Opinions & Interviews

Anatoly Tozik visited the main facilities of the sports center, including one of the hotels, the biathlon stadium, the referee facility, and a medical center. Anatoly Tozik was accompanied by Minister of Sport and Tourism Alexander Shamko, Director of the National Winter Olympic Training Center Raubichi Andrei Astashevich, executives and representatives of the construction organizations, representatives of the Belarusian Biathlon Federation.

Anatoly Tozik noted that the level of preparedness of Raubichi for the upcoming top event is high. According to him, there are certain drawbacks but there is still enough time to remove them. Anatoly Tozik noted that much work has been done to renovate the sports center, and that Belarus has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to host international sporting event on a high level.

Big competitions are very important for the economy. The country develops the infrastructure, builds hotels and restaurants, roads. The quality of services improves in general, Anatoly Tozik stressed. After such events more investors show willingness to come to Belarus because they see that the state is committed to such projects, and sports fans come to visit the country after such competitions as tourists, Anatoly Tozik.

The National Winter Olympic Training Center Raubichi was commissioned in February 1974. The center is designed for training and competitions in biathlon, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined, ski jumping, speed skating, slalom, freestyle, and snowboard. The center hosted the IBU Biathlon World Championships in 1974, 1976, 1982 and 1990, the European Biathlon Championships in 1998 and 2004, the Cross-Country World Cups in 1991, and the European Freestyle Skiing Cup in 1995 and 2006. For hosting the Biathlon World Championship in 1982, Raubichi was honored with the UIPMB golden badge. In 1996, the International Biathlon Union assigned Raubichi the sport category ‘A’ and issued it a license for hosting top-level competition, without any exceptions. Raubichi will host the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships from 15 to 22 February 2015 and FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup from 25 February to 1 March 2015.

Anatoly Tozik also visited the freestyle skiing center in Surganova Street in Minsk which is currently under construction. There he held a working meeting with representatives of design and construction organizations to discuss the status of implementation of the project.

The freestyle center will be divided into several zones: sports, entertainment and recreation. The sports zone includes a 20x30m swimming pool five meters deep, a freestyle zone with jumping facilities and a gym (a trampoline hall). The entertainment zone has swimming pools for children, teenagers and adults. The recreation zone will include choreography and fitness halls, saunas and other facilities. The sports zone is separated from the other two.