Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – Government of the Russian Federation –
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The 2025 Phygital Games are taking place in Nizhny Novgorod from September 17 to 20. The tournament is bringing together 400 participants from 50 regions of Russia, as well as Latvia and Mauritania.
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Chernyshenko spoke with Games participants, assessed the competition venues, and held a meeting on the development of the phygital movement.
The meeting also featured speeches from First Deputy Minister of Sport of Russia Odes Baysultanov, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Olga Petrova, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Gleb Nikitin, and President of the All-Russian Phygital Sports Federation Nikita Nagorny.
The Deputy Prime Minister thanked Governor Gleb Nikitin, his team, the Russian Ministry of Sport, and the organizers, and emphasized the importance of holding the 2025 Phygital Games during the World Youth Festival, as this provides an additional opportunity for engagement in the phygital format, launched "with the help of President Vladimir Putin."
"The World Phygital Federation already includes 118 countries. This means that in 118 countries, people are gathering, holding competitions, and evaluating them on the World Federation platform, using the same rules and regulations first tested at the Future Games in Kazan last year. This year, qualifying competitions for the Future Games, which will be held in Astana next July, are being held here," noted Dmitry Chernyshenko.
Dmitry Chernyshenko reported that, according to the Minister of Sports of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, thanks to the phygital training camps, the conversion rate of children who had never played sports but took up the sport after participating in the camps was 30%.
The meeting noted that special attention is currently being paid to integrating phygital technologies into the school and higher education systems.
The Phygital Games 2025 is a key tournament on the Champions Path to qualify for the Games of the Future 2026 in Kazakhstan. For the RFSO Lokomotiv football team, participation in the Phygital Games 2025 provides additional match practice before competing in the GOTF 2025, which will be held in December in Abu Dhabi.
According to Nizhny Novgorod Region Governor Gleb Nikitin, the region has great potential and a strong foundation for developing the phygital movement. Eight municipalities in the region already have equipped phygital sports venues. A dedicated sports federation is active, and the number of events held is growing annually.
"For two years in a row, we've been holding phygital camps in the region, where children spend two weeks learning 3D modeling, programming, robotics, and playing sports. We invite students from sports schools and those interested in IT to participate. As a result, after these camps, 30% of children who hadn't previously played sports enroll in sports clubs, and athletes are eager to learn information technology. Phygital is a real tool that helps children find their calling in sports and life," the governor noted.
The 2025 Phygital Games brought together the strongest teams in five disciplines: phygital football, phygital basketball, phygital hockey, phygital dancing, and phygital shooters.
Dmitry Chernyshenko and Gleb Nikitin attended the T-Bank Phygital Hockey competition, as well as the RWB Phygital Football and Vkusno – Period Phygital Basketball competitions.
The Deputy Prime Minister was presented with the "Sports Nizhny Novgorod" metaverse on the Roblox gaming platform. Nizhny Novgorod became the first city in Russia to create its own virtual world on the popular children's gaming platform to engage children in physical education and sports, as well as to introduce them to the region's history.
The Nizhny Novgorod Fair, the Meshchera Sports School, and the Meshchersky Sports and Recreation Center, where the region's first phygital center was created and presented to Dmitry Chernyshenko two years ago, served as the Games' venues.
"The development plan for the phygital movement in Russia runs until 2030. Ten phygital sports competitions have already been included in the unified calendar of interregional, national, and international sporting events. We plan to create 300 phygital centers in the regions and introduce 20 phygital disciplines in the next five years," said Odes Baysultanov, First Deputy Minister of Sport of Russia.
Nikita Nagorny, President of the All-Russian Phygital Sports Federation, emphasized that significant work has been done over the past two years to develop the phygital movement in our country. It has become a fully-fledged part of the Russian sports community. At the meeting, Nikita Nagorny and Artem Buslaev, President of the Russian Squash Federation, signed an agreement on the joint development of squash in Russia.
The Games are organized by the Agency for the Development of Computer and Other Sports and the Ministry of Sports of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, with the support of the Ministry of Sports of Russia.
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