Problems of swimming pools construction were discussed in Ufa

UFA, 14 November 2014. /Bashinform News Agency, Dmitry Slezin/. Yesterday the Minister of Youth and Sports of Bashkortostan Andrey Ivanyuta met with multiple Olympic Champion, the President of the Russian Swimming Federation Vladimir Salnikov in Ufa.

According to the press service of the Ministry, the participants of the meeting discussed the construction of a 50-m pool in Ufa and creation at its premises the Republican Swimming Centre.

“Ufa is one of the megacities without a specialized sports pool. There are four 25m pools and one 50 m swimming pool "Neftyanik" for competitive swimming in Ufa, but it does not meet a number of sporting requirements. In addition, there are no conditions for preparation of sports reserve; there are no facilities to prepare for international competitions. So there are problems of seeking the training sports facilities of appropriate level. Until they are resolved, only few swimmers will be able to achieve the highest results in the international arena. According to the standards, the region's residents are provided with pools only by 13.18 percent. Therefore, one of the priorities in the sports industry is construction of new pools”, the minister said.

In his turn, Vladimir Salnikov said that swimming should be a priority sport:

“Inability to swim leads to tragic water accidents. Therefore, this sport should be a basic one. It should be seriously developed and modernized in accordance with current trends. Over the past 15 years there have been radical changes in swimming. This is a kind of sport where world records are cut annually. Only at the last World Championships in Kazan from November 8 to 12, there were beaten three records of Russia. The task of the Federation is to convey a message to all regions of Russia that swimming should be taken seriously”, the legendary athlete said.