"We have a kind of sport - one continuous improvisation": Loginov about pressure on the track, the book of the Be brothers and football

Alexander Loginov immediately rejected the offer to meet and talk on the day off.

He explained it very simply: “I would like to hit the road to Salzburg for half a day, buy something.

Then it will not work, there will be no more days off until the very departure.

So let's meet at our hotel right after our morning workout when we get back from the glacier. "

At the appointed time, the athlete was waiting for me in the lobby.

- When you won the individual race at the World Cup in Antholz in January, having passed all four stages with zero shooting, it seemed that everything finally fell into place.

But already in the relay you earned a penalty loop, made four misses in the mass start, and at the World Championships in Pokljuka, you did not shoot in the best way.

What was the reason?

- All this was in that season as links of the same chain.

Before the New Year, I had to go home for personal reasons, I did not train there, and it turned out to be difficult to get ready for performances again.

Although I honestly tried to somehow rectify the situation.

So it turned out the way it turned out.

- I heard from the coaches that the pandemic also played a negative role that season, due to which you could not complete the planned amount of work.

- In fact, everything went well at first.

Yes, at the summer championship of Russia I was a little knocked down by an old elbow injury, which caused two or three weeks of full-fledged training to take off, but despite this, I managed to bring myself up to the season quite well.

With the same speed, if you look at the results before the New Year, there were no problems.

But then it became hard to get ready.

In every way.

- At the end of the season, you went to Kamchatka, which seems to be becoming a very popular holiday destination for athletes.

What is the attraction of this place?

- Everyone who has visited Kamchatka, as a rule, always wants to return there again.

It is very beautiful and interesting there.

In addition, I was lucky: my sponsor Sergey Kolesnikov, who lives on the peninsula, invited me, and together with him we saw a lot of things.

- Did you have a helicopter at your disposal?

- Was.

We climbed into completely remote places, 50 kilometers from the normal road.

It was possible to get there only by off-road vehicles with huge wheels, which, of course, also added an entourage.

I will definitely return to Kamchatka more than once, I am just sure of this.

- You have always had a reputation for being a rather introverted person who prefers to train alone. But in one of your last interviews you said: "We plan to prepare as a team so that we can help each other." Why bother helping anyone in an Olympic year as an individual sport?

- So this is a reciprocal process.

For example, we have guys who are stronger than me in the shooting component.

The same Denis Tashtimerov developed the qualities of a very fast and fairly accurate shooter.

It's always interesting to compete with this.

When you train alone, it’s quite comfortable shooting: you don’t see your opponents, nothing distracts you.

In the same way, I can recall Anton Babikov, with whom at one time we constantly worked in conjunction, when we ran cross-country runs or on roller skis.

This is the essence of teamwork.

On the one hand, there is competition, on the other, there is an opportunity to observe those who are better than you in some way, to reach out for them.

How does the word “comfort” apply to the training of an athlete in your class?

- I don't think it is generally applicable to professional sports.

But I can say that now the training process is very balanced with us.

Despite all the difficulties associated with the pandemic, not a single training camp was disrupted.

We managed to travel to Europe at a height, so so far everything is going very well.

- Last season, it seemed that you could not find a common language with the head coach of the men's team, Yuri Kaminsky.

Did this depress you to some extent?

- To be honest, I look at the training process from a slightly different perspective: I try to strive to get the most out of each individual day.

This is the only thing that worries me.

- Then I'll ask about the shooting.

Are there any indicators that indicate that you are shooting better this season than a year ago?

- A year ago I had a good hit percentage for the time being.

Shooting is generally a difficult component.

It does not happen that you have learned, and this is already forever.

A lot depends on the head.

I'm 100% sure of that.

Some athletes, for example, do not know how to shoot without courage.

Although exceptions do happen.

For some reason, it seems to me that if you take Alexei Volkov, then he, without shooting for a year and a half, and now, for sure, will close four out of five, shooting while standing on the prone (targets for prone shooting have a smaller diameter. -

RT

).

- The coach of your team, Sergei Bashkirov, noticed that the Norwegians, due to the extremely diverse general physical training, which is already practiced at the children's level, are more prepared for serious work and are more coordinated.

Do you agree with this?

- It seems to me that this is a topic that can be developed for a long time and in various directions. You just said about coordination, but I immediately thought that when I was little, we did not have computers, but there was football in the yard in the summer and hockey in the winter. This improved overall coordination very well. And the same Martin Fourcade, as far as I heard, is not very well coordinated in team sports. If we talk about me, for example, I love strength work, I understand that I need it, but I did not come to this understanding right away.

It is clear that in those days when I started training, the very concept of physical training was different.

Yes, we had exercises for the press: either you raise your legs to the bar, or you do the same while lying on the floor.

Now, for each individual muscle, there is its own exercise.

There are special hinges, rubber, and other devices.

All this needs to be studied.

It seems to me that it is already wrong to stand on the position: "I did this 20 years ago, which means that now we need to do the same thing."

- Does your current readiness for the season suit you?

- Quite.

So far, everything is going very well.

- Some experts attributed the not very noticeable results of last season to the lack of a grinding machine for the Russian national team.

And the husband and coach of the three-time Olympic champion Anastasia Kuzmina said in an interview that he considered this problem far-fetched, since she had been using exclusively factory cut-outs throughout her career.

- I don't know about Nastya, but I know that many athletes from other teams run on new structures.

If these structures "go", then it is necessary to switch to them.

But I am not very competent in this matter.

I think the guys from the service team can better answer this question.

- There are some undeniable truths in biathlon.

For example, that you can't run the first lap at breakneck speed if you want to have enough strength to finish.

Do you think those who become champions are people who thoroughly studied all these truths and strictly adhere to them, or those who do everything contrary to the prevailing ideas?

- I think each of us has his own path, his own ways to reveal strengths.

Let's remember the first circle of Johannes Boe.

He is able to run him like no one else in the world, including Fourcade.

That is, to win 15-20 seconds on the first lap and not lose speed on the second and third.

Who else can repeat this?

For example, I can compete with Beo in the second and third laps.

But to start the race as quickly as he does is beyond my strength.

- Does this starting spurt performed by Beo psychologically strongly press down the opponents?

- Of course there is.

Immediately you start thinking: "And if he also shoots cleanly at the turn?"

I think even Fourcade has such thoughts, what can we say about the rest?

- Before the race, you probably think over tactics to the smallest detail.

Do you still have room for improvisation?

- Of course.

In general, we have a kind of sport - one continuous improvisation, starting from the weather conditions.

- Remember the most difficult race in this regard?

- I remember running to Annecy, where very “slow” snow fell before the mass start. I didn't have a suitable structure for warm weather. And after the first kilometer in front of me there were eight or nine people who continued to come off. At the same time, there was no one behind. As a result, only on the first lap the gap between the first and the last participant was more than a minute with “legs”. I myself came to the first line, losing 24 seconds, despite the fact that physically I felt great. In the mass start, this was the first time in my memory. It is clear that my thoughts were only about shooting to zero, otherwise there would be no chance at all. The technique also had to be rebuilt right during the race, so that at least somehow there was enough strength to finish.

- May I have a few more personal questions? Alexander Bolshunov in cross-country skiing constantly takes his wife Anna to training camps and competitions. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen never parted with Daria Domracheva and his daughter Ksenia throughout the pre-Olympic training period and even quarreled with the leaders of the Norwegian national team because of this. Would you like to be able to take your family with you?

- It's always a double-edged sword. Maybe I would like to see my loved ones next to me, but everything is not so easy to organize. Not only are we constantly on the road, but also life in hotels imposes certain difficulties. Not everywhere, however, everything is arranged as luxuriously as it is now in Ramsau, where we live in spacious apartments. In most places we have at our disposal a small room with single beds or one double bed, which somehow should accommodate two adult men. Although the soul, of course, hurts when loved ones are far away.

- Another big mystery for me is your craving for the ground.

I had, and, believe me, not from a good life, to spend the summer in the village, plant potatoes, huddle them, collect Colorado beetles, and then dig out the harvest.

The only desire that a normal person has at the same time is never to do this again in his life.

Are you an exception?

- I grew up in a village, spent all my childhood in vegetable gardens, so I also know very well what it is like to plant ten acres of onions, then pull them out, cut the tops of each bulb, and so on.

This is a very hard work, although now I am even glad that there was such a period in my life.

There is something to remember, as they say.

Moreover, it taught me to real work, if you look at it.

But the consequences, of course, I sometimes feel now.

For example, he is absolutely indifferent to raspberries.

- Did you eat too many berries as a child?

- No.

I got too stuck in my memory, as I collected it for several hours a day.

How the scrawled all was struggling through the branches.

Therefore, I did not have any desire to eat raspberries in any form.

But I'm still ready to grow something.

- There is a belief that all the trials that fall in this life to a person are sent to him for something.

Ever thought about being disqualified from this position?

- I think every normal person always tries to get the most out of this or that lived situation.

Even when this situation is completely negative.

No wonder they say that life is a zebra.

If black stripes occur in it, then it should be so.

At least that's how I feel about my life.

- The famous American writer Jack London once put the following words into the mouth of one of his heroes: “I will have a big family, many, many children.

I will gather them one night and tell them how their father suffered.

And if they don’t cry, I’ll take a stick and blow their spirit out! ”

Have you ever had a desire to describe everything that you have experienced in sports, and leave these memories for posterity?

- I'm not ready to answer.

But more likely no than yes.

It's hard for everyone in sports, not just me.

- And the book of the Beo brothers is discussed in your circle of friends?

- No, but I've heard of her.

- Have you experienced any emotions about this?

- I don't even know, to be honest, what you are talking about now.

- About the opinion that the Norwegians expressed in their book about you.

I think it will not be difficult for you to guess the general tone.

- If I somehow hurt what the Beo brothers think of me, I would probably read this book.

Or at least I would show interest in her.

- Is your dream of someday running a marathon still a dream?

- Not anymore.

Two years ago I ran 60 km on skis in Kamchatka.

I liked it, by the way.

There Sasha Legkov started, Sergey Turyshev, Alexey Petukhov.

It's a pleasure to run in such a company.

Although by that time I had not skated for about a week and a half.

- Was it hard?

- After the finish - yes.

I returned to the base and immediately went to the thermal pool to get wet.

- If we talk about the current moment, is the question of selection for the Olympic team worried about you?

- Now I am most worried about the question of my physical condition and readiness for the start of the season.

- In conclusion, a rather abstract question.

I know that you are actively following what is happening in Russian football.

Could you formulate what is the difference between the team of Stanislav Cherchesov and the team of Valery Karpin?

- These are two very different coaches, with different visions of the game.

I'm not ready to just talk about it yet.

It takes time to see how the current team will play further - including with more serious rivals.

We played only four matches.

- The most outstanding football coach in your understanding?

- Josep Guardiola, you don't need to think here.

I am also impressed by Jurgen Klopp with his impulsive nature.

As far as I know, the players of his team like the same quality.

- And what, in your opinion, is most lacking in Russian football - coaching thought or playing class?

- You know, in my head now there are too many thoughts and problems to think about this.