Lukashenko unveils new sports complex in Dzerzhinsk

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko took part in a ceremony to commission the Olympus sports and recuperation complex in Dzerzhinsk on 21 June, BelTA has learned.

The opening ceremony was also attended by Minsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Turchin, Director of the Dzerzhinsk District children's and youth sports school Mikhail Yurkevich, European and world champion in judo and sambo Yuri Rybak, and winner of national judo competitions Valeria Trukhanovich.

Dzerzhinsk celebrated Town Day at the end of May. So the opening of the new sports and recuperation complex in the district center was, in a certain sense, a Town Day gift for local residents.

Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that Belarusians should take their health more seriously. “If every person, including a child, takes care of their health (at least at the bare minimum), they will no longer need medicines or in-patient treatment. In other words, we build such ‘health centers’ so that you will stay away from pharmacies and hospitals,” he noted.

“I once suggested that every school should have sports facilities, especially rural schools. But such sports centers are also needed. There is a great demand for such centers in every district. People particularly long for a swimming pool. So we built a good sports and recuperation center. Hopefully, this will encourage people to take a better care of their health. And most importantly, our children will have the opportunity to do sports. I will be very happy to hear one day that this sports complex has nurtured European, world and Olympic champions. And this is possible: the regions have the most physically developed people,” the president said.

The head of state expressed hope that similar facilities will be built in all districts of Minsk Oblast. “I think the governor, who is a young, athletic man, will keep it up, and over the next five-year period we will have such facilities in every district. We have few districts with no complexes like this. Therefore, we should build them. This is a health factory. And I wish you the most important thing - health, we’ll buy everything else,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.