Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received the athletes of the Armenian national team who participated in the Paris Olympic Games, their coaches and heads of federations.

The Prime Minister thanked them for representing the Republic of Armenia at the Olympic Games in Paris with honor and added that the Government tried to do everything possible to create favorable conditions for the team to participate in the Olympic Games.

"Of course, we all hoped that we would also have Olympic gold medals, but sport is sport and wishes don't always come true. We must form the right attitude towards this situation, analyze the work we did in the previous period, understand what was effective, what was least effective, what we did right, what we did wrong and prepare for the next Olympic Games", noted the Prime Minister, adding that analytical work will be done in the near future in order to make the future actions more concrete. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the Government's policy remains the same. The Prime Minister noted that one of the fundamental problems of Armenian sports is obviously the lack or low quality of sports infrastructure. "I am happy to say that today large-scale sports infrastructures are being created in the country, including in cooperation with famous sportsmen of the field. Our commitment to have a sports school named after an Olympic champion remains in place," said Nikol Pashinyan.

The Prime Minister informed that in the near future sports infrastructures will be created in regions with private-public cooperation. According to Nikol Pashinyan, the Government will build sports centers in regions and will hand over management to professional companies. "Also, we will finance children's visits to those centers, as we finance schools based on the number of children. A certain quota will be allocated to each center in order to finance children's participation," said the Head of the Government, adding that sports should be treated as a branch of the economy. According to the Prime Minister, the most important economic component is as follows: there is investment, there is proper management, there is a result, there is no investment, there is no proper management, there is no result.

At the same time, Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the effective work of the Government and sports federations. The Prime Minister noticed that there were quite a number of athletes of the new generation from the Armenian national team at the Paris Olympics, with whom we have hopes. The Head of the Government emphasized that the support programs will continue as planned. "And in conclusion, I want to thank all of you again for your dedication, your speeches, your effort. I think you know and imagine how excited we all were waiting for news," said the Head of the Government.

Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan also thanked the athletes, federations and coaches of the Olympic team for their great effort and dedication, adding that during the Olympic Games, the fans had the opportunity to watch the athletes' competitions from the "House of Armenia" in Paris. "This also created a wonderful environment around the games, where our athletes could also visit after their competitions, talk with fans, and share their impressions. Also, an environment was formed where it was possible to watch the competitions more unitedly and feel cheer for success and victory," said the minister.

Zhanna Andreasyan informed that Armenian athletes of 2024 have already won 224 medals in international tournaments, and many more tournaments are expected before the end of the year.

Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Karen Giloyan noted that Armenia participated in the Olympic Games with 15 athletes, three of whom had a permit or a white card. "It means that we could not have serious expectations from the three athletes, we do not have high results in those sports yet, but we are going in that direction. Of the remaining 12 athletes, three took second place, winning a silver medal, one took the third place with a bronze medal, one took the fourth place, two took the fifth place, one took the sixth place, three took the seventh place, and one took the ninth place. In other words, all 12 athletes were in the top ten. The Armenian weightlifting team at the Olympic Games, in the team calculation, unofficially, was the second, second only to the Georgian team. The Greco-Roman team of Armenia was the fifth in the overall team calculation. In general, 206 countries participated in this summer Olympic Games, 91 teams won medals, the Armenian team is 66th in the total medal count. Qualitatively, this was the third best performance of independent Armenian national teams. We performed better in 2016 and in 1996, when we had a champion," Giloyan informed, adding that before going to the Olympic Games, the Government had fulfilled all its responsibilities.

Next, issues related to the improvement of sports infrastructure in Armenia, preparation for the next Olympic Games, and steps towards the development of sports were discussed.