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23 Jan, 11:07

Russia to host 2026 Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summer Games — sports minister

According to Mikhail Degtyarev, the program of the 2026 SCO Summer Games may possibly include competitions in 21 different sports disciplines

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Russia will host the 2026 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summer Games and the tournament will be held in several cities across the country, including in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev said on Thursday.

"We have proposed Russia [to be the host] and everyone gladly accepted it," Degtyarev, who is also the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), said at a news conference in TASS.

"Moscow and St. Petersburg are the only cities, capable of organizing the event with such a large number of participants. We have other cities in mind [to host the event], but Moscow and St. Petersburg have been already selected," he added.

The Russian sports official said that the program of the 2026 SCO Summer Games may possibly include competitions in 21 different sports disciplines.

"A session of SCO high-ranking officials is scheduled to be held in China this year, we have forwarded our proposal and the Chinese side supported it," Degtyarev said. "We will be discussing the SCO Games."

"Twenty-one sports disciplines is a big program and we will not settle for just 10 or 12 [sports disciplines]," he added.

A preliminary agreement to organize the SCO Games was reached last June. A month later, Vladimir Leonov, a sports minister of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, told TASS that the republic’s capital of Kazan was ready to host some of the competitions within the framework of the 2026 SCO Summer Games.