Speech by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the opening ceremony of the Presidential Olympic Games

Dear compatriots!

Dear veterans, masters and mentors, purposeful youth!

Dear guests!

Today in this magnificent Olympic town, which has become another symbol of New Uzbekistan, we together with you are launching the Presidential Olympics.

I congratulate you all on this for the first time a sports festival held in our country, uniting all the youth of the republic with the noble idea of the Olympic movement.

Dear friends!

From the first days of reforms, we, along with all other areas, have been paying great attention to the development of physical culture and sports. Over the past eight years, funds allocated annually from the budget to the sports sector have increased from 250 billion soums to 3 trillion soums, the average salary of coaches has increased 7 times, more than 250 new large sports facilities have been built, about 100 facilities have been reconstructed, about 2 thousand sports grounds have been created in makhallas, especially in remote villages, and we annually increase their number by 500, 14 Olympic and Paralympic centers are fully provided with modern infrastructure.

This work creates a solid foundation for our country to achieve high results at prestigious international competitions, so that it can take its rightful place among countries where sports are developed at a high level. In particular, at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, our brave and resilient athletes demonstrated true heroism, taking 13th place, which is truly worthy of admiration and the highest recognition.

Continuing this series of victories, our youth this year took 13th place in the World University Games, an honorable 2nd place in the Youth Games held in Bahrain and the Islamic Solidarity Games in Saudi Arabia.

More than 50 records set by our boys and girls at the World and Asian Championships and the Olympic Games, especially clearly demonstrate the importance and authority of our country in the international Olympic movement.

The national football team of Uzbekistan for the first time won a ticket to the World Championship - this is an event that we have been waiting for 34 years.

These days, 2 of our chess players participated in the semi-finals of the World Chess Cup. We have just received good news. Our 19-year-old international grandmaster Zhavokhir Sindarov, having won this prestigious tournament held in India, became the winner of the World Cup. Now he will participate in the tournament of contenders for the world crown.

Of course, the sports history of New Uzbekistan is created by hundreds of our purposeful, brave young men and women with high intellectual potential and strong will.

Glory to our winning athletes! Let the flag of the Motherland always fly proudly over them!

Dear participants of the ceremony!

Of course, we are proud of our successes. But we need, without stopping there, to go only forward, to conquer new frontiers.

In the world of sports, as in all areas, today there is intense competition. This requires further improvement of the system of preparation for international sports competitions, including the Olympic Games.

So that the work begins from the lowest level - the mahalla, this year five-stage mass sports competitions covered 15 million people in the country.

As a result of the great attention paid to adaptive sports, over the past three years the number of para-athletes has increased almost 7 times, over 70 thousand people with disabilities have been involved in mass sports disabilities.

Due to the digitalization of the sphere, the creation of a transparent system, boys and girls from all 10 thousand schools and 9 thousand mahallas have the opportunity to demonstrate their potential.

Now we are starting to form a completely new system of sports selection of gifted youth and their direction into big sports - these are the games of the Presidential Olympics.

In competitions More than 100 thousand boys and girls from sports sections of secondary schools, private sports clubs and 310 sports schools took part in the district and regional stages.

Khokims of the regions organized trips and personally brought more than 3 thousand young athletes who achieved high results locally to the Presidential Olympics. Competitions began in 10 sports. The winners will be awarded special prizes and cash prizes. The main thing is that they will be directly sent to national teams.

In order to continue training at the highest level, they will be accepted into the Olympic and Paralympic centers, each will be paid a scholarship.

In a word, from now on, the annual Presidential Olympics will discover new talents and become an effective system for selecting athletes.

Starting next year, the number of sports at the Presidential Olympics will be increased to 20, and competitions in aquatics, cycling, triathlon, fencing and team games will also begin to be held.

The Ministry of Sports, the Olympic Committee, and sports federations will fully implement international sports requirements at each stage of the Presidential Olympics, for training of highly professional athletes will establish a system for training coaches based on modern methodology and approaches, will increase the potential of judges for open and transparent assessment of the results of competitions.

Khokims of the regions, based on the types of sports, will improve conditions in sports schools and sections, fully provide them with modern equipment, will annually build modern gyms in at least 10 mahallas in their region, and their management will be transferred to private sports clubs.

As you know, next year Uzbekistan will host the 46th World Chess Olympiad, in 2027 the FIFA U-20 World Cup and in 2029 the Asian Youth Games.

The wonderful Olympic village where our today's event is taking place, a modern sports stadium being built locally infrastructure - all this is a solid basis for organizing prestigious international tournaments at the highest level. Such major competitions will become a real holiday for our people, especially young people, a school of high sportsmanship, and will further increase the international authority of Uzbekistan as a country of friendship and cooperation.

The Presidential Olympics system will undoubtedly serve to select the best athletes to participate in such competitions, in particular, to increase the number of licenses received by each region for the upcoming Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

I am confident that in the future, new world and Olympic champions, such as Bakhodir Jalolov, will definitely emerge from among them. Ulugbek Rashidov, Diyora Keldiyorova, Akbar Zhuraev.

Dear participants of the celebration!

As the sages said, it is impossible to defeat a person, people and nation with a strong will.

You, dear athletes, veterans of the field, mentors and coaches, Those participating in today’s solemn ceremony know especially well what a great force, what a worthy example sport is.

If you convey to our youth the great potential and life experience you have, contribute to their education, raise them to be educated and intelligent people, patriots, then both the people and the President will be grateful to you. In the current difficult times, when various destructive ideologies and movements are trying to strengthen their influence, educating young people as comprehensively healthy individuals is of decisive importance.

And in this I rely on people like you, dear athletes, veterans, mentors and coaches, who cannot imagine sport without education, and education without sport.

Our dears athletes!

Remember: you are participants in the Presidential Olympics held for the first time in the country and, of course, you will go down in history. I am sure that all of you, having been awarded such a high status, will demonstrate all your skill, courage and courage.

On the complex and responsible sports path of life, you are faced with the most important task - to raise high the flag of our Motherland in the international arena, singing its glory with your victories.

Be ready now to fulfill this great and sacred duty!

Never stop searching, studying and self-improvement!

Always move forward purposefully, confidently and decisively!

Know: on this path, the state and the President will create all the necessary conditions for you.

May success and victory always accompany you, my dears!