Loss for the women's team

Less than a month is left before the start of the new biathlon season. Already on November 30, the next World Cup kicks off in Ostersund, Sweden with a supermix and mixed relay. Preparation for it for the Russian team turned out to be difficult. Not without scandals. In particular, the media for a long time discussed the issue of signing by athletes of personal contracts with the SBR. As a result, the issue was still resolved amicably, although the head of the union, Vladimir Drachev, even hinted that biathletes, including Alexander Loginov, who did not want to agree, might lose the opportunity to play for the national team.

But the Russian women's team before the start of the new season lost the quota at the World Cup. This happened after Margarita Vasilyeva was disqualified for 18 months for repeatedly missing out-of-competition doping tests. Over the year, the domestic athlete scored three such passes, which was the reason for serious sanctions.

At the same time, the team was left not only without a talented biathlete who showed herself well last season, but also without points scored by a Novopavlovka native in the World Cup races. As a result, the team rolled back from fourth to sixth in the standings of the Nations Cup and lost the opportunity to set a maximum quota of six people for personal starts at the start of the new season. Now, coaches will be able to count only on five girls. Sweden moved up to the top 5 instead of Russia.

Moving Podchufarova

Also, next season Olga Podchufarova will not help the Russian national team. The winner of the World Cup in Hochfilzen in December 2017 unexpectedly announced a pause in speaking for the national team, and then completely decided to end her career at the age of 25.

The pause went to Podchufarova's benefit, and in 2019 she also unexpectedly returned to the sport. However, Olga will fight for a place in the biathlon elite under the flag of Slovenia. She explained her choice by not wanting to be a “sad clown” in domestic sports, which she compared to a big top.

“In the perception of the fans, our whole sport is a show for evening gatherings or a semblance of a circus performance. At some point, I also realized that this is all big top. But I do not want to be a sad clown in him. And so I change the vector. We, athletes, live this very show moment as life, and therefore its value is high for us, ”Podchufarova wrote on Instagram.

At the same time, Olga’s move to Slovenia was absolutely amicable. The SBR noted that they were not going to impede this transition. The leadership of the union even emphasized that they intend to ask IBU to reduce the term of the so-called two-year “quarantine”, which the biathlete is required to observe when moving from one team to another.

“Two years of quarantine of Podchufarova end in December, but the IBU executive committee can shorten this period with the consent of the SBR. In principle, she can go to the start as soon as WADA opens up her opportunity to speak. Olga filed an application to continue her career in August, and the trial testing expires in mid-November. She has already been tested several times, as far as I know, ”quoted News.ru as saying by Vice-President of the RBU Viktor Maigurov.

It’s only in the Slovenian Federation that they didn’t have time to collect all the necessary documents before January 2020, which means that fans will not see Olga at the starting stages of the World Cup. In addition to Podchufarova, Ekaterina Avvakumova, who since 2017 played for South Korea, was going to change her sports citizenship again. She intended to move to Serbia. However, in the coming season, the Russian woman will not be able to make her debut under the flag of a new country. This decision was made by the IBU.

“The IBU Secretary General informed us that Avvakumova will not play for Serbia this season. IBU explained its decision by saying that the biathlete did not demonstrate a genuine, close and reliable connection with our country, ”TASS quoted Velimir Vukadin, President of the Biathlon Union of Serbia, as saying.

And Maigurov explained that, according to the new IBU rules, Avvakumova has no chance at all to play for Serbia, since now a biathlete can only change sports citizenship once in a career.

Selection criteria for the World Cup and Loginov’s return after the birth of a child

Meanwhile, the Russian team continues to prepare for the upcoming season. In mid-October, the team tried on a new form in which it will be launched at Ostersund.

“The form of the Russian national biathlon team from KV + will be so bright in the new season. The quality of the materials has become even better, and the patterns are almost perfect, ”says the SBR on Twitter.

So bright will be the form of the Russian national biathlon team from KV + in the new season. The quality of the materials has become even better, and the patterns are almost perfect 👍🏻🇷🇺 pic.twitter.com/pz30VoCO3a

- Union of Biathletes RU (@russianbiathlon) October 16, 2019

An equally important event was the determination of the final criteria by which the composition of the team for the first stages of the World Cup will be formed. It will be determined, among other things, by the results of control starts in Tyumen on November 1-21. At the same time, only biathletes who have undergone centralized training in the main or reserve team will be allowed to attend.

Vacation packages for the first three stages, thus, will receive four men and three women. In addition, athletes who took 1st-15th places in the overall standings of the tournament following the results of the last World Cup season: Alexander Loginov, Evgeny Garanichev and Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht, will directly be included in the composition. The company they will make on the rights of winners of the overall classification of the IBU Cup Victoria Slivko with Anton Babikov. Finally, two more people will be included in the roster by the decision of the coaches.

As for the leader of the Russian national team Loginov, for him the year 2019 turned out to be incredibly important both in sports and in personal terms. Indeed, in May he played a wedding with Ukrainian biathlete Maria Kruchova, and in mid-October he became a father. A daughter was born in a family of young athletes. Due to this joyful event, the Russian team was temporarily left without Alexander, who was next to his family and worked on an individual schedule. Loginov missed the camp in Ramsau, but joined the team in Tyumen.