- In this very specific season, athletes and coaches set themselves a variety of goals. What are you focused on?
- I won’t say that for me the current season is passing for the reason that I compete in Russia.
It's still a big responsibility.
I want to show the maximum result throughout the season and achieve maximum progress in this.
- When an athlete competes at the World Cup, he strives to get into the top 10 or top 6.
- At the Russian Cup, I definitely want to get not into the flowers, but at least onto the pedestal.
- In Rybinsk, you, nevertheless, closed the six in the pursuit. Failure?
- In the pursuit race - yes, even if we managed to get up from 14th place.
But the sprint turned out to be a complete failure, if you call a spade a spade.
So far I have not been able to find the state that I would like.
Are you talking about shooting or running?
- First of all, about running.
It seems that we did a lot of work in terms of the same speed, the summer and autumn starts showed good progress, but then everything suddenly slowed down.
Apparently, the body thus reacted to some kind of load.
We'll figure out.
- You have been training for a long time in the team of a well-known specialist in cross-country skiing Yegor Sorin. Skiing - was it serious, or was it just a passing stage of a career?
- Well, we start with skis anyway.
Moreover, in Sergiev Posad there was only a ski school.
To which I came at the time.
- Was it before your passion for tennis, or after?
- After.
In fact, I was much more of a fan of biathlon than of smooth racing, but I had no idea where I could do biathlon.
Later it turned out that there is a biathlon school in Krasnoarmeysk, which is literally half an hour drive from Sergiev Posad, that there is another shooting range in Pushkino, and that the situation as a whole is not so hopeless, let's say.
- In swimming, as in athletics, there is a clear division of athletes into sprinters and stayers - even by their nature they are so opposite that they do not get along together. Biathletes and skiers - the same story?
- Personally, I have never had problems in communication, but I can say that skiers are much more emotional.
For this reason, it seems to me that for many good skiers, the shooting component would be a problem.
Is he not a problem for you?
- If we talk about training, I like the functional unit more than the shooting unit.
I really enjoy running.
- Then your choice in favor of biathlon looks all the more strange.
- But why?
Biathlon is more spectacular, more interesting.
And then I didn’t say that I don’t like to shoot?
I just treat shooting as functional training: you build a training plan in the same way, you “play” the load in the same way as important starts approach - you start shooting less, training less.
A lot of shooting usually happens in the summer, when the base is laid for the season.
- Musicians have the concept of "replay hands." Is it dangerous to go too far with shooting in biathlon?
- If you go too far with shooting training before the competition, your head may simply not have time to rest.
Actually, this happens even in the summer: when a lot of attention is paid to shooting at training camps, for many, by the end of these training camps, shooting simply begins to crumble.
In some interview, I remember, Emilien Jacquelin said that Martin Fourcade taught him to keep concentration at every training session, and not just at competitions.
In fact, this is important because shooting requires constant concentration, whether it's training or starting.
On the other hand, that is why the head gets so tired.
Concentration drops - mistakes appear that become a habit.
And now this is dangerous.
Do you dream of biathlon in your nightmares?
- When you get very tired in training, dreams are generally rare.
You come to the hotel, fall into bed - and that's it, you switch off almost instantly.
If any thoughts in my head slip through, it’s only about the alarm clock: what time will it ring in the morning.
The only dream about biathlon that I remember in detail happened in Beijing before the Olympic relay.
I dreamed about my first stage: how I start, how I run the distance, how I go to the stadium as a leader, and a camera rides on the side and films how I am the first to pass the baton.
When I started the next morning, I ran out to the stadium as a leader and saw a camera on the side, I had a strong feeling that I had already seen all this.
- I still sometimes remember that race and try to understand how all of you must have felt when Eduard Latypov fired five shots into milk at the final stage and left for two penalty laps. It seems that Olympic bronze is a good result, especially for a debutant, but if you don’t know that a minute before that, gold loomed with a minute margin ...
- Of course, no one had any joy about the bronze medal at that moment.
Although there was no disorder - only devastation.
Absolute inner emptiness.
Some kind of black hole when you do not experience any emotions at all.
It seems that you need to somehow react to the result, but it does not work.
- It seems to me that in such tragic situations from a sports point of view, the phrase “one for all, all for one” is just a duty word that allows you to hide true feelings.
— But it's moments like these that make relay races interesting, don't they?
Take the same Norwegians who became champions in Beijing: Lagrede failed to shoot at the first stage, caught a penalty loop.
It happens.
- 24 years - is it a lot or a little?
- It depends from what position you look at it.
For biathlon - already a decent age.
At what point did you realize this?
- When Daniil Serokhvostov appeared in the national team last year.
Before that, I constantly heard in my address that I was the youngest.
And here, all of a sudden, once, and you clearly understand that time is about to start to go away.
- How do you imagine your own future in this regard? Will you, say, strive to run as long as possible?
- Depends on how long I will enjoy biathlon.
And this, in turn, is directly related to what the results will be.
- But are you preparing some further springboard for yourself?
- Considered various options.
I am a manager of the sports industry by education - I chose this direction because I considered that this profession can provide more opportunities than a standard sports education.
Yes, and in terms of personal preferences, it is more interesting to me.
As for possible employment, talking about it without knowing how long a sports career will last is still premature.
Especially now, when the world is changing so rapidly.
- Surely, in the depths of your soul, you understand what your soul asks for more - to remain in some capacity in the national team, to become the director of a sports school or stadium, or even to head a travel agency and send fans to competitions?
- I do not see myself in the national team - for sure.
- Fed up of nomadic life?
- Not.
In this regard, by the way, 24 years is an advantage.
You don't have time to get tired of the constant moving.
Fatigue, according to older comrades, accumulates closer to 30.
Is it physically difficult to be a top biathlete?
- More difficult mentally.
Physically, it becomes difficult at the moment when you are just starting to reach the top level.
But when you have already got out, the status begins to put a lot of pressure.
Another responsibility.
- Did you feel it?
- Not yet.
If I had won race after race, perhaps things would have been a little different.
Our leaders are now changing after each start, so the other guys have exactly the same responsibility.
- If you were given the opportunity to conduct a training camp with any biathlete in the world, who would it be?
- Probably still Martin Fourcade.
- About 10-15 years ago, all your colleagues, I believe, would have called Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. property of time?
— Partly, probably, yes.
For me personally, it's not just that Fourcade is closer.
In terms of shooting, I think he worked much better than Bjoerndalen.
Due to concentration, like no other, he knew how to vary his actions at the turn.
It has always fascinated me.
Are you following the World Cup now?
- I try to watch the most interesting races for myself, when there is such an opportunity.
— What do you pay attention to?
- I got the impression that this season everyone began to shoot very quickly.
Especially standing.
The rhythm of shooting is really amazing.
Last season, everyone worked much more accurately on the lines.
Although, perhaps, this was due to the fact that the Olympic season.
- The coach of your team Vitaly Noritsyn noted that biathletes have noticeably changed their running technique over the past ten years.
— It really is.
- Do I understand correctly that running is becoming more like a pure ski?
- Not certainly in that way.
Skiers, taken as a whole, work more at the expense of power, and biathletes at the expense of pace.
Although if we start tracking by personalities, the same Christiansen runs very powerfully.
The layout of the distance in skiing and biathlon is also slightly different.
If we take the most common sprint race, biathletes usually run the first lap on par with the last, and on the second there is a slight decrease in speed.
In skiing, people work more smoothly, keep the same pace, which they increase at the finish line.
- A year ago, you more than successfully performed at the famous Demino marathon. Are you planning this year?
- I would very much like to, but when I found out the dates, I realized that it would not work.
A few days after the marathon, biathletes start the stage of the Commonwealth Cup in Tyumen, and there is a great risk of simply not recovering.
Still, 50 km in this respect is not the easiest race.
— What is the attraction of the ski marathon for you?
- It relaxes in a certain sense, allows you to switch to another job, while maintaining a very good training effect.
Well, in general, it’s a buzz when the weather is good, everyone runs in the same group, everyone works ... I like it.
- You have repeatedly started in relay races at the first stage, and have you ever experienced internal awkwardness from the fact that you are forced to win back living space from much greater ones, to push with them, to push back, not to let them go forward?
- Not.
The fact is that men run contact races much more accurately than girls.
This also applies to the first stages in relay races and mass starts.
In women's races, no one ever lets anyone go ahead, everyone rushes along the track at breakneck speed, although simple logic says that it is much more profitable to take a position somewhere on the sidelines and not waste extra energy on unnecessary crush.
This is even outwardly noticeable: the men quickly line up and work calmly, waiting for the moment when they can overtake, roll over or go uphill.
We are more typical of some kind of game at a distance.
For women, any contact race is a war: from the first to the last meter of the distance, everyone is cut at full strength.
I myself am by nature calm in this regard.
It is important for me not to get ahead of someone in order to lead the race at any cost, but to avoid dangerous situations that can lead to breakage of poles or skis.
- If there is an opportunity to watch biathlon from the outside, which race will be a priority?
- Probably a relay, but here it all depends on the composition, on the strength of the participants.
- Let's try to make some kind of collective model of the ideal biathlete, starting from the starting field.
- The start is Fabien Claude.
- Time of production on the "bed"?
— Vasya Tomshin.
— And the rate of fire in general?
- In the "stand" - Johannes Boe.
He has good stability, and this allows you to shoot very quickly.
Even taking Boe's last performance is the second frontier in the individual race: there was not the fastest preparation, but thanks to stability, Johannes worked incredibly quickly.
Such shooting allows him to take risks in a certain sense.
But I would leave the "bed" for Sturla Legrade.
Although I forgot about Emilien Jacquelin: he is also able to quickly close targets.
- Who is the best at lifting?
— Daniil Serokhvostov.
- And the descents? Provided that the skis are prepared for everyone as well as possible?
- Of those who are performing at the World Cup stage now - Claude.
Previously, I would definitely name Matvey Eliseev.
He has excellent ski training, and I always paid attention to how Matvey goes down the slopes.
There he rolled on everyone, regardless of the steepness of the track.
- I know that girls tend to be afraid of steep descents. Have you ever been scared?
Not in the race itself.
It is clear that there are quite dangerous slopes, which sometimes break so that bare ice remains.
Before the start, in such cases, a chill really runs down the back.
Especially when you start at the very end and you already know that someone has already left this descent.
- How did Dmitry Ivanov fly in the mass start before you in Demino?
- Well, yes.
Although I fell behind, I was lucky to stay on the track.
Although I still lost a lot of time on this fall.
— We continue to create the ideal model: the best finisher?
I'll name two.
Sebastian Samuelsson and Vetle Christiansen.
Which of them is stronger depends on how the final round was.
If not too heavy, Christiansen will have no equal at the finish line.
But if there is a long climb before the finish line, Samuelsson is able to run away from the Norwegian.
- And in what capacity are you the best?
— Hmm… I used to consider myself a good finisher.
He loved to be on target with someone strong and overtake him.
This season, sprint sharpness is definitely not enough.
The second strong point is standing shooting.
- Which, according to the popular expression of the three-time world champion Pavel Rostovtsev, decides everything in biathlon?
- If not all, then a lot.
I just like such moments when you come to the final frontier, realizing that the final result really depends on this shooting.
I love wildly this feeling of approaching jitters and my own concentration.
It is really a very great pleasure to feel that fatigue rolls in, your legs begin to tremble, and at the same time to understand that you are able to overcome this too.