When you're in such great shape at the end of the season, is there any regret that the competitive year is coming to an end?
- In previous seasons, this has always been the case, now it is not. And I won't say that my current form is downright cool. I never made it to the peak, perfect state. Not at the Russian Championship in Tyumen, nor at the "Champion Heights" in Malinovka.
- Is this due to the lack of the usual competition?
- We have competition, and quite strong. There are not enough truly meaningful starts. Those where you need to be perfectly prepared. Well, the form is better recruited through such starts. Another issue is that all this requires a slightly different attitude, a differently built training process. I would even say my own attitude to this process.
- More powerful motivation?
- That's not the point. Rather, I realize that it doesn't make much sense to strive for the perfect form. We have completed the Olympic cycle, started a new one, and, if we talk about the results that we intend to show in three years, now it is even correct to be in the middle segment, to have a certain internal reserve that would allow us to bring the body to a new level of loads and, accordingly, results in three years. It's still very difficult to be at the top all the time.
Many years ago, I was shocked to see how an athlete who had just become a two-time world champion went to cross-country instead of resting. She also explained to me that even on vacation she does not stop training, so as not to fall out of a certain functional state. How long do you allow yourself a break from skiing?
- I don't allow it at all. Of course, this does not apply to the competitive process. After serious tournaments, resting for five or even ten days is normal. The body must have time to recover before re-engaging in work. But even when I talk about rest, that doesn't mean I'm eliminating training altogether. I don't think so. And it doesn't work, to be honest. You're going to run somewhere, you're going to go to the gym somewhere. It is clear that you will not be able to conduct two workouts a day, but one is just right.
- Any professional athlete happens, nevertheless, periods when you hate everything around: the stadium, the hall, the pool, equipment, coaches, the need to get up on the alarm clock ... Familiar?
- So to directly hate, no, it didn't happen. There are days when some interval training, acceleration is not very good. For me, this is just a signal that the body needs a break. That he just can't handle what I want from him, but that's a working thing. You give yourself a day to rest, and everything begins in a new circle.
- Is the coach in this scheme a mentor or a partner?
- I'd say assistant.
- But surely there was a period when Yuri Borodavko was perceived by you as a tsar, a god and a military commander?
- When I first came to Yuri Viktorovich, I paid attention to how well he immediately sees the athlete. As if he lays it out internally: what a person is able to achieve, how he relates to training. He himself likes to say, by the way, that the main thing in coaching is not to interfere with the athlete. At first, we talked a lot with Borodavko about how we see the training process, competitions, and our tasks at these competitions. Now, when the competitive period begins and the starts go one after another, I myself already know how and what I should do.
For example, after the "Championship Heights" I fell ill and built all the further preparation myself, taking into account my own well-being. When I started training in the usual rhythm, there were three or four days left before the competition, and I clearly understood how to dispose of them. As practice has shown, he did everything right, he did not make a mistake anywhere. Yury Viktorovich understands all this, which is why he trusts in many things, it seems to me. Not overprotective.
- And in the preparatory period?
- There, it is Borodavko who writes the work plan for the whole group, and we are trying to implement this plan.
- Now it is very striking that the main point of support, a kind of place of power for you has become a family. When you had to rely mostly on the coach, was there no jealousy that you are not the only one of him, but one of the dozen?
- Oh no. This, I think, is normal to pay equal attention to all athletes in the group. Moreover, our work is so structured that even with the same plan, everyone trains individually. I don't think anyone feels slighted at the same time. Rather. Everyone has a very high quality sparring that allows you to grow. Me included.
Do you see yourself in the role of a coach in some next life?
- I think that's a possible option.
Is being a star a big responsibility?
- I don't look at myself from that perspective. Just like other athletes, I train every day, compete, every time I have to win, prove that I am the best.
- Is it very annoying when it doesn't work?
- Not in Russia.
- But Natasha Nepryaeva admitted that she is hurt when she goes to the track and does not become the first.
- Naturally, losses make you take yourself more seriously, prepare more seriously for other races. But when I lost the sprint (to Sergei Ustyugov. - RT), not to say that I was very upset - there is no such thing. If this had happened at the Cup or the World Cup, the frustration would have been much more severe. In Russia, everything is simpler.
— From the outside, your performances make you think that you can do anything on the track. How difficult is it to combine sprint and distance? Or is it purely a coaching area of responsibility?
- No, this is primarily my task. In general, I believe that it depends on the athlete how he sees his own career, what results he wants to show and what he considers necessary to work on. Of course, there is a certain pattern: the more you work on the development of sprint qualities, the more remote ones suffer. It is impossible to perform both work at the maximum level. But you can find a middle ground.
- Is it difficult?
- Yes. Because among the rivals there are always athletes who are preparing for a specific start and, accordingly, direct all their forces to "their" kind. When you are preparing to run all the distances at the Olympic Games, you must be aware that you can lose somewhere.
— So, the ideal scenario in your opinion is to run the entire program and finish first everywhere?
- Of course, I want it to be that way. What's more, it's possible. But oh-so-hard, really. Everything should come together: skis, well-being, mood, and stars.
- Alexander Bolshunov
- RIA Novosti
- © Pavel Bednyakov
- Right now, many will wonder: why do we need such difficulties? Wouldn't it be easier to give up chasing a ghostly crane in order to increase, perhaps many times over, the chances at selective distances?
- I have to.
- In order to do in cross-country skiing what no one before you has managed to do?
- Probably yes. And then, if we have six gold medals in individual events in one tournament, each of which I can win, why not put them together?
- Shortly before meeting with you, I talked with ballet dancer Sergei Polunin, and he said that the life of a dancer is a cage, on one side of which there is a ballet machine, on the other - a stage. Sport, if you look at it, is the same cage. Does that feeling change with age?
- Sure. With the birth of Eve, everything in my life has changed. Figuratively speaking, the cell opened. I come home after the competition and catch myself not caring at all what was happening on the track, regardless of whether I won or lost. I'm already in another life, in another world, where everything is so interesting... Completely different emotions.
— With the advent of Eva, has professional life become easier or more complicated?
"It's different. You're allocating time differently, you're building workouts differently, especially when you're just entering the season. Before the appearance of the child, it was possible to allow yourself to lie down longer, returning from training, to rest. That's not how it works now. Sometimes you need to help Anya do something around the house, feed Eva porridge, do something else.
"Children are still a very powerful distraction. The same Ole-Einar Bjorndalen may not have made it to the Olympics in Pyeongchang due to the fact that with the advent of his daughter, his usual regime was turned upside down. Do you assume that at some point you will be forced to abandon the idea of constantly carrying your family with you?
- When it comes to really important starts, then I will start thinking about it. Now, what's the point? It is clear that at the international level much is becoming more complicated, even in terms of purely organizational issues. But now we are performing in Russia and, I think, we should take the opportunity to be together.
- Elena Vyalbe, answering the question about motivation, usually says that the main task of the team is the Olympic Games-2026. Do you think so too?
- The Games are still three years away, I am used to setting myself tasks here and now.
But it's not so easy to force yourself to train without understanding what will happen next.
"We usually train in the same places that we always do. We run on the same tracks, I know how long I run this or that lap, so I always have a reference point. To drive more kilometers in training, to run faster, to perform this or that work more qualitatively.
— Does the number of kilometers always turn into quality?
- You can answer "yes", you can "no", but we will again come to the conclusion that everything depends on the athlete.
- Russian coaches consider one of the problems of the current isolation to be the lack of high-altitude bases in Russia. Does that affect you in any way? Or do you not need mountains? I ask because you are a muscle athlete, and such mountains are usually not liked.
- It is clear that it is more difficult for me in the mountains, but this does not negate the effect that the highlands can give to an athlete. The Olympics are proof of that.
- And the final question: from the very beginning you set yourself up for the fact that you would run all personal distances in Tyumen, including 50 km?
- I can't refuse "poltinnik". I was forced to.
- Who? Who is able to force the great Bolshunov to do what he does not want?
- Just kidding, of course. I always want to run, even if I don't feel perfect. Therefore, the "poltinnik" was in the plans initially.
- And what gives more internal satisfaction - winning a sprint or a marathon.
- It doesn't matter what the distance is. The main thing is to win it.