Oleg Sienko: Olympic Medals Are Coming

Фото: (Photo by Alexander Zholudenko)

The 21st congress of the Cycling Federation of Russia was held at the central office of ITERA Company. The congress was attended by deputies from 44 regions of Russia, who unanimously elected Oleg Sienko the new president of the federation.

Oleg Sienko has first-hand evidence of the challenges of Russian cycling sports. There was time when he trained with Alexander Kuznetsov, a glorious coach, and became Master of Sports of the USSR, International Class. He also achieved significant heights in business. In 1999–2002 he headed OOO Gazcommerts, in 2003–2003 he was general director of OOO Gazexport OAO Gazprom, from 2003 to 2006 he was deputy general director of management of NGK ITERA and, finally, now he is the chairman of the board of directors of Lepse factory.

The head of ITERA, deputy chairman of the board of trustees of the Cycling Federation of Russia, Igor Makarov, expressed his confidence that under the leadership of Oleg Sienko, the federation will do everything possible in order to put Russian cycling sports at leading international positions.

A lot has to be done since basically all appearances of Russian racers at the Olympic Games in Beijing and the World Championship in Varese were unimpressive to say the least.

“I very well realize that the work to be done is tremendous but there is no going back. We have three and a half years to go for London Olympics,” he said. “I hope to see effective assistance from Igor Makarov and the chairman of the board of trustees, Sergei Chemezov, who offered me to lead the federation and all the members of this board. I suppose that training staff and all the cycling community will be on our side. We can achieve success only by uniting our efforts.”

The new president of the Cycling Federation of Russia took up his task with hammer and tongs. A representative conference of coaches was held at Krylatskoe cycling track in Moscow. Most challenging issues of Russian cycling sports were discussed at the conference. The main issue of its broad agenda was the search for innovative ways of training athletes of highest qualification.

“We took a decision to concentrate our efforts on the existing points of growth,” underlined Oleg Sienko. “I am talking about St. Petersburg, Samara, Moscow and the south of Russia. By providing a solid material base we will certainly achieve success. Thanks God, we still have high-class coaches!”