Page 138 - Olympism in Socialism

aim is to draw millions of school-going boys and
girls into physical culture and sports.
In all general-educational schools, which are
today attended by more than 50 million pupils,
physical training is compulsory? A wide network
of sports schools has been set up for those who
want to specialize in one or another branch of
sports. Over two million children are now
improving their sports skills at such specialized
schools which number about 5,900 in the
country.
Any boy or girl can enter one of such schools
if he or she submits a personal application with
the parents’ written consent and a medical
reference permitting the young sports-lover to go
in for a particular sports event.
Training sessions at the schools take place
four times a week, two hours each, and are free,
with all expenditures on the rent and
maintenance of sports centres, equipment and
facilities, as well as payment to coaches, being
borne by public education bodies which receive
subsidies from the state budget.
Children at schools are kept under strict
medical supervision. They have special medical
cards recording the results of all medical
examinations done on them and any remarks by
a sports doctor allowing them to continue the
training sessions or limiting or disallowing them
for a temporary period. Like every other type of
medical assistance in the USSR, that rendered to
sportsmen is free.
Physical training at general-educational
schools is part and parcel of the universal free
secondary education system developed in the
Soviet Union. PT lessons, the main form of
exercise, are just as compulsory as mathematics
or history, and their content is determined by the

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