Chernyshenko, former President and chief executive of the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi, is set to oversee the preparations and delivery of the multi-sport event, scheduled to be held from August 19 to 31.

The Russian official was awarded the Gold Olympic Order following Sochi 2014 only to be stripped of the honour by the International Olympic Committee in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin has also been named on the 30-strong Organising Committee along with Russian Olympic Committee first vice-president Igor Levitin, an aide to the country’s President Vladimir Putin, and Sverdlovsk Governor Evgeny Kuyvashev.

More than 4,000 athletes aged between 17 and 23 are expected to compete across 15 sports at the International University Sports Festival.

A total of 22 countries are due to be represented at the event with teams drawn from nations in the BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) groups.

BRICS involves Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are part of SCO,

CIS includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Yekaterinburg had been set to stage this year’s International University Sports Federation Summer World University Games but had the Russian city’s hosting rights suspended due to the war in Ukraine.

The replacement festival was announced as part of a Russian-Chinese sporting initiative, entitled the Years of Russian-Chinese Cooperation in Sports in 2022 and 2023, which was confirmed by Putin last October.

Sports facilities that were built as part of the preparation for the Summer World University Games are set to be used for the International University Sports Festival.