Training at Malinovka, a portrait of Bolshunov among the Norwegians and Volkov’s doping: how the off-season goes in cross-country skiing

The national team of Russia in cross-country skiing went to a new training camp.

It takes place at the Malinovka Active Leisure Center in the Arkhangelsk Region.

These are today's realities: if earlier "winterers" often left for the middle mountains in Europe, now, for obvious reasons, we have to look for options within the country.

And, according to the head coach of the national team, Yuri Borodavko, this is not an easy task, since there are few facilities that can be used both in summer and in winter.

“Now work is underway to reconstruct and refine Russian bases so that our conditions are at least as good as in Europe.

This should have been done a long time ago.

And the national team will not have to leave the country, and athletes from the regions will have the opportunity to train alongside the best and see what they excel in, how the whole process is built, ”said the specialist.

Crimea was chosen for the first May collection, and at this stage, the Malinovka turned out to be the best option.

Almost all the leaders of the team are now there - Olympic champions Alexander Bolshunov, Natalya Nepryaeva, Veronika Stepanova.

Yulia Stupak also works according to an individual plan. She suffered a foot injury at the end of May during training in the Crimea.

According to Borodavko, the motivation of his wards in connection with the suspension from international tournaments has not changed at all, and in some ways even intensified.

“Preparation is carried out with the same dedication with which we prepared for the Olympics last season.

They no longer ask any questions - where we can run races, we will do it there.

Athletes should not get into politics, respond to any attacks, even if they are offensive.

You need to answer not with words, but with the result, and for this you need to be ready to the maximum, ”the coach emphasized.

In addition, the hope of participating in the World Cup, albeit illusory, remains.

The FIS will make a final decision on this issue in October.

Portrait of Bolshunov in the Norwegian national team

At the same time, domestic skiers continue to face negativity towards them from their foreign colleagues, mainly Norwegians.

Statements of either Johannes Klebo or Emil Iversen appear in the media: they say that even there can be no question of going to the start with the Russians.

Hearing this is unpleasant, Bolshunov admits, because you need to compete with the strongest and defeat the best of your opponents.

In his opinion, the sport as a whole will suffer from the absence of the national team, since the Norwegians simply will not have competitors.

However, this situation does not discourage the three-time Olympic champion at all, but, on the contrary, adds motivation.

“When you see such an attitude towards us, you want, on the contrary, to prepare even more seriously and prove in practice what you are worth,” R-Sport quotes the athlete.

Against the backdrop of multiplying negative sentiments, the statement of the Norwegian mentor Eirik Myur Nossum that they hung a photo of Bolshunov on the wall for motivation looked very curious.

According to him, without the best skier of recent years, athletes may think that they can watch TV shows instead of training and successfully perform at the World Cup.

Therefore, athletes need to be additionally encouraged to work hard.

Klebo, in turn, admired how his counterpart during the lesson covered a distance of 180 kilometers with a total climb of more than 4000 meters.

“He is a machine, I can use this information for motivation,” Johannes said, emphasizing that he himself is not yet ready for similar training feats.

All this caused frank bewilderment in Russia, because if the Norwegians had wished for real competition with the three-time Olympic champion, they would not have advocated so fiercely for his further removal from all competitions.

Commentator Dmitry Guberniev even suggested that Scandinavian athletes, instead of looking for strange ways of motivation, write a letter to their national federation and FIS stating that they want to compete with a real opponent, and not with his photo.

And Anfisa Reztsova saw a negative message in the act of the Norwegians.

“On the one hand, this is a sign of respect.

They hung a portrait of a Russian skier.

On the other hand, some action against Bolshunov.

I don't think these methods help.

They are at the same time against him, but they also worship him.

Anything can be expected from the Norwegians against us, ”Sport-Express quotes the words of the three-time Olympic champion.

Minus marathons

Meanwhile, the rights of Russian and Belarusian athletes continue to be infringed.

So, the International Federation of Ski Marathons Worldloppet suspended them from participating in the races of the series due to the situation in Ukraine, and the Demino marathon was excluded from the competition calendar.

“The decision will remain in effect until the situation changes dramatically,” the message on the official Worldloppet website says.

It cannot be said that the verdict was unexpected - on the contrary, it fits perfectly into the overall picture of what is happening with domestic sports in the last four months.

“We have already said all this more than once when we were suspended from other competitions.

They have long expressed their position and take appropriate decisions.

Now it has affected the marathon runners.

It remains only to regret that they confuse one with the other and take such steps - they punish innocent athletes, ”Borodavko responded.

According to FLGR President Elena Vyalbe, the current events demonstrate the attitude towards Russia on the world stage and in many respects are not even connected with the military operation in Ukraine.

She recalled that the sanctions that domestic athletes faced even earlier were also not justified and were mainly connected “with perjury - the same McLaren report, the fantasies of Grigory Rodchenkov.”

“Now, of course, the situation is completely different.

It is clear that we must always find some strength in ourselves in order not only to accept, but not to give up, train, move on and think about some goals that lie ahead of us.

This is generally such an attitude towards the country.

Just the situation with the special operation showed who really treats us like: who loves, who is sincere, and who smiles falsely, gives a hand, and holds a sharpened knife behind his back, ”said the famous skier.

Hitting yourself

In this already difficult situation, an event occurred that could well be called a blow to ourselves: junior skier Sergei Volkov was suspended for six months for doping.

As it turned out, he used a nasal spray, which is prohibited only during the competitive period, but did not take into account the period of withdrawal of the drug from the body.

The 21-year-old athlete considered his case “absurd” and emphasized that in modern conditions an athlete must not only read and know the anti-doping rules, but understand and delve into their essence.

“I always thought that doping is a means by which unscrupulous athletes get an advantage, so I never imagined that this would ever affect me.

I read and knew that there are drugs that are prohibited only in the competition period, but did not attach importance to how important it is to take into account the timing of withdrawal.

I didn’t take into account that doctors of non-sports practice may not be aware of the intricacies of anti-doping rules, ”TASS quoted the Russian as saying.

Taking into account the voluntary confession, evidence of unintentional admission and minimal guilt, Volkov managed to “knock off” the suspension to six months.

Abroad, of course, this information has not gone unnoticed.

As usual, the Norwegians were indignant, not bothering to try to find out what the disqualification is connected with.

So, the Norwegian skier Martin Kirkeberg Mörk was surprised that rivals decide to use doping at a young age in order to achieve results.

In addition, he was outraged that information about the punishment appeared only now, although the suspension period is counted from January 19.

“This, of course, is not good.

It was thought that doping and Russians were a chapter left in the past.

It's good that they are being caught.

I don't want to compete with those.

When they don't report something like that right away, it's very easy to brush everyone with the same brush.

They should have told them sooner.

When you catch one, you already treat others with suspicion, ”said the skier.

Swede Truls Gisselman said that it was unpleasant for him to learn such news about rivals, especially since he occasionally communicated with Volkov on social networks.

“I really didn’t think that about him.

I still want to believe that everyone competes on equal terms - even if you know that nonsense still happens somewhere, ”the junior said.