The head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, announced his resignation on Tuesday, in a surprise move that comes as his country faces isolation from international sport over the conflict in Ukraine.
The now former president of the Russian Olympic Committee, five-time Olympic medallist Stanislav Pozdnyakov, stepped down after six years at the helm of Russian Olympism.
The also former president of the European Fencing Confederation said in his resignation letter that there were “timely” reasons why Russian sport needed a new leader, without going into further detail.
“The geopolitical challenges our country is facing dictate the need to optimise and centralise the management of key areas of activity, including high-performance sport,” said the 51-year-old, who was born in Novosibirsk, Russia.
Russia has been a top medal contender at the Summer and Winter Olympics for decades, but was barred from competing as a team at the recent Paris Games due to the war in Ukraine.
“The geopolitical challenges our country is facing dictate the need to optimise and centralise the management of key areas of activity, including high-performance sports,” said Pozdnyakov, who has led the Russian Olympic Committee since 2018.
“In order to further strengthen the Russian Olympic Movement, there are now timely conditions, including economic ones, for a change of leadership and team.”
Pozdnyakov, a professional fencer, was elected to head the committee in 2018, at a time when Russia was grappling with a series of doping scandals that led to it being banned from several Olympic sports for four years the following year.
Pozdnyakov condemned the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision, following Russia’s incursions into Ukraine in 2022,that Russian athletes could only compete as neutrals at the Paris Olympics and urged Russian athletes not to participate.
After Russia announced the mobilisation ofmen to fight in Ukraine, Pozdnyakov said that athletes should consider “serving the motherland” as an “honourable duty”.
The Russian authorities complained that the restrictions were unfair and discriminatory. Some of the athletes who were allowed to compete refused offers to do so as neutrals.
Pozdnyakov, a former Olympic fencer, said in April that participation was a personal decision for Russian athletes, but that the ROC supported those for whom the IOC’s conditions were unacceptable.
His daughter Sofia Pozdniakova, who won two gold medals in fencing at the Tokyo Olympics, was one of the athletes who did not take part in Paris 2024.
In the end, 15 Russian athletes competed under the neutral flagand returned with a single silver medal in women’s tennis doubles.
Moscow criticised the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics as a “monumental failure” and has promised to organise its own “Friendship Games”, although no dates or venues have been confirmed.
Early elections to choose his successor will take place when the Russian Olympic Committee meets on 7 November, Pozdnyakov said in a statement.
