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40 percent of Russians should practice sports by 2020

MOSCOW, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - One of the goals of the Strategy for Physical Training and Sports Development in Russia is to increase the number of people going in for sports up to 40 percent of the country’s population by 2020, Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaliy Mutko told a news conference on Tuesday.

“We predict 34 millions of Russians will be doing sports by the end of 2013, and this number should grow up to 40 percent of the population by 2020. These characteristics, says the Sports Development Strategy, are crucial to considering ourselves an athletic nation”, he said.

The construction of 124 mass sports facilities received investment within the framework of the federal targeted program for the development of physical training and sports in Russia in 2006-2015. All in all, 654 mass sports facilites received financing during the whole period of the program’s implementation, 263 general purpose gyms, 57 swimming pools, 75 skating rinks,96 sports grounds, 107 multipurpose sports centers and 47 special purpose units for specific types of sports. A total of 487 of the mentioned sports facilities are already fully functional.