History

In the pre-revolutionary Russia the Olympic Movement started as certain individuals' initiative, and right after the very first successes it gained support of the throne. During the Soviet era the development of sports, and especially Olympic sports, turned to be a very important state doctrine, while athletes' successes at the World Championships and Olympic Games served arguments of the ideological propaganda. In the contemporary democratic Russia together with the state sports promoting policy, there appeared the opportunity to use the assistance of sponsors, who had a long and glorious history in Russia, in order to boost the sports prestige of the country.

The first national sports federations were founded in pre-revolutionary Russia, right in the aftermath of the Emancipation Edict. And in spite of the fact that on the verge of XIX and XX centuries sport didn't have great importance for the social life, there appeared some private sponsors in the country, who had already managed to realize social importance of sport, making a lot of financial and organizing efforts to promote and support it. Among the sponsors there were such industrial tycoons as Savva and Sergey Morozov, G.A. Krestovnikov, Moscow Merchant Bank Head, Count P.D. Lvov, N.A. Gizhitsky, State Duma member, Count P. G. Volkonsky, Baron M.S. Kister and other philanthropists.

However, Russia didn't take part in the first 3 modern Olympic Games (1896, 1900 and 1904) - the money, collected by the enthusiasts was not enough to allow Russia's national team participate in the Olympics. And only in 1908 the first group of six Russian athletes went to the London Olympics. One of the athletes, Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin, the figure-skater, became the first Russian Olympic champion, showing the best results in performing the special figures. Two other sportsmen, wrestlers Nikolay Orlov and Alexey Petrov, became silver medalists.

Emotional inspiration in the society caused by this fact forced the authorities to fully appreciate the significance of the sports achievements for strengthening the country's image. The Emperor Nicholas II introduced his personal sponsorship of the Russian team training for the following Olympics, and in 1912 there were 170 Russian athletes who went to the Olympics.

After the Socialist Revolution of 1917 Russia and the USSR turned out to be out of the Olympic Movement due to certain political reasons. And only in 1951 our athletes returned to the Olympic Family by taking part in the XV Helsinki Olympics. The debut happened to be a success: there were 22 gold, 30 silver, and 19 bronze medals. The Soviet Union paid special attention to the Olympic sports and the fact influenced the number of victories. The total number of the Soviet-time sports awards was: 473 gold, 376 silver and 355 bronze medals.

In 1994 this victorious relay was supported by Russian athletes. For the first time competing at the XVII Lillehammer Winter Olympics as an independent team, they won 11 gold medals, more than representatives of any of 69 participating countries.

After the 2004 Athens Olympics there appeared an obvious social necessity in allocating additional funds for sports and some leading Russian businessmen offered the state their sponsorship for the Olympic sports. Thus in 2005 which the UN announced World Sports Year, for the first time in Russia there was founded a charity organization, called The Russian Olympians Foundation, supported by the President's Administration and Russian Government.

Having announced 2006 Year of Russian Charity, President of Russia Vladimir Putin expressed thanks to the Russian business community and state officials for their initiative in establishing the Foundation, as well as his hope that its activity will contribute to the developing of the Russian sports and our athletes' new outstanding achievements at the World and Olympic competitions.