“It’s too early to think about leaving office”: Vyalba - about his re-election, foreign colleagues and increased emotionality

- There is a common assertion that undefeated people need to leave big sport.

Did it occur to you that after such a triumphantly completed Olympics, it would be more correct to retire, and not sign up for another four-year term, with an unpredictable outcome, moreover?

- I said it as a joke.

Yes, even before I sometimes joked that when Russian women become Olympic champions, I would immediately leave.

In order to substantiate my “non-departure”, I can find an argument: we haven’t had an individual women’s Olympic victory yet, have we?

But seriously, I don't feel like I should step down from my post.

I think it's too early to think about it.

We have good young people who need help.

I think that I can do it.

- After any grandiose success, an athlete, like a coach, invariably comes with a kind of retreat.

Are you familiar with this feeling?

— Did I have it after Beijing?

I didn't feel it, to be honest.

There was no time to focus on feelings.

Moreover, almost immediately after the Games, everything changed very much.

We have to think not about what happened, but about what awaits us.

How long the suspension will last, what next season could be, what words to find for the athletes…

Are the words?

- Hope so.

We haven't gotten together yet.

In mid-June, as usual, we plan to hold an orientation camp in Malinovka, where all the teams will gather, and I want to talk to the guys there.

We will train, the goal is known to everyone - the next Olympic Games.

— Are you planning any global changes and rearrangements?

- Not.

Due to the fact that such a difficult situation has now developed in the country, we are trying to accumulate all promising young people in the national team along with adults so that no one is lost or overlooked.

There will be no Markus Kramer yet, but there are coaches who can compensate for the absence of this specialist.

In general, I would like to say words of gratitude: we learned a lot while working with Markus, two wonderful young coaches grew up next to him, who are now working independently - Egor Sorin and Pyotr Sedov.

— You have always been very active in communicating with your foreign colleagues.

Have these relationships changed?

- Now colleagues are conditionally divided into two camps.

With one there is no relationship at all, with others the relationship has remained the same: they sympathize with us, try to support us.

At least that's how I feel.

At the FIS congress, where I plan to attend, everything will become clearer.

Did you receive an invitation to the congress?

— We do not have the practice of personal invitations.

I am going to the FIS meeting as a member of the board of this organization, I intend to run for the next term.

- How high do you feel the probability of being re-elected from Russia is?

- It is unlikely that anyone knows now.

It's no secret that there are people who openly declare that there should be no Russian representatives in international organizations, we don't know who and how will vote, so I don't think about the possible future at all.

If the result turns out to be negative, this, of course, will be unpleasant, insulting, unfair, but no one will definitely die from this.

- Have you discussed with lawyers the option of filing lawsuits to remove athletes from competitions?

- Certainly.

Just after all these consultations, we decided that it was not advisable to file claims in the current situation.

We won't win.

- Where such confidence?

“We weren't suspended for the whole year until the end of December.

The guys were suspended until the end of the season, and the wording was evasive.

Like, the organizers doubt that they will be able to provide Russian athletes with the necessary security measures.

We ourselves were worried about this.

- Do you think there could be real excesses?

— Could.

In Norway - 100%.

In part, we ran into problems when we got to Russia from Scandinavia.

Our snowcat was painted, for example, although I am sure that it was not the Norwegians who did it, but a certain part of the fans.

You could feel the pressure, in a word.

- On the eve of the FLGR elections, you were the only contender for the presidency.

From the point of view of the development of the sport, is such a lack of alternatives good or not?

- I have no idea.

I didn't have any competitors in the last elections either.

It's probably normal if people understand that they have a strong leader who can still grow on his own and develop his sport.

- Elections in this case - a purely routine event?

- You know, before my speech at the conference in Kazan, I sat next to the Deputy Minister of Sports Alexei Alekseevich Morozov and admitted to him that I was very worried.

- Come on?

- So Morozov reacted in the same way.

And I'm really nervous before public speaking.

It seems to me that it is a great responsibility to perform in front of people who support me and trust me.

I love my athletes, my coaches, my work, although I don’t consider such an attitude to be something exceptional at all.

I think this is how everyone should treat their work.

Why else?

- Did you have to make any efforts to persuade Sergei Ustyugov not to end his career after the Beijing Games?

- Not.

We did not even talk to Sergey about this topic, despite the fact that talks about a possible completion began back in Beijing.

Then I said that, in my opinion, it was simply unreasonable to leave.

Ustyugov has strength, although it is not a fact that he will be able to hold out in sports until the next Olympic Games.

Still, for cyclists, three Olympic cycles is almost the limit.

It's getting harder to keep progressing.

- You also had three Olympics.

“I was lucky in a way.

The games in Lillehammer, if you remember, were held just two years after the Albertville ones due to the fact that the IOC decided to separate the winter and summer Olympics.

- If we take the area of ​​your current activity that is not related to the national team: what do you consider the most significant achievement of the last four years?

- I didn't even think about it.

Probably the fact that I am constantly learning something as a leader.

I become more balanced.

Again, I was lucky in that I worked for quite a long time in the government of the Moscow region under the leadership of the then and, in my opinion, absolutely outstanding governor Boris Gromov.

I constantly learned some things from him: diplomacy, patience, the ability to communicate with people.

I am by nature a very quick-tempered person, it would be foolish to deny it.

Before, there were often moments when I was generally unable to restrain myself in terms of emotions.

Now such outbursts are extremely rare.

And which one was the most memorable?

“Things like that I don’t remember at all.