President Serzh Sargsyan together with Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan was present at the solemn ceremony of opening of the newly-built school of figure skating of Irina Rodnina. The President took part in the laying of foundation of the sport school in June 2014. The RA Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Gabriel Ghazaryan, the special representative of the RF President for international cultural affairs, roving ambassador Mikhail Shvidkoy, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of RF to RA Ivan Volinkin, the founder and general manager of “MonArch” companies Sergey Hambardzumyan, the member of the RF Federal Council, the tree times figure skating Olympic champion, many time world and Europe champion, RF public and state figure, a delegate of the State Duma Irina Rodnina and the two times world champion and seven times Europe champion Irina Slutskaya were present at the ceremony too.
The honour of solemn opening was given to Taron Margaryan, Sergey Hambardzumyan and Irina Rodnina. The President of the Republic together with the Mayor of Yerevan walked about the school, familiarized themselves with the conditions.
Greeting and congratulating those present Mayor Taron Margaryan expressed confidence that this long-expected establishment would contribute to self-expression and physical conditioning of thousands of children, to keeping fit of the young and to future achievements of Armenian sportsmen.
“Yerevan is certainly rich in sights. And this complex will certainly give a new spirit not only to sport but to cultural atmosphere of the capital s well and it will make it possible to see the beauty and enjoy it. I should state with pride that this complex is another expression of the strong friendship and cooperation between Armenia and Russia, and for this I want to express my gratitude to the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan for his direct participation and consistency in the realization of this project. On behalf of all Yerevanians I also want to thank the eminent Maecenas, President of “MonArch” company Sergey Hambardzumyan for this really patriotic action. I am also grateful to “Bareketsutyun” foundation and certainly, to the three times Olympic champion, public and state figure, delegate of the RF State Duma, the President of Figure Skating Federation of Moscow Irina Rodnina. I am grateful to all designers, builders, specialists of the sphere and generally to all those who contributed to this wonderful initiative. Figure skating is a very popular kind of sport in Armenia. I am sure that the graduates of our sport school will feel proud of being the pupils of Irina Rodnina sport school. And I am sure that developing this popular sport in near future Armenia will be represented to the world with competitive sportsmen”, said the Mayor.
The special representative of the RF President for international cultural affairs, roving ambassador Mikhail Shvidkoy, the member of the RF Federal Council, the tree times figure skating Olympic champion, many time world and Europe champion, RF public and state figure, a delegate of the State Duma Irina Rodnina, and the founder and general manager of “MonArch” companies Sergey Hambardzumyan also made a greeting speech, and handed the symbolic key to the sport school. Taron Margaryan handed the keys to the pupils.
Afterwards President Serzh Sargsyan together with Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan, guests and numerous residents of Yerevan watched the show performances of figure skating.
The Yerevan Children’s and Youth’s sport school of figure skating and ice hockey which was founded in 1971 and functioned at 48/1 Bagratunyats in Yerevan used to be in extremely bad conditions and the ice-rink didn’t work for a long time. On the initiative of President Serzh Sargsyan, and financed by the general manager of “MonArch” group, the Armenian businessman living in Russia Sergey Hambardzumyan the new sport school was built within a short time and granted to the city of Yerevan. The total costs of the program have made up USD 7.55 million. The area of the three-storey building is 1 hectare. It is provided with all conditions and equipment, modern engineering and ice-making systems corresponds to international standards.
The newly-built sport school at Admiral Isakov 27/10 (near the cycling track) was renamed “Irirna Rodnina figure skating sport school” state non-commercial organization by the decision of the Council of Elders of Yerevan made on 25.11.2015 and will function under the leadership of Irina Rodnina.

Information and Public Relations Department
of the City Hall of Yerevan