"Nobody needs fourth places at the World Cup and the Olympics": Vylegzhanin on Klebo's tactics, ski marathons and stupid frostbite

Autumn Ramsau is almost always not only a place for traditional training of national teams, but also unexpected meetings.

The appearance on the glacier of Maxim Vylegzhanin, winner of three silver Olympic awards, who completed his skiing career almost three years ago, was perceived just like that.

- Maxim, what are the destinies?

- The beginning of the season.

For the last two years I have been running for the Russian Winter marathon team.

Now we have a training camp here, I go skiing.

Ramsau is also an opportunity to meet with representatives of companies, to get equipment not only for yourself, but also for the Udmurt and marathon teams.

- It turns out that in your life after the end of your career nothing has changed at all?

The same sponsors, the same fees, the same skis, the same snow.

- Maybe yes.

The distances have only increased compared to what was in conventional cross-country skiing.

Now they are long, from 45 to 100 km.

Many people ask what my motivation is, and I honestly cannot answer this question.

I just like to race.

I get adrenaline, excitement at the races.

- Why then you had to end your career?

- Tired of standard distances.

Tired of the same training camps, rivals, I wanted something new.

There are other competitors in the marathon, new places of competition, different specifics, we have a close-knit, friendly team.

I really like all this.

- Has the training process become easier or harder?

- He's completely different.

At home, I train once a day.

I try to spend Saturday and Sunday with my family.

In addition, you have to deal with some kind of work.

When I come to the training camp with the team, the training process becomes more intense.

It's easier to work in a team.

There are young athletes, you get a lot of energy from them.

I spend my workouts for my own pleasure.

- If with age you came to the conclusion that one workout per day is enough, does this mean that you began to understand something about sports that you did not understand before?

Or it just allows you to keep some average level of readiness, without trying to jump over your head.

- Rather the second.

I try to maintain the level that I had during my active career, I do not let it fall.

Yes, I pulled up double-poling (a non-step motion in which advance is carried out by pushing off with sticks

), but if you take the competition with a skating or classic move, I can hardly compare myself with those who run in the national team.

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- What is the appeal of marathon distances for you?

- I have always liked mass starts, and a marathon is the same mass start, where there is a continuous struggle, plus endurance work. The main thrill is probably in overcoming yourself. Because it's long and hard. Muscles no longer push, legs and arms begin to pull together. In order to go, you constantly have to force yourself, break. A definite plus is also the fact that you see your opponent. When you realize that someone is clearly harder than you, you get additional adrenaline and it becomes easier to run.

- When you and other participants froze their faces during the 60-kilometer race in January in Italy, I thought that ski marathons are comparable to mountaineering hikes. Those who storm Everest consciously test themselves at the risk of returning without feet or fingers. It turns out that a marathon skier must be prepared for dire consequences? Or was it some kind of force majeure?

- Nobody forced anyone to go to this race.

It just seems to me that many Europeans did not really understand what cold is.

When people go to Everest, they knowingly understand and calculate all the risks.

And here many simply did not expect that the marathon could turn out to be more extreme than the races in which they had to take part before.

Our team got off with light frostbite, because Russian athletes are accustomed to the cold, they, as a rule, have experience of ski starts in the cold.

- It turns out, if you get frostbitten on the track, is this banal carelessness?

- Yes.

Take the same Andreas Nygard.

It seems like an experienced person, the leader's yellow jersey during the race, spilled a drink on his gloves.

It was possible to take others from someone from the service, but he seemed to think that nothing terrible would happen.

Just think, hands are frozen ... So he got frostbitten the most.

And now he will understand: if you go out in the winter to a race in the cold, it is better to wear mittens.

If you've got them wet, you'd better ask someone.

You can lose 30 seconds, but get to the finish line without any problems.

- How much money is it to run marathons?

- All starts are commercial, respectively, and there are prizes.

- Sufficient so as not to look for other earnings?

- Depends on how you run.

If you get on the pedestal, then enough.

Although the issue of earnings is not the main thing for me in this matter.

I didn't even think about money in skiing when I stood on the podium.

Much sharper at this moment is the feeling of satisfaction of their own ambitions.

Coming to the start, you do not think that so much money will be given for the first place.

You just want to beat everyone.

And with the result, finances are already coming.

- When an athlete ends his career, it is almost always some kind of internal strain, a period that you just need to go through, with which you have to come to terms.

Are you an exception?

- Be that as it may, I still run and train.

Perhaps this is why the retirement process runs smoothly.

Moreover, he left big skis on a beautiful note - he drove onto the podium (on March 9, 2019, Vylegzhanin became the second at a distance of 50 km at the World Cup in Holmenkollen.

).

- Do you represent yourself in veteran sports?

- This will definitely not happen.

- I knew my grandfather, a professor at the Institute of Physical Education, who at the age of 87 won a medal in the World Veteran Ski Jumping Championship.

- If this grandfather had a medal in ski jumping at a real world championship, I don't think he would have enjoyed the opportunity to win something else in his 80s.

I have a lot of serious awards, so there is no need to continue to prove something to someone.

Unless a good company gets together.

Then you can run.

Not for the result, for the pleasure.

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- When is your nearest start?

- December 18 in Sweden.

In terms of competition, January is very busy - there are races every week.

- It's incredibly difficult when it comes to marathon distances.

- Such a tight January will be the first time, and I think it will be really difficult.

But you can always miss some start.

No one will make you run from under the stick.

- Are there any marathons in the general row that stand apart?

- Traditionally these are Marchalonga, Vasaloppet, Birkebeiner.

The last one is probably the most difficult.

There is a longer climb from the start, you have to run half the distance uphill.

This race was one of the most recent to start running double-polling - before that it was held in classics.

Six years ago, only the first time they won without ointment.

Marchalongu and Vasaloppet leaders have long been running without ointment.

- Does such a high personal workload leave you time and desire to follow what is happening in classic skiing?

- Of course, I watch the competition.

- Do patriotic feelings prevail or purely professional interest in the strongest?

- Patriotism is always present.

In my time, a lot of countries participated in the medal raffle.

Now there is a predominance of only two - Norway and Russia.

Of course, this is less interesting, but I still watch, follow the tactics.

Who starts how, whether they let their opponents go or leave right away.

That is, purely professional moments.

The same Sasha Bolshunov is confident in his abilities and starts the race without looking at anyone at all.

- Johannes Klebo is going to start at the Beijing Olympics in every race.

Do you believe it?

- Why not?

- It seemed to me that he is still a fairly pronounced sprinter.

- But he started at the World Championships in all races?

If he is brought to the finish line, then there he will show his famous sprint, this is his crown.

If they do not bring it, it will fall behind.

Petter Nortug also ran his own races.

If you remember the duathlon, Klebo could not stand it until the finish line and gave up the fight.

And he drove 50 km with Iversen and Bolshunov and would have won if there hadn't been a disqualification.

Therefore, at the Games, it seems to me, he will enter the race without thinking about running away from everyone.

- I saw many times how Klebo gives up the fight if he realizes that he has no chance.

From a skier's point of view, is this normal, or in any situation you have to go all the way?

- If this is some kind of work, training, then, of course, you have to fight to the end.

And if this is a world championship, and you know that under no circumstances will you get into the prizes, and the next day you need to run the sprint relay, then, I think, you need to quit.

At the World Championships, as well as at the Olympics, no one needs fourth or tenth places.

We need medals.

- Has Sochi let go of the story of unjustified disqualification and an attempt to take away your Olympic medals, or is it still sitting somewhere deep in your soul?

- Remembered only when asked about it.

It is clear that there were emotions, a desire to prove that I am a strong athlete and have nothing to do with doping.

Show people who were not allowed to the Olympics in Pyeongchang that they did not break me.

And I proved it.

A week after the end of the Olympic Games, there was a stage of the World Cup in Oslo, where I finished third in the 50 km mass start with a skate.

I experienced great satisfaction then.

It is clear that some sediment still remains in the soul.

That you missed the World Cup, missed the Olympic Games, for which you have been preparing for so many years, psychologically adjusting.

But all this slightly smoothes the thought that the luggage contains trophies from all major tournaments: medals of the Games, the World Championship, the Tour de Ski pedestal.

All that remains is to earn Ski Classics medals.