FISU President Matytsin appointed Russian Sports Minister

International University Sports Federation (FISU) President Oleg Matytsin has been appointed as Russia’s new Sports Minister in a Government reshuffle following the resignation of the entire cabinet.

The 55-year-old takes over from Olympic fencing gold medallist Pavel Kolobkov, who was among the Government officials to step down following President Vladimir Putin’s  state-of-the-nation address last week.

Kolobkov’s predecessor Vitaly Mutko, Sports Minister from 2008 to 2016 and who was implicated in the state-sponsored doping scandal, has lost his seat as a Deputy Prime Minister.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, President and chief executive of the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi, has been chosen as one of nine Deputy Prime Ministers.

Chernyshenko was removed from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission for Beijing 2022 when the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended in
December 2017.

Matytsin was selected for the position by Mikhail Mishustin, the new Russian Prime Minister who had promised a major reshuffle.

He is expected to be heavily involved with the Russian appeal against a four-year set of sanctions imposed on the country by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as  punishment for the manipulation of data from the Moscow Laboratory.

Matytsin, a member of the IOC Olympic Education Commission, was re-elected to serve a second four year term at the helm of FISU in November told state-operated  domestic news agency RIA Novosti that he intends to hold both roles simultaneously.

FISU secretary general Eric Saintrond said it was a “great honour to have our President appointed to help Russia handle its current challenges, and re-engage with the  world’s sport community”.

Saintrond added: “Oleg Matytsin’s accomplishments at FISU have been remarkable.

“With him as President, FISU has delivered exceptional competitions for thousands of elite university athletes.

“Oleg has brought the university sports movement together to support the vision of positively shaping tomorrow’s leaders through their experiences of international  university sport.”

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Matytsin’s first task will be dealing with the Russian doping scandal and the series of sanctions from WADA, which includes a ban on the country’s flag at major events  such as this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.