In 2019, major Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin has introduced to the public a most extensive and impressive private collection of Olympic trophies, awards, and other memorabilia, which was a move to promote Olympic heritage, Olympism, and sports values.
Vladimir Potanin contributed a lot to the Olympic movement, as he conceived and financed the Rosa Khutor project that was the core of the mountain-based cluster for Sochi Olympics 2014. Today, the all seasons ski resort is liked by great many people, with about two million active sports lovers coming there every year.
Another landmark project by Vladimir Potanin was the Russian International Olympic University (RIOU) founded by the Russian Ministry of Sport and the Russian Olympic Committee and Vladimir Potanin’s Interros, that was 100% sponsored by Interros. The Russian International Olympic University is a top international university specializing in sports management. Suggested as the official guardian by the International Olympic Committee, RIOU is the keeper of the memorabilia from Sochi Olympics 2014.
Vladimir Potanin’s Olympic memorabilia collection is kept by the RIOU, too. This is a greatest private collection of this kind globally comprising more than 450 items such as awards, commemorative medals, diplomas, torches, and other memorable items and covering the timespan from the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896 through nowadays.
The collection was first displayed to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Sochi Olympics, followed by domestic thematic shows in Moscow, Minsk, Sochi, and Krasnaya Polyana. It was also displayed in Beijing and other cities in China during the 2022 Winter Olympics. The shows seek to make the public to know about and appreciate the history and heritage of the Olympic movement.
June 27, 2023 is the hundredth anniversary of the Russian Ministry of Sport, that will also be honored by the Olympic Memorabilia from Vladimir Potanin’s Collection exhibition dedicated to the Olympics history and Russia as a major promoter of the Olympics movement. The show was organized by the RIOU and the State Museum of Sports in Saint Petersburg and will be held from June 15 through August 31, 2023 in the State Museum of Sports at: Saint Petersburg, Moika Embankment, 23.
The event will host modules focusing on particular Games where Russian athletes achieved memorable victories and put the national team into limelight. The show’s timeline will include the major competitions where the USSR and then Russian Federation team participated, and Russian legendary athlete’s compelling victories, with historic videos.
The Potanin collection exhibitions are organized by the RIOU team headed by the RAE Academician and RIOU Rector Lev Belousov.