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The award ceremony for the best athletes of 2024 took place

31.01.2025

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The award ceremony for the “Best athletes of the year 2024” took place today.

The event was attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President of the Republic Vahagn Khachaturyan, President of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister Arayik Harutyunyan, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan, heads of various sports federations, athletes, coaches.

In his speech, Prime Minister Pashinyan first thanked the athletes for their sport activities in 2024. The Prime Minister noted that many medals were won, but unfortunately, one important task could not be fulfilled, in particular, we did not win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. “On such an occasion, we return to our policies and try to understand what we are not doing right and what we should do better in order to achieve this goal, because in such cases, usually our assumption is that no matter how much we want to, we're probably not doing something right, and that result isn't being achieved.

We will be consistent in our policies in the sports sector, and the change in the content of the award ceremony is somehow related to this, because every time we try to do something better or change and test. But, of course, along with my words of appreciation and congratulation, I also want to tell you how important a number of topics that are currently the subject of heated discussions are in the field of sports,” Nikol Pashinyan noted.

The Prime Minister touched upon the topic of universal declaration and added that the Government plans to return 70 billion drams in the form of social credits every year through this system. “What is a social credit? If a person took a child to a sports club, paid for it and paid income tax, we return that payment in the amount of up to a maximum of 100 thousand drams per year. And we are talking about 800 thousand people. But, of course, the next result is that those people who, for some reason, or due to payment or other problems, avoid to take their children to sport clubs, now thanks to this system, I assure you, tens of thousands of children will go in for sports," the Prime Minister said.

According to the Prime Minister, it is important here that coaches and sports infrastructures are prepared to accept this flow. According to Nikol Pashinyan, people get nervous about every innovation, but the next moment the nervousness will pass and the content will remain. “Many people who do not afford today will see that finances are emerging, and the state, in fact, will finance, including the involvement of children in sports groups. I hope that our coaches and athletes themselves will offer a part of this activity so that children can take advantage of the opportunity given by the Government,” said Nikol Pashinyan, adding that the most important guarantee of success in big sports is to make children's sports as popular as possible.

At the same time, the Prime Minister noted that the greatest incentive to invite children to sports is our athletes that have gained prominence - their bright shining stars in our sports firmament. "And we have gathered today, of course, first of all, to once again express our words of honor and appreciation, our love, our respect, our appreciation to them and to express our gratitude that they hold the flag of the Republic of Armenia high on behalf of all of us, and give us the opportunity to be proud, give us the opportunity to be moved, give us the opportunity to live, empathize and give us the opportunity to rejoice that our country, our sports community, our sport world continues to award such bright stars to the Republic of Armenia, which is very important and gives everyone – adults, children, Government, non-Government, opposition, authorities - a very big and important positive charge," the Prime Minister noted.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, there is a lot of talk about the need for national unity, but our athletes are the brightest examples of national unity, because that is where national unity lies. “When our athletes raise the flag of Armenia, everyone unites around our athletes, because here a national consensus is formed. It doesn’t matter who holds what political views, is an oppositionist, a pro-government figure, sorry, rich, not so secure, insecure, has a job, is unemployed, lives in Armenia or outside Armenia, at that moment national unity is formed. And I thank you for your undeniable and invaluable contribution to national unity. We don’t even attempt to appreciate your contribution, because as I said, it is invaluable. Today we pay our humble tribute to all of you,” the Prime Minister concluded his speech.

The Prime Minister then presented the awards to the winners.

Greco-Roman wrestler Artur Aleksanyan, gymnast Artur Davtyan, and weightlifter Varazdat Lalayan were recognized as winners in the “Best Three Athletes” category.

Weightlifter Alexandra Grigoryan was recognized as the winner in the “Best Female Athlete” category, and rhythmic gymnast Greta Vardanyan was recognized as the winner in the “Best Athlete with a Disability” category.

The winner in the “Best Team” category is the men’s chess team consisting of Hayk Martirosyan, Shant Sargsyan, Karen Grigoryan, Robert Hovhannisyan.

The winner in the “Best Young Athlete” category is weightlifter Emma Poghosyan, the winner in the “Return to Great Sport and/or Revelation” category was weightlifter Hripsime Khurshudyan.

The winner in the “Best Coach” category was Hakob Serobyan, the head coach of the artistic gymnastics team, and the winner in the “Audience’s Sympathy” category is weightlifter Varazdat Lalayan, the 2024 world champion, silver medalist of the Paris Olympic Games, based on the results of online voting.

The winner in the “Best Popular Athlete of the Republic of Armenia” category is football player Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The award will be presented to him or his representative on an appropriate occasion.
 

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