The 54-year-old from Ivanovo, the owner of Novolipetsk Steel who is estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $15.8 billion (£9.9 billion), has been elected President of Russia's National Association of Summer Olympic Sports, a position that carries with it the role of vice-president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

Lisin, who is President of the Russian Shooting Union and the European Shooting Confederation, replaces Sergeiy Bogdanchikov, the President of Rosneft, the oil company who are one of main sponsors of the 2014 Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi.

In the six years since it was formed in February 2005 under Bogdanchikov, the National Association of Summer Olympic Sports distributed 300 million rubles (£6 million/$10 million) to Russian federations.

Russia finished third overall in the medals table at Beijing in 2008 with a total of 72 medals, 23 of which were gold.

But that figure was considerably down from in Athens in 2004 when they won 92 medals, 27 of them gold, as China established themselves as the new Olympic superpower.

Lisin, who started his working life as a mechanic in a coal mine and then worked as steelworker in Siberia, got his break in 1991 when his then boss was appointed Minister of Metallurgy. 

Lisin travelled with to Moscow and joined up with group of traders called Trans-World Group; they came to dominate Russia's aluminum and steel exports.

He managed the factories, and when the partners went their separate ways in 2000, Lisin got majority stake in Russia's giant Novolipetsk steel mill as his share.

Lisin has since begun to build a media empire, publishing the newspaper Gazeta and running the business news radio station Business FM.

He has already started to establish a reputation within the Olympic Movement having served as a member of the International Olympic Committee's Commission for Culture and Olympic Education.

Lisin's main passion is shooting and he constructed one of the largest shooting range complexes in Europe at Lisya Nora, on the outskirts of Moscow.

Lisin, a member of Dmitry Medvedev's Presidential Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, was elected to his new role unanimously.

It is another significant appointment for the ROC following the election last May of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov as President.

"I don't think the Association should be a one-man show," said Lisin after being elected.

"Only by working together are able to realise the potential of the Association."

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