The development of sport popularity in Russia

The most popular sports in Russia include ice hockey, ice skating, football, tennis and gymnastics. Russia’s sportsmen inherited a strong tradition from the Soviet Union, which produced a stream of world class athletes that dominated sports from ice hockey to gymnastics and ice skating. The collapse of the Soviet Union decimated training programs, however, and socio-economic changes impacted both the number of top class athletes and spectator figures in the 1990s. In the last decade, this has started to change, as increased stability influences young athletes’ physical and mental condition as well as the level of funding and facilities.