On May 15, 2024, the President of the Winter Sports Association of the Republic of Moldova, Dmitri Torner, and the head of the Austrian Sports Police, Gunter Marek, met in Vienna.

Günther Marek shared information about the sports police system, reorganized in Austria in 2002, which trains professional athletes to become police officers. Top athletes reached the age of 18 are fully trained as police officers for 5 years (instead of the usual two) and once they have achieved this status, they are exempted from the police work until the end of the sportive career.  Training capabilities are provided by the Austrian winter and summer sports associations.

"We now have 80 athletes who are financed from the budget, so that they have job security after the end of their sports career. This is how we prepare the best athletes for the work in police. They can apply themselves not only in patrol service, but also in criminal investigation or other areas of internal security," said Marek.

Expert also mentioned the system of rigorous selection of the future police officers. The selection has been made by an expert committee that includes former athletes.

In his turn, Dimitri Torner expressed the interest  in  the Austrian model of the sports police , spoke about the initiative to restore the sports reserve system in Moldova and the importance of the Austrian experience for creation of an optimal model. ‘We are aiming to implement the best practices in our country. Our objective is to create an efficient system that would contribute to the self-realization of the athletes  as well as their social guarantees, and, at the same time, would meet the state's security interests. This is precisely what the Austrian experience is » -he said.

Gunter Marek agreed to support in the implementation of the initiatives of Moldovan Winter Sports Association and also will inform the Minister of interior about the outcome of the meeting.

“We fully support Mr. Torner's initiative. Definitely, we are ready to share our experience with Moldova," he continued, also expressing his willingness to negotiate personally with representatives of the Moldovan Ministry of Interior.

« We are willing to support the Winter Sports Association with our know-how and look forward to discuss it with our Moldovan colleagues. Supporting to the best athletes has been an important objective for Austria for many years and I would be glad if we could contribute to the realization of a similar project in Moldova," Marek said.

Dimitri Torner expressed his gratitude for the willingness to provide such support and offered to continue the dialog in Chisinau in the nearest future.

The Winter Sports Association

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