As Russian winners of the 2004 Summer Paralympic were awarded at a ceremony in Athens, Moscow Paralympic Committee President Mikhail Men said that "the Paralympic component will be playing a dominant role in Moscow's bid to play host to the 2012 Olympic Games." All the new sports facilities to be built in the Russian capital for the 2012 Olympics will be fitted out with equipment catering to the needs of disabled athletes, Men said.
There are over 10 million disabled persons living in Russia, but until very recently, the opportunities for them to go in for sports have been few and far between. By now the situation has improved, and some 700 sports clubs for disabled athletes are up and running across the nation, with their overall membership estimated at nearly 100,000.
This has made it possible for disabled Russian athletes to raise their profile in international competitions. At the Sydney Paralympics in 2000, for instance, Russia took 14th position on team rankings. They climbed to 11th place at Athens, where they took part in 9 out of the 19 competitions offered, winning 16 gold, 8 silver, and 17 bronze medals. This despite the Russian squad being numerically inferior to the U.S. and the Chinese teams, which dominated most of the competitions on the Paralympic program.
The Presidential Soccer Cup, established in 2003, remains one of the most popular sporting events with Russian disabled athletes. The first such fixture brought together 34 teams from 13 regions across the nation. The second time around, 70 teams from 20 regions came along. Competitions were held among athletes with amputated limbs, onessuffering from cerebral paralysis, impaired hearing, impaired eyesight, or intellectual disabilities. With the interest being so strong, it is small wonder that the Russian Paralympic soccer squad has achieved more success in the international arena than the conventional soccer team. They took the bronze in Athens earlier this year, and in 2003 they had won the world championships, clinching victory from Brazil in the final match.
