Dmitry Svishchev

Business career

After discharge from the Soviet Armed Forces, Svishchev founded a modeling agency in 1994. This was followed by business interests in a hardware supplier and in Europodium, which specializes in mobile stage structures for entertainment events. He then became deputy general manager of Krylatskoye Sports Complex, a major complex with features including an archery field and a velodrome.

Dmitry Svishchev, alpine skier, on 15 August 2008

In 1999, he founded the first professional ski club in Russia. He remained president of the club until 2007.

Education

Svishchev graduated from the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation in 2004, specializing in finance and credit.

Sports administration career

Svishchev was first vice-president of the Russian Federation of Skiing and Snowboarding, which began holding major competitions in alpine skiing with his direct participation and leadership. He contributed to the decision in 2007 by the International Ski Federation to hold the Snowboard World Cup in two disciplines in Russia for the first time. This event included the first ever parallel slalom course on the world's biggest snow ramp.

Since 2010, Svishchev has been president of the Russian Curling Federation. During his leadership of the Federation, Russia national curling teams have been near the top of world rankings, and Russians won medals for the first time at the World Cup. In Moscow and Sochi, specialized sites were built under the supervision of the Curling Federation, including the Olympic facility, the Ice Cube Curling Center.

As Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sport and Youth Affairs, Svishchev proposed that Russian athletes be exempted from income tax for prizes and incentive payments earned from their competing at the Olympics, Paralympics and Deaflympics. He stated that it would raise the prestige of athletes, and also demonstrate national support for their efforts.

Svishchev argued that the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in upholding a ban on the entire Russian Paralympic team from participating in the 2016 Summer Paralympics, had acted inhumanely, with "unprecedented impudence and lack of principle." He asked, "How is it possible to bar the people who with their courage have earned the right to a proper life from the Games?" and suggested that any repercussions should affect coaches and officials rather than the athletes themselves.