Sport in Belarus
Belarus is rightly considered the country of sport fans. People’s health, development of physical education and sport are the priorities of the Belarusian social policy. The country has adopted State program of physical culture and sports development in the Republic of Belarus for 2021–2026), which provides financing for the development of physical education and sport, construction and maintenance of sports facilities, recovery centers, sports clubs, trains specialists in physical education and sport, has many elite athletes.
There are more than 23,000 sports facilities in the country, including stadiums, riding halls, swimming pools, arenas. More than 460 facilities provide training for the sports reserve.The system of state specialized sports training institutions provides the training of athletes for 44 national teams. The state undertakes obligations of financing the training of national athletes reserve and competitive sportsmen, establishing communication with international sports organizations, building national teams and providing their training, organizing sports events in the Republic of Belarus.
The Sports and Tourism Ministry of the Republic of Belarus is a government body, responsible for the implementation of state policy on development of physical culture and sport. The country has a definite structure of sports societies and federations engaged in the development of mass physical training and health-improvement work, training of Olympic reserve, high performance sport.
Special attention is paid to physical education of children and youth. At the beginning of 2018 there are over 250 sport schools for children and youth, providing conditions for sports practices for more than 90,000 persons. The numerous objects of physical culture and sports include:
- 136 stadiums;
- 327 swimming pools (958 including mini swimming pools);
- 52 training grounds;
- 4 510 gyms;
- 35 synthetic ice rinks.
Most popular sports are athletics, football, gymnastics, skiing, ice hockey, tennis, fencing, wrestling, volleyball, handball, swimming, chess and checks.
The training of sport staff is on the rather high level. The highly skilled specialists are trained on the faculties of physical culture of state universities in Vitebsk, Polotsk, Gomel, Baranovichi, Brest, Grodno, Mogilev, and Minsk. The Belarusian State University of Physical Culture – the oldest specialized university in the country – is well-known outside of Belarus.
Major tasks of the republican centers of Olympic training are: training of national reserve teams and athletes of high qualification; execution of educational activity on the level of general secondary education; training of specialists with a "sport and teaching activity" degree.
Useful links
National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus
Belarusian Basketball Federation
Belarusian Volleyball Federation
Belorusskaya associaciya gimnastiki (Belarusian Gymnastics Association)Belorusskaya associaciya kanoe' (Belarusian Canoe Federation)
Belorusskaya federaciya dzyudo (Belarusian Judo Federation)
Belorusskaya federaciya grebli (Belarusian Rowing Federation)
Belorusskaya federaciya konnogo sporta (Belarusian Equestrian Federation)
Belorusskaya federaciya legkoj atletiki (Belarusian Athletics Federation)
Belorusskaya federaciya nastol'nogo tennisa
Belorusskaya federaciya tae'kvondo (Belarusian Republican Taekwondo Federation)
Belorusskaya respublikanskaya federaciya fextovaniya (Belarusian Republican Fencing Federation)
Belorusskaya tennisnaya federaciya (Belarusian Tennis Federation)
Biathlon Federation of Belarus
Handball Federation of Belarus
National Olympic Winter Sports Training Center "Raubichi"
Respublikanskij centr olimpijskoj podgotovki po velosipednomu sportu