About the university's sporting achievements

The academic year has ended at Ural State University of Economics. Maxim Kocheryan, head of the Office for Mass-participation Sports, and Health Protection, acting head of the Department of Physical Education and Sports at Ural State University of Economics, PhD in Economics, spoke about the university’s sporting achievements in the 2024-2025 academic year.

- Maxim Arturovich, how do you assess the sports potential of USUE in comparison to other universities in the Sverdlovsk region?

- Ural State University of Economics has all the conditions for obtaining a quality education, successful training and participation in competitions at various levels, including the national student sports leagues.

The University has a powerful sports establishment: a certified, entered into the national register of sports facilities, multipurpose gym for sports games, four workout facilities, martial arts and fitness gyms, the largest in the region 12-meter university climbing wall and a pneumatic shooting range with 11 shooting lines. All this allows holding sports events of regional, national and international level.

-What competitions will athletes be able to take part in, and which ones are the most important for the university?

- Every year, USUE hosts over 30 competitions of various levels in badminton, basketball, volleyball, sambo, rock climbing, chess and checkers, including 4 official regional tournaments in sambo and chess, and all-Russian competitions in rock climbing and sambo.

For us, as for most universities in the region, the most important sporting event of the academic year is the regional Universiade.

This academic year, over 2.7 thousand athletes from 17 universities of our region competed in 31 types of competitions, and, as always, the battle was very tough! At the Universiade, USUE traditionally sets itself the goal of being in the top five universities according to the results of the overall standings. This is not easy, since the level of student sports in the Sverdlovsk region is very high and staying among the best is becoming more and more difficult every year. This year, our teams improved their performance: in the overall team standings, we rose from fourth place, which we occupied in 2024, to third. This is a significant result.

-What sporting achievements of USUE would you like to highlight this year?

- We have traditionally been strong in women’s volleyball and basketball, and table tennis among girls and boys.

The women’s volleyball team has become a three-time winner and a two-time silver medalist in the finals of the All-Russian Summer Universiades, since 2010 it has been the permanent winner among universities of the Sverdlovsk region, and in 2023 it won the International University Sports Festival, leaving behind the teams of Brazil and Argentina. For 15 years, the team has been coached by Yevgeny Popov, an All-Russian category referee.

This year, the women’s basketball team became the champion in the Universiade among universities in our region. The girls are trained by the head basketball coach Igor Kudryavtsev.

Thanks to the work and professionalism of our table tennis coaches, Stanislav Zlobin and Valery Nadeev, the USUE table tennis teams have been making it to the victory podium for 8 years.

This year, I would especially like to mention the teacher of the Department of Physical Education and Sports, the coach of the USUE team in strength sports, a multiple champion of the world, Europe, and Russia in arm wrestling Olga Fedotova. Under her leadership, this year, our team in strength sports achieved a triumph - a gold medal and 3 silvers in 4 competitions: arm wrestling, powerlifting and tug of war.

Much attention is paid to developing sambo and chess at USUE. Each year, USUE hosts at least 5 major chess and sambo events, the most significant this year being the All-Russian rapid chess tournament, Ural Queen, named after A.E. Karpov, the All-Russian competitions among students in sambo in memory of the USSR Honored Coach, Professor E.M. Chumakov.

-Whom of the USUE students would you like to name based on the results of the 2025 Universiade?

- There are over 300 athletes in our teams, all of whom have contributed to the sporting achievements of USUE. However, the following students deserve special mention:

- in women’s volleyball: Ekaterina Nikitina and Elizaveta Protopopova. Elizaveta, for example, is among the top ten most productive players in the Super League;

- in basketball: Master of Sports of Russia Anastasia Minenko and Anna Golub. Both girls are three-time champions of the Sverdlovsk Region Universiade as members of USUE team and winners of the Russian 3x3 Basketball Cup in 2024;

- among table tennis players, the leaders are masters of sports Miron Vasiliev and Polina Degtyareva;

- in combat sports, the member of the Russian national arm-wrestling team, Diyorbek Koldashov and the champion of the All-Russian Universiade in arm-wrestling Dmitry Karnaukhov

-What are the plans for the further development of sports in the next academic year?

- The rector has already made a decision to allocate funds to purchase suspended basketball units and modern cardiovascular machines; it is planned to increase the area of the climbing wall - this is one of the rapidly developing and popular sports now.

Work will continue on preparing university teams, considering the development of new sports to ensure the participation of students in various competitions. Over the past decade, USUE students have repeatedly become winners of the All-Russian and World Universiades and we will strive to preserve and increase the sports traditions and merits of the university!

On June 20, the admission of applicants began, and one of the major tasks for us is to work on attracting talented athletes to USUE. We try to explain to young promising athletes that at our economic university they can both get a good profession and continue their sports career.

Interview with acting head of the USUE Department of Physical Education and Sports Maxim Kocharyan