Russia Builds the Future of Sports with a Nationwide Phygital Movement

A Hub for the Next Generation of Athletes

The Ministry of Sports of Russia, together with regional authorities, has launched the construction of a dedicated phygital sports complex in Krasnoyarsk. Designed to merge physical and virtual competition, the center will host national-level tournaments, training programs with augmented reality elements, and pilot testing of advanced sports technologies — including sensors, simulators, and VR-based training platforms.

The opening is planned for 2026. Currently, nearly 92,000 students in the Krasnoyarsk region engage in sports, with more than 55,000 doing so professionally or on a regular basis. Experts note that the rise of modern facilities has contributed to the sharp growth of youth participation in recent years.

Phygital sports — a combination of physical and digital competition — are gaining popularity worldwide, especially among younger audiences who natively move between real and virtual environments. Russia has positioned itself as one of the global leaders in promoting cyber and hybrid disciplines.

According to Sergey Kryukov, President of the Russian Student Sports Union, Krasnoyarsk has every chance to become the country’s capital of student phygital sports.

“One of the state’s key goals is to increase the number of people who regularly participate in sports. School gyms and sports grounds should be integrated into a unified system of physical education. Another important goal is to connect PE teachers with clubs and sports federations so that students can train with real professionals. From those students, the next generation of university athletes will emerge.”

Mikhail Kotyukov

Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai

From “Games of the Future” to Everyday Reality

The concept took off after Russia hosted the world’s first “Games of the Future” in 2024 — a hybrid sports event combining digital and physical challenges such as phygital football and phygital basketball. Before that, most regions lacked facilities for such competitions, training, or IT experiments in sports.

Following the success of the event, the Russian Ministry of Sports incorporated phygital formats into its national sports digitalization strategy, focusing on youth engagement and collaboration with IT communities. By 2030, phygital centers are expected to open in every Russian region.

Homegrown Tech, Global Ambitions

Russia’s phygital sports infrastructure relies entirely on domestic software, creating demand for local IT development and stimulating the national tech economy. During the “Games of the Future,” entrepreneur Igor Melnikov from Udmurtia introduced a fencing simulator built on fully Russian code. In 2024, the Nizhny Novgorod team won two awards at the “Phygital SportTech Cup” in St. Petersburg for their “Cyber Karate” simulator — a training platform for honing techniques and preparing for real-world competition.

Such projects highlight how the fusion of sports and technology is generating new opportunities not only for athletes but also for developers, engineers, and trainers.

A Catalyst for New Professions and Technologies

The Krasnoyarsk Phygital Center is more than a local investment — it is part of a broader national strategy to train young athletes for hybrid disciplines. The facility will host both regional and federal tournaments and serve as a research and innovation hub for digital sports technologies.

Beyond competition, this movement is shaping new professions: hybrid event coordinators, digital training engineers, and AI-assisted sports analysts. As local projects push for higher-quality solutions, they also drive innovation across Russia’s broader tech industry.