Social loans to enable thousands of Armenian children to take to  sports - premier 

ArmInfo. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took part in the award ceremony for the best athletes of 2024 the day before.

As reported by the press service of the RA government, addressing the  participants of the event, the Prime Minister noted that despite the  large number of medals won last year, unfortunately, it was not  possible to get a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

"We are trying to understand what we are doing wrong and what needs  to be done better to achieve this goal, because in such cases our  assumption is that no matter how much we want it, we are probably  doing something wrong, which is why we cannot achieve this result. We  will be consistent in our policy in the sports field, and the change  in the content of the award ceremony is to some extent related to  this, because every time we come back, try to do something better or  change something. In parallel with the congratulations, I also want  to talk about the importance of a number of topics that are currently  causing heated discussions, including for the sports field," Nikol  Pashinyan noted.

The Prime Minister touched upon the topic of universal declaration  and added that through this system the government plans to annually  return 70 billion drams in the form of social credits. "What is a  social credit?  If a person took his child to a sports club, paid for  it and paid income tax, we return this payment in the amount of a  maximum of 100 thousand drams per year. And we are talking about 800  thousand people.  But, of course, the reaction will be such that  those people who for some reason avoid taking their children to  sports sections, whether because of payment or for other reasons, now  thanks to this system tens of thousands of children will start doing  sports," the head of state said.

According to the Prime Minister, it is important that coaches and  sports infrastructures are ready to accept this flow. Nikol Pashinyan  noted that people are nervous about every innovation, but  subsequently the nervousness passes, and the content remains.

"Many who do not have the opportunity today will see that funds are  appearing, and the state will essentially finance, including the  involvement of children in sports sections. I hope that our coaches  and the athletes themselves will contribute so that children can take  advantage of the opportunity provided by the government," said Nikol  Pashinyan, adding that the most important guarantee of success in  big-time sports is the maximum popularization of children's and youth  sports.

The Prime Minister noted that the greatest incentive for attracting  children to sports are honored athletes, their bright shining stars  in our sports firmament. "And we have gathered today, of course,  first of all to express words of gratitude, to express our love, our  respect, to express our appreciation to them and to thank them for  raising the flag of the Republic of Armenia on our behalf and giving  us the opportunity to be proud, empathize and rejoice that our  country, our sports, our society, our sports world continue to give  such bright stars to the Republic of Armenia, which is very  important, and they give everyone - adults, children, the government,  the opposition, the authorities - a very big and important positive  charge," the Prime Minister noted.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, much is said about the need for  national unity, but our athletes are the most striking example of  national unity, because this is what national unity is all about.  "When our athletes raise the flag of Armenia, everyone unites around  our athletes, because in this case a national consensus is formed. It  does not matter what political views a person has, whether he is rich  or not, whether he has a job or is unemployed, whether he lives in  Armenia or abroad, at this moment national unity is formed. And I  thank you for your undeniable and invaluable contribution to national  unity. We do not even pretend to appreciate your contribution,  because, as I said, it is priceless. Today we pay our humble tribute  to you all," the Prime Minister concluded.

Then Prime Minister Pashinyan presented awards to the winners.  Greco-Roman wrestler Artur Aleksanyan, gymnast Artur Davtyan and  weightlifter Varazdat Lalayan were recognized as the winners in the  nomination "Best Three Athletes". Weightlifter Alexandra Grigoryan  was recognized as the winner in the nomination "Best Female Athlete",  and rhythmic gymnast Greta Vardanyan was recognized as the winner in  the nomination "Best Female Athlete". The winner in the nomination  "Best Team" was the men's chess team consisting of Hayk Martirosyan,  Shant Sargsyan, Karen Grigoryan and Robert Hovhannisyan.

Weightlifter Emma Poghosyan was recognized as the winner in the  nomination "Best Young Athlete", and weightlifter Hripsime  Khurshudyan was recognized as the winner in the nomination "Return to  Big-Time Sports and/or Sports Discovery". The winner in the  nomination "Best Coach" was recognized as the head coach of the  Armenian national artistic gymnastics team Hakob Serobyan. In the  nomination "Audience's Sympathy", the winner according to the results  of the online voting was the 2024 world champion, silver medalist of  the Olympic Games in Paris, weightlifter Varazdat Lalayan. The winner  in the nomination "The Most Popular Athlete of the Republic of  Armenia" was recognized as football player Henrikh Mkhitaryan.  The  award will be presented to him or his representative at a convenient  opportunity.