I.Metshin: "We need to give more consideration to preparing Kazan Paralympians"

(KZN.RU, March 17, by Renat Shirmanov). Kazan should improve the training of athletes with disabilities. This instruction was given by the Mayor of Tatarstan's capital Ilsur Metshin at today's Business Monday meeting while commenting on the results of the11th Paralympic Winter Games, which have just ended.

The Winter Paralympics were held in Sochi from March 7 to 16. More than 570 athletes from 45 countries took part in them. The participants vied for 72 sets of medals in five sports. The Russian national team won a stunning victory in the team event garnering 80 medals – 30 gold, 28 silver and 22 bronze.

"Russia performed brilliantly at the Olympics and Paralympics. We not only coped with the role of a host country, but were also triumphant as participants of the Games. This was also true of the Olympic and Paralympic teams, which became clear leaders. This is a historic victory," said Ilsur Metshin.

Ilsur Metshin also noted that the main thing now was to competently promote the Sochi Olympics heritage. According to the Mayor of Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan does not have any problems with the venues built for last Universiade. "All the facilities are well attended being located in densely populated areas of the city. Actually, visitors have being complaining about the lack of training time, as each day is scheduled from morning till night," said Ilsur Metshin .

The Mayor of Kazan also urged those concerned to improve the training of Kazan Paralympians.

"Unfortunately, there were no winners among the Kazan athletes. We need to think seriously about using the existing infrastructure for training Paralympians. It's not just a matter of medals; we have to pay more attention to athletes with disabilities who don't just want to play sports but are ready to achieve success on the Russian and international arena," concluded the Mayor.