"Why is Zeppelt silent?": Sorin about doping Bjorgen, preparing his wife for the season and confrontation between Bolshunov and Klebo

Yegor Sorin sent his wife to train for the glacier alone, and it even seemed to me that Tatyana was a little offended.

She complained on the way to the hotel when we picked her up at the ski lift: “There is no track at all.

Everything is swept, snow is knee-deep, there are snowdrifts on the track.

Ratrak usually arrives at 10 and 12, but he drove only once in the morning and disappeared.

Plus the wind is creepy.

I was afraid of getting lost even.

You will get lost in this weather, no one will find you at all ... "

The family came to Sorin's gathering: Yegor, Tatiana, little Sofia.

Accordingly, they were accommodated not in a command hotel, but in the center of the village, from where the road to the ski lift takes about 20 minutes.

So the coach and I came to the glacier to save time - to talk on the way.

- We already managed to visit Norway in August and Italy.

Now I am looking for an opportunity to move to the hotel to the ski lift, so that I can live at a height - after all, the Olympic Games will be held at a height.

But it doesn't work yet - everything is busy.

- Tanya, I know, was injured in Norway?

- Yes.

She fell unsuccessfully there, knocked out her shoulder.

With such injuries, in principle, people run quite successfully, but in our case, the injury is aggravated by the fact that it happens not for the first time, but for the third time.

When the joint has to be inserted repeatedly, the capsule stretches and the likelihood of recurrence increases.

Therefore, doctors say that an operation is needed.

- If you do this operation now, about the Olympic Games, I'm afraid you will have to forget.

- We perfectly understand this, therefore we refrain from radical methods of treatment for the time being.

The operation is at least two months of rest before giving the load.

You can't even run in the first month.

God forbid a fall or some kind of wrong movement happens, everything can go down the drain, especially since it is impossible to insure an athlete against falls in our sport.

So we decided to try to reach the Games without surgery.

- Has the leg injury with which Tanya performed at the World Championships has been completely eliminated at the moment?

- A little worried about cross training, but not enough to consider it a problem.

In the spring we made several injections of our own plasma into the injured ankle, which helped a lot.

- Three years ago, when you were just starting to work on your own, we talked about the fact that some of the athletes in your group will be quite capable of fighting for a place in the Olympic team.

Can you name someone other than Tatiana?

- I would not like to name names.

I will answer with a general phrase: many have a chance, so it all depends on who will progress and how.

- How big is your group?

- 12 people.

It is clear that to a greater extent I am focused on Tatiana's preparation, this part of the work lies entirely with me, with the rest of the guys I am helped by another coach of our group, Andrei Nutrikhin.

When the competitive season begins, it will focus on preparing the reserve, and I will focus on those athletes who will be selected for the World Cup and perform at the stages.

- Markus Kramer, with whom you worked for many years in the same brigade, admitted that last season he overloaded his group and failed to restore it to the main start.

Knowing Tanya's irrepressibility in training, do you have to somehow stop her, control the degree of load?

- Of course we have to, we even quarrel sometimes because of this.

I see that Tanya really set a very high bar for herself and is already trying to achieve it through training.

Take today: everyone rode the glacier for over two hours, Tanya for three.

- Why is she training without you?

- Such trainings, where you have to work very evenly in the first heart rate zone, she usually conducts alone. Doesn't like being disturbed. And besides, Tanya does not need control at all. We, of course, discuss technical issues, but it is impossible to fully work on the technique on the glacier, since there are certain restrictions on the permissible intensity. You constantly have to monitor your pulse. In October last year, Tanya did a whole camp on her own: she could not go with the team to Ramsau, because we did not have time to get a visa for my daughter and Tanya's mother, who helps us with the child. I had to go to Sochi on "Laura". Fortunately, at that time there were biathletes who helped with the restoration, with biochemistry. In general, to be honest, I see no reason to constantly be with the athletes and control their every step.

- Do you develop independence in students?

- Actually, yes.

A high-level athlete simply has to be independent.

He must be able to control himself, take responsibility, be independent of the coach in some matters.

All this also applies to Tatiana.

- Do you ever intersect with Kramer's group now?

- Unfortunately, it is not customary for us to conduct joint trainings.

Although I would like my young athletes to have the opportunity to train with stronger skiers.

With the same Italians Kramer, with whom he now works.

- What is the problem - to agree?

- I say it is not accepted.

Not all athletes love outsiders in the group.

My Tatiana, for example, also doesn't like to train with someone else.

Girls are more likely to work alone.

- About the same Marcus said about Sergei Ustyugov.

- Well, you see ... I always treated such things a little differently when I was an athlete. I know Legkov was the same - he never refused anyone. I remember that Sasha was once at a training camp in Oberwiesenthal and asked him to bring him something from Ramsau, where our team trained. And it so happened that they asked to take me, although at that time I was not familiar with Legkov at all. I arrived in Oberwiesenthal, Legkov first of all asked how long I would stay in their area, if there was a place for me to train, and offered to join their group. So it's easier with guys in this regard, although not always. But I really would like to unite with someone at least from time to time.

- I know that your wife has great respect for the Norwegian skiers.

How did you react to Marit Bjorgen's recent admission that she tested positive at the end of her career?

- I really understand why foreigners are so fond of mentioning such things in their biographies.

This is a kind of European mentality - if you talk about something in an autobiographical book, then do not try to hide anything.

But a lot of questions arose after this recognition.

For me personally, it was a shock.

When the famous doping case with Teresa Johaug occurred, I immediately sided with the athlete.

I took that story as an accident, nothing more.

We all knew Teresa very well, we knew how strong she was able to run from May to April, and that she definitely didn’t need any doping to run like that.

- So maybe that's why it runs from May to April?

- I do not think.

I just can't imagine what kind of doping it should be for an athlete to dominate all races for ten years or even more.

As far as I know the mechanism of action of any stimulant, there is always a very powerful decline behind a surge in the result, so I have always been very suspicious of athletes who run in thirtieth places all season and then suddenly win something.

Johaug had never seen anything like this, so I defended her when in front of me someone began to discuss that incident.

- But there was a case with Martin Sundby ...

- And I also thought: well, okay, the person is taking anti-asthma drugs, maybe he has increased the dose too much, or something else has happened. And now I don't even know what to think. How can you take a drug that does not seem to contain anything forbidden, but the sample shows exactly the opposite? I would really like to hear the opinion of not the doctors of the Norwegian national team, but professional pharmacologists on this matter, to be honest. If this happened, why not raise all Bjoergen's samples in ten years, especially since such a possibility is spelled out in the WADA rules? Why is Hayo Zeppelt silent with his investigations and the fight for the purity of sports? He dug under our country with great zeal. So why not do the same now for a country that already has three doping cases in one sport?

- After I read Marit's revelations, another question arose: how widespread is the practice of transferring the cycle in women by pharmacological methods in modern sports?

- Well, I myself have been working independently for the fourth year, before that I worked with Markus for several years, there were always a lot of girls in his and my team, and we never used such methods.

There were interruptions in the female part of the athletes, but in these cases we simply reduced the load.

Actually, a violation of the cycle is one of the signs that something is going wrong in preparation.

Maybe, of course, the whole point is that our medicine has not gone as far ahead in this matter as Norwegian - I don’t know.

- A year ago you said that you would be happy if Tatiana is able to get into the top twenty.

What tasks do you set for your wife now?

- Maximum.

She, as I said, puts them in front of herself.

We need to take another step forward to get on the podiums.

Well, for me, as a coach, the main task is to prepare Tanya for the relay races.

These are the types where we have the highest chances for Olympic medals.

Perhaps even gold.

- Due to the fact that the ski program in Beijing is stretched for 15 days, the three-time Olympic champion Johannes Klebo is going to start in all disciplines and fight for victory in each of them.

I believe that Alexander Bolshunov has similar intentions.

Who would you bet on in this confrontation?

- Provocative question.

If you are not guided by national preferences, but try to express an independent expert opinion, I would say 50 to 50. Klebo is strong with his finish, so at the finish line in 90 percent of cases he will be stronger than the rest.

But here you need to take into account the specifics of the Olympic track.

And this is the height, enough, I think, slow snow, wind in open areas.

All these are significant factors influencing the result.

Plus - the finish after a long climb, which, of course, plays into the hands of Bolshunov.

Sasha's strong point lies primarily in the ability to endure, to keep the distance speed.

- Do you admit that in Beijing the entire Norwegian men's team will work as much as possible for Klebo?

- On such a difficult track, if there really is wind and slow snow, it is unlikely.

- What makes you think that the snow will be slow?

- Simple logic.

According to the weather at such an altitude, in February there will probably be a "minus", possibly quite large.

Accordingly, the snow will be frozen.

There may be a base of artificial snow on the track, but most likely it will be mixed with natural snow.

Such conditions, as a rule, give a slow glide, not the same as in Europe.

Accordingly, it becomes more difficult to run.

In general, the specificity of the track speaks, of course, not in favor of Klebo, and this very much evens the chances.

But a lot will depend on who will approach the Games in what form.