Russia will hold its own Olympics. Who will be called and how much will they spend

An event called the «World Friendship Games» is scheduled for the summer of 2024. They want to hold them in parallel with the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. According to the general director of the organizing committee of the Games Alexey Sorokin, the competitions will be held in 27 sports: 22 Olympic and five non-Olympic.

«The games will last 14 days — from September 15 to September 29. I note that there will be a large prize pool. We feel the demand from the international community for depoliticized Games. They should unite countries that are ready to compete without regard to politics. The only criterion is the results. We are not replacing the Olympic Games, it is rather a powerful addition to world competitions,» he said.

Why did Russia need these competitions? Due to the position of the IOC, Russian athletes will not be able to participate in the Olympics in Paris in 2024. This was preceded by several years of humiliation with a neutral flag, accusations of doping, etc. In general, the need for a sports holiday is long overdue. In addition to the Friendship Games in 2024 in Russia will host the «Brics Games» and «Games of the Future» (esports) in Kazan. In 2023, instead of the Universiade, for which Yekaterinburg has been preparing for several years, a University Sports Festival will be held, which will be attended by teams from the BRICS, SCO and CIS countries. Apparently, these three organizations will become the main suppliers of athletes for the Russian alternative Olympics.

The holiday will cost 8.3 billion rubles

The Friendship Games will cost Russia 8.3 billion rubles. This was reported by the telegram channel «Base» with reference to the draft presidential decree. The document states that 3.3 billion will come from regional and federal budgets, the rest from other sources, apparently, will attract sponsors.

The document notes that the manager of these funds will be the ANO «ORGANIZING COMMITTEE of the WORLD FRIENDSHIP GAMES». According to the SPARK database, the structure was registered on June 16, 2023. There is no activity behind it yet. The figure of the head of the organization attracts attention. This is Alexey Sorokin, a top manager of the financial corporation VEB.RF. In addition to the Friendship Games, he directed two more NGOs: the Urban Development Fund and the UEFA EURO 2020 ANO. The latter organization was engaged in the preparation of four matches within the framework of the European Football Championship, which took place in 2020 in St. Petersburg. It is still operating and even made three million profit last year. Previously, Sorokin was the head or founder of more than a dozen commercial and non-profit structures.

Remembering the old

The idea of alternative Olympiads and large international competitions is not new. In the 40s, Germany and Japan. In the 1960s, Indonesia wanted to create its own Neolympics. The story is complicated, the country held the Asian Games and refused to let representatives of Israel and Taiwan attend them, then the IOC «canceled» Indonesia, banning it from participating in the Olympics. The country decided to hold alternative games. The USSR, China, Japan, Argentina and other countries came to the first tournament. But the second games missed many participants and the project was curtailed.

The USSR held the Friendship Games in 1984. This is also a tournament with a backstory. Western countries boycotted the Olympic Games-80 in Moscow. Four years later, the Soviet bloc almost in full force did not go to the games in Los Angeles, but held its games, which were distributed to different countries of the socialist camp. At the same time, athletes from France, Italy, the USA and Great Britain.

CNN founder Ted Turner tried to create another alternative movement to the IOC, who promoted the «Goodwill Games» as an event without politics. The Games have been held for more than 20 years, they came to our country twice in 1986 in Moscow, in 1994 in St. Petersburg. But at the beginning of 2000, they stopped conducting them.