The Youth Sledge Hockey League became the winner of the first ‘Ty V Igre’ (In
Play)
Russian National Amateur Sports Contest. The contest was organized by the National
Priorities (an autonomous non-profit organization) as part of the Sport is a Norm
of Life federal project, part of the Demography national project. The
Roscongress Foundation served the contest’s informational partner.
The youth sledge hockey league aims to involve children with disabilities and their families in the hockey community. The project, now five years in development, has seen the creation of adaptive hockey divisions in 25 Russian regions. Held every year, the Hockey Family Camp, a Russian national festival of teams and an inclusive hockey camp, brings together young hockey players both with and without disabilities. «Disabled players experience being integrated into the community. Being accepted by children without disabilities helps them accept themselves as they are. The children without disabilities undergo drastic changes: you see their values change. They develop empathy, they become tolerant and start paying attention to those around them, and they learn to value what they have in life. You see their worldview expand. They learn the meaning of kindness, fairness, and compassion though practice, they learn to interact with their exceptional peers,» explained Youth Sledge Hockey League President Anastasia Baradacheva. National Priorities ANO Director General Sofia Malyavina awarded the contest’s grand prize — a million rubles towards project development — to the winners.
A project from Yakutsk called Run with Zippy was awarded second place. The project’s creators, Petr Lukachevski, Marina Maksimova, and Egor Mandarov, developed an unusual mobile application: a running tracker with an interactive pet that functions sort of like a Tamagotchi. The application adapts to its users’ abilities and helps make exercise a habit.
Third place was awarded to the Crimea X Run project. Ivan Petrov, Artem Rostovtsev, Yakov Frenklakh, and Ilya Tsygankov organize a variety of breathtaking runs along the coast of the Black Sea. The main event of Crimea X Run 2021 will be a five-day trail run for the most experienced of marathon runners.
The ‘Ty V Igre’ contest debuted in December 2020, receiving over 2,600 applications from 85 regions. In February, 200 of those projects were selected to take part in a public vote and were evaluated by an expert jury. The contest’s ten finalists were announced in March. The finalists attended a month of educational courses at Russian International Olympic University before the final round of judging. Established sports industry professionals shared their experiences and advice on how contestants could take their projects to the next level.
The Roscongress Foundation and National Priorities ANO signed a cooperation agreement in November 2020. The agreement is aimed at establishing partner relations and the development of long-term, effective cooperation between the two parties, including through the implementation of joint events to inform the public of the opportunities provided by and the results of national projects (programmes) in the Russian Federation in accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 30 November 2019 No. 2880-r.
