“Why do we always have such a disagreement?”: Garanichev about participating in the relay, World Cup results and criticism of Guberniev

“When I heard that Drachev was not considering my candidacy as a participant in the relay race, I was taken aback”

- Why did you leave Italy already on Sunday?

- I changed my ticket at my own expense - I decided to fly home earlier, not to stay in Anterselva for another day.

- I saw with my own eyes a document signed by the President of the RBU Vladimir Drachev, the head coach of the team Anatoly Khovantsev and the head coach of the men's team Sergei Belozerov, where your name is among the participants in the European Championship.

- It was featured, to be more precise.

“And at what point did it cease to appear there?”

- When the coaches announced the composition for the relay, Sergey Ivanovich (Belozerov. - RT ) approached me and asked if I would go to Raubichi. Then Artyom Istomin asked about the same. I replied that, of course, I would like to go, especially since the form allows us to show a good result. But then, apparently, the coaches decided that I still did not need to go to the European Championship. Why - no one explained. They simply said that I was going home, and then to the three remaining stages of the World Cup.

- Your personal trainer informed me that you will start in the relay race a day before the start. In the afternoon of that day, completely different information appeared, which in the evening again changed in your favor. Can you explain what happened inside the team?

- The fact is that during the competition I myself do not go online, I do not read any news, my parents usually do not call me either. Therefore, in general, I was not aware of what was happening. Belatedly learned that Vladimir Petrovich (Drachev - RT ) gave an interview to Match TV, and after that Anatoly Nikolayevich also made a statement that I was not running the baton. When I heard that Drachev did not consider my candidacy as a participant in the race at all, to be honest, I was somewhat taken aback.

“Was that so unexpected?”

- Well yes. After all, the coaches told me that I was running the second stage, I tuned in to it. And then a flurry of calls - from parents, sisters, acquaintances. And what should I have told them if the president of the federation had already outlined everything on the air? Naturally, he climbed onto the Internet himself in order to somehow try to understand what was going on. It turns out funny: how and what is happening in our team, you can quickly find out from the Internet than from the team itself.

- How did the coaches of the men's team react to all these twists and turns?

- They just started to reassure me, they say, nothing has changed, you need to calm down and continue to prepare for the relay, and not read the Internet. So I was not going to read anything actually ...

“It’s not very clear why Guberniev attacked us with such criticism”

- At what point did the initial coaching arrangement in stages with the intention of putting you on the second leg become different and why?

“That is unknown to me.” When it was said to continue to prepare, it was all about the same second stage. And at the evening meeting of the team we read out the composition, where I was already the first. Belozerov even then came into my room - apologize, explain that it was not his fault that such confusion occurred. For me, in principle, this was not too important - I ran in the relay races and the first stages, and the second, and all the others. But the situation itself again unsettled a little. Why do we always have such inconsistency? Why does the head coach and the president of the federation say one thing, and the head coach, it turns out, is constantly forced to defend someone? Do they not communicate with each other? Those inside the team really don't like it the most.

- Do you have any explanations why you personally did not manage to show the result you wanted in Anterselva?

- I do not relieve myself of responsibility, but I think that a whole range of reasons played a role: apparently, we did some work not as it was necessary. But even so, it was not very clear to me why the same Dmitry Guberniev attacked us with such criticism. It turns out, after all, that, not being in a team, he knows more about our training than we ourselves and our coaches.

- What particular moments are we talking about?

- For my part, for example, for some reason the emphasis was placed on the fact that I had a fitness trainer, although I have been cooperating with my strength training specialist Sergey Voronin for a long time, and this work is carried out only in the summer, starting in April and until mid-maximum until the end of June. This is known to all coaches of the national team. Voronin is a medical doctor by profession, has a higher education, that is, not just a man from the street, but thoroughly knows what he is doing. Therefore, we have been working together for the past three years. But for some reason all the dogs suddenly began to hang on Sergey. I understand that journalists have their own work, but what do people want to achieve with such things? Is it possible that someone will feel better from this escalation of the situation?