them how could the Russian organizing committee afford the expenses for Winter Deaflympics?

The Ugra Governor’s response was: “It is imperative to promote Deaflympics in higher level and it’s a must”.
The others and I were surprised to hear of her commitments.
The Governor wants to support the Winter Deaflympics regardless of the cost, be it in the millions or more rubles.
She did not give exact figures.
The other question was asked of me, “What is ICSD’s main role?” I gave as much information as I could to them.
The more information I give to them, the more they understand the importance of ICSD.
Nonetheless, I am very pleased with the outcome of the Press conference.

I also wanted to share with you - as you know, in Russia, the current President is Vladimir Putin,
and Prime Minister is Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian name of Medvedev mean “bear” so here is the Russian sign for the “bear”.
Remember this sign for “bear” from this point forward as it will be easy to remember.
When we attended the Disability Day’s working meeting concerning the social issues for variety of disability groups, Russian Prime-Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, approached me at the end of session. And I took the opportunity to ask him a question.
I inquired whether he is aware of the upcoming Winter Deaflympics in Khanty-Mansiysk or not.
Medvedev’s response was: “Yes, I certainly do”.
I asked him to come to Khanty-Mansiysk.
His response was “where is the invitation to Winter Deaflympics?”

I want to mention about the upcoming 45th ICSD Congress that will be held in Khanty-Mansiyak just before the Winter Deaflympics starts.
We have sent out information package to all country’s organization’s member.
The more of you are able to come, then the more we are able to discuss the many pending items on the agenda that requires approval.
We hope to see all of you. Thank you.