— How closely have you followed what has been happening in Russian biathlon over the past few years?
- I watched the Olympic Games in Beijing very carefully, I was keenly interested in how the team was preparing for them.
Accordingly, I tracked all the performances of our athletes at the World Cup stages.
I didn’t immerse myself in summer training as deeply as I did in domestic competitions, but I remember almost everything in detail about the Olympic races.
— Did what you saw in Beijing please or upset you?
- In general, I was inspired.
In the very first race - the mixed relay, where Russia won the bronze medal - it was clear that the team had a very high potential.
As well as the physical performance of boys and girls.
You could see it in the way people moved.
I was especially pleased that during all the races, the equipment worked very well for our athletes.
I recently talked about this with Elena Vyalbe - she came to us in Krasnoyarsk, and we both noted that the service worked in Beijing at the highest level.
The skis were very well prepared, and it was evident from the very first race.
Everyone was somehow immediately convinced that even though the relay medal was not gold, there would still be races and chances.
- Until 2018, you repeated in your interviews that our coaches work like dinosaurs. At what point and in connection with what did the situation begin to change?
- I attribute this primarily to the fact that young specialists with somewhat different theoretical knowledge and training began to come to the team quite en masse.
Plus, there are coaches from another sport, thanks to which a more effective exchange of knowledge and experience has begun.
This is important because the biathlon coaching community in our country was very closed until a certain point.
Now information has gone there from the outside, both practical and scientific and analytical.
It seems to me that the work of those specialists who at different stages of preparation we attracted to the national team from other countries did not go unnoticed: Wolfgang Pichler, Vladimir Korolkevich, Ricco Gross.
That is, people who have extensive experience working with strong European teams.
All this gave rise to a new wave of information.
This does not mean that now everything will be fine with us, as if by magic, but we have seen that young people can be trusted with the team.
- Speaking of coaches from another sport, as I understand it, you meant Kaminsky, but after the Games it became obvious that the expectations, including those of Yuri Mikhailovich himself, did not coincide with reality: the athletes began to leave for other brigades, and quite massive.
- It’s hard for me to say something here, because I didn’t participate in the discussions of Kaminsky’s work in the national team and I don’t know what tasks were set for him, but I can say for sure that at the Olympic Games Kaminsky’s athletes were in perfect order in terms of functional training.
And even now, in fact, when I watched people run at the Commonwealth Cup, I can say that Kaminsky's potential in biathlon is undoubtedly great.
He definitely has a lot to learn.
- Perhaps the fact is that with specialists like Kaminsky, who know their own worth, it can be difficult to work together in a purely human way?
- I have not met ordinary people among those who rise to the pedestal or bring students to this pedestal.
And who is simple among us?
Valery Polkhovsky?
Mikhail Shashilov?
No, of course not.
Everyone has complex personalities, and that's okay.
By the way, I would not say that it is more difficult to communicate with Kaminsky than with the same Nikolai Lopukhov.
By the way, Yuri Mikhailovich always noted that he adopted a lot in his methodology from Lopukhov.
- At one time you remembered Polkhovsky as an outstanding strategist, and one of the shortcomings of the Russian team was just the lack of a long-term strategy. What should it consist of now, when athletes are isolated from international tournaments and it is not very clear what will happen next?
- The first thing I would put at the forefront is that no matter what is happening in the country now, we continue to prepare for February 2026.
For the Olympic Games.
This should sit firmly in the head of every athlete and coach.
The remaining starts can be considered as preparation.
Secondly, it is absolutely clear to me that the financial capabilities of the state are a defining point in the development of biathlon in the country.
It is impossible for any regional federations to provide a normal process of preparing a reserve and creating conditions for those who train in the regions if there is no state funding.
Therefore, I would very much like, through the joint efforts of the RBU, the Ministry of Sports, and the press, to convey to the sports authorities of the regions that talented athletes, whom we see as the closest candidates for the national team, not even for 2026, but for 2030, need to be supported.
Thirdly, it seems to me very important to find this long-range reserve.
See for yourself: those who can compete at the Games in 2026 are already clear.
In a year or two there will not be an athlete in biathlon who will be able to take part in the Olympic races.
Yes, there are rare exceptions, but these are exceptions.
But what will happen next, in seven or eight years, is a very interesting question.
To understand who and what result can be capable of, you need to carefully monitor how people train now.
And do it on the basis of digitalization.
Not the way Pichler and I used to do, compiling tablets in Excel format and sending them to authorities, but on a much more professional level.
So that not a single talent passes by.
Often these talents are simply not provided with the resources of their regions.
- Your phrase from two years ago: "We have lived that in the Krasnoyarsk Territory there is no team that could be put up for the national championship."
- And who is there now?
Natalya Gerbulova?
She is still a pupil of the Perm biathlon school.
Or a couple of guys from the Leningrad region?
When we created the Biathlon Academy, Rostovtsev, Olga Romasko, Svetlana Chernousova and Olga Medvedtseva were replaced by Evgeny Ustyugov.
There were other athletes as well.
The Krasnoyarsk Territory team won the relay races.
Why didn't it go further?
Probably, this is still a question for the leadership of the institution and for the coaches who work there.
- Really, when you were the regional minister of sports, you couldn’t ask: “Guys, what’s going on?”
- I could ask.
And I heard many times that next year everything will be fine.
The head of the Academy is a wonderful guy Sergey Usankov, who at one time was a world champion among juniors.
But, unfortunately, the results speak for themselves.
Far from the richest Altai Territory, which has much less financial resources than Krasnoyarsk, according to such a main indicator of the work of sports institutions as the preparation of candidates for national teams, is ahead.
In other words, money is an important condition, but it does not determine the result.
And the work of coaches.
- Over the years, you have stated quite categorically that you will not return to the national team. Why did you change your position?
- I had a difficult year in all respects, and it turned out that I quite actively followed what was happening both in the RRF itself and in the team.
Accordingly, I saw how hard it was for Viktor Maygurov to win the elections, what kind of consolidation of forces was used against him, what methods were used by opponents.
And in this regard, there was a strong desire to support.
- To be honest, I was confused by your phrase that society now first of all needs not technocrats and managers, but people of honor. How does this correlate with the well-known saying “A good person is not a profession”?
- A difficult question.
Ideally, of course, I would like people who have a serious professional level in terms of their profession to also have certain moral values.
Just like the ones we were once brought up with.
I have no doubt that such people exist.
But, you know, I was recently hooked by the phrase: weak times give birth to strong people.
And here a paradox arises.
Strong people form a strong and to some extent easy time.
The one that gives birth to weak followers, not too ready for any difficulties, devoid of the values that the previous generation was guided by.
Life is also changing in this regard: there was a time when strong personalities and maximum professionalism and meaningfulness in work were valued, then it seemed to fade into the background and leaders began to put unquestioning obedience at the forefront.
I would like to believe that now we are going through a period of formation of strong people and strong leaders.
Everything moves in a sinusoid.
- During the summer election debates, you uttered the phrase: “I definitely won’t go into reconnaissance with Maxim Maximov.” How do you imagine interacting with this specialist now?
“I don't see it as a problem at all.
I know many cases when there were not the simplest relations between people, but this did not affect the joint work in any way.
My main message as a head coach is that I am ready to work with everyone who is ready to develop Russian biathlon.
- Which of your higher educations is more in demand as a head coach - legal or technical?
I would say both.
Although in fact, physical education is more significant.
Why?
Because it is possible to do without knowledge of the regulatory legal framework, although it is difficult.
As well as without the ability to work with directories.
But without physical education in sports, nowhere.
- What are your top priorities?
- At the stage when all training plans have already been drawn up and goals and objectives have been defined, I definitely will not interfere in the training process.
But in the future, the tasks for both a specific training cycle and for the season as a whole must be discussed together and communicated to the athletes without fail.
It’s easier for me in this regard: I’m not a practical coach.
Well, if you do not take into account the rifle part.
In this regard, I am happy to share my own experience, suggest, perhaps, some new approaches, but the management of the process should remain the prerogative of senior coaches.
Because they are responsible for the result.
At one time, Pichler was still perplexed about this: they say, how can one work when there are so many supervisors around and everyone advises something, and at the same time, none of the advisers is ready to be responsible for the result.
I really want things to look a little different now.
“But now you are becoming one of these controllers, aren’t you?”
- Partly yes, but this, as I said, does not mean that I am going to impose my views on people or force them to do something.
For example, increase the load.
You can't go overboard here either.
As biathletes say, kilometers are not money, they can be superfluous.
There are a lot of examples when a lot of work for various reasons did not bring the desired result.
This also happened when we worked in the women's team with Wolfgang.
- Inventory, cartridges, lubricants - is this a problem now?
- Issues with cartridges and weapons have always existed, especially since the Izhevsk Arms Plant, with its glorious past, is now in a difficult position.
But we will look for ways out.
I know that there is a project on Russian skiing and there are already some developments.
At one time, we already managed to create the best cartridge-barrel complex in the world.
It was the Olimp cartridge and the Izhevsk rifle.
What does the word "best" mean in this case?
- Wind resistance and bullet spread.
There is a certain standard for dispersion, which for a mass-produced rifle is, in my opinion, 17 mm.
At the level of the national team of the country, we managed to achieve in 2013-2014 that the spread of ten shots was no more than 9 mm.
Those cartridges held the wind well - much better than foreign counterparts.
And I clearly knew, sending the girls to the track, that each of them has the right to make their own minimum mistake, that the material will not let them down.
Now the situation is not yet known to me as well, but it is clear that there are a lot of questions.
And for cartridges, and for rifles, and - most importantly - for skis.
And they need to be addressed.
- When do you plan to arrive at the team's location?
- I will definitely be at the stage in Minsk.
And perhaps I will be able to get out to Rybinsk this week too.
Until I see the athletes and talk to the coaches, I can’t have a substantive conversation about future plans.
In this regard, we agreed with Maigurov "to eat the mammoth in parts."
That is, to finish with legal issues related to my registration and then plan our further work step by step.
In any case, there should not be any sudden movements.