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Sochi 2014 Winter Games hope to change Russian attitudes
By David Gold
December 20 - Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games organisers are aiming to lead the way in changing the attitudes of Russian people towards disabled people, they claim.
A "Decade of Disabled People" project has just been begun with a roundtable that involved the Russian Paralympic Committee general secretary Mikhail Terentiev, the Russian International Olympic University director general Lev Belousov and the Sochi 2014 President and chief executive Dmitry Chernyshenko.
The Sochi 2014 ambassadors Diana Gurtskaya, a blind Georgian singer, and Olesya Vladyina, the 2008 Paralympic 100 metres breaststroke gold medallist, were also present at the roundtable.
A series of roundtables in Moscow are aimed at creating an environment in which those with disabilities can compete in sport and provide a Paralympic legacy after the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
Chernyshenko (pictured above centre with Gurtskaya left) presented the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Awareness programme as participants at the roundtable discussed ways in which to raise awareness and promote the values of the Paralympic Movement.
Following the roundtable, the Domisolka children's musical theatre group took up the topic of inclusiveness, performing on stage at the State Kremlin Palace, with disabled children from Moscow and the surrounding region participating.
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