Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan has benefited greatly from hosting international sports competitions, while the country’s youth gained a lot of experience.

Youth and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov made the remark while addressing international conference on the benefits of hosting major sports events. The conference was organized by Operational Committee of Baku City Circuit and the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan on February 15.

The minister went on to say that national sportsmen’s experience, as well as the number of the medals won by national athletes is growing from year to year.

“Azerbaijan has created the material and technical base corresponding to world standards. Modern sports facilities have been built in Baku and other regions of the country,” he said, noting that the main aim is to build sports infrastructure that will serve the people, the youth.

Overall, the Azerbaijani athletes showed brilliant performances in both domestic and international competitions in 2016, winning 827 medals, of which 18 are Olympic medals.

Today modern sporting complexes operate not only in Baku, but also in almost all regions of the homeland, which have played a significant role in the development of sports in the regions. There were established over 40 Olympic Centers in the regions, while construction of more centers is underway.

The minister further noted that the sport facilities built in the country are in good condition and continue to serve the population.

The minister pointed to the fact that after the 2014 Olympic Games in Athens, many of its once-gleaming Olympic venues now lie abandoned. “The same is observed in Rio de Janeiro. Although little time has passed since the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil, a number of stadiums there are already in poor condition and are not being used,” he added.

However, Rahimov continued, the Palace of Water Sports [built in 2015 for the inaugural European Games] in Baku is visited daily by athletes and other residents of the capital.

“Residents of the capital and athletes also visit Baku Shooting Center,” he said, adding that the Beach Arena is in excellent condition and various competitions are held in the National Gymnastics Arena.

The minister stressed that all sports structures are available for visiting, and staff which is working there are mainly young people, who gained experience in the past competitions.

“More than 17,000 volunteers participated in the competitions. The uniform for volunteers and technical staff was sewn in Azerbaijan, the medal awarded to athletes, have also been made in our country,” he added.

Rahimov also stressed that these events played an important role in the development of the Azerbaijani tourism.

"During the Chess Olympiad last September, we needed 10 additional hotel rooms, but we could not find them because all the hotels were full," he said.

Rahimov noted that today Azerbaijan is known even in the most distant countries. “All these are the results of sports competitions, cultural events, global events that were held in Azerbaijan,” the minister said.

Azerbaijan has already established itself as a key destination for major sport events. Only in 2016, the country hosted 203 national and 52 international competitions, including the World Chess Olympiad, FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics, the eighth round of the European Grand Prix, 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals and so on.

This status was perhaps solidified with the recent announcement that the nation's capital Baku is to be one of the hosts of the 2020 UEFA European Championships and the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games. But these are just few of many key events that will be taking place in the Land of Fire in the coming years, each of which will bring new facilities and visitors to the country.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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