Interview with Anfisa Reztsova about the new selection rules and expectations from the new season, criticism of Shipulin and the team. Anfisa Reztsova: Shipulin betrayed the athletes who did not make it to the Olympics. Now he will go into politics The two-time Olympic champion knows what to do

ON THE SKI THE ADVANTAGE OF COMPETITORS IS TANGIBLE

“At the first two stages of the World Cup, Russian biathletes generally show stable shooting and a fairly smooth move,” Anfisa Reztsova said in an interview with Team Russia. “It gives me a certain satisfaction.” But in the same way we lost, we continue to lose. And if this were the minimum... Unfortunately, on the track the advantage of our competitors is still noticeable, and every mistake immediately sharply sets us back in the final protocol.

– As in the case of Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht, who made four mistakes in Saturday’s pursuit race and fell from third place to 20th position after the sprint?

– But look how many mistakes the winner Kaisa Mäkäräinen made. Three! In a contact race, when everyone is close together, three misses can be dealt with. And Dorothea Wierer had four unsuccessful shots. However, the Italian only moved from first place to third. Our move doesn't work out. This means that not enough work has been done, and this is probably a question that should be addressed to coaches who control physical training. So far, our team hasn’t found what needs to be changed so that the results on the ski track are closer to those of our rivals.

– Maybe it’s worth attracting clean skiers?

– She offered her services more than once. I am ready to periodically come to the team for free for the preparatory period and, perhaps, for the period of entry into the season. Men have their own specifics, but for girls I could suggest or even show in practice what needs to be corrected. But, apparently, some people find me inconvenient, others don’t like me. For now, the team has nothing particularly to praise for. We've been marking time for years.

Name: Anfisa Reztsova

Age: 54 years old

Height: 162

Activity: biathlete, skier

Family status: Married

Anfisa Reztsova: biography

Anfisa Reztsova, a Soviet and Russian biathlete and ski racer, has many titles to her name. In addition to the official sports awards, the athlete is given the unofficial title of queen of biathlon, since she is the first Olympic champion in this sport. Reztsova is also the only winner in the world of Olympic gold medals in two different winter sports.

Childhood and youth

Anfisa Anatolyevna was born in December 1964 into a large family of a builder and a postman. In addition to their daughter, Anatoly Mikhailovich and Nina Pavlovna Romanov raised three sons. They planned to name their daughter Vera. However, the mother liked the name of the woman who served in the church where the girl was baptized. So my daughter returned from her christening as Anfisa.

At the age of 7, Anfisa moved from the village of Yakimets to Vladimir. There I went to a regular high school and at the same time to a gymnastics school. But soon the coaches advised the girl to take up cyclic sports. And from the fifth grade, skiing entered Reztsova’s life.

After the first lessons with a passionate teacher, seven remained in the group of 25 people, including Anfisa. Although the girl understood that the first coach did not see any prospects in her, she continued to train with enviable persistence, despite the health problems that were soon identified.

At one of the regional competitions, Anfisa was noticed by a coach from Dynamo. So the girl got to the all-Union level. Victory at the national championship brought the future champion to the junior team. Studying at school faded into the background, but after that Reztsova decided to enter law school. The coach of an already adult women's team dissuaded her from becoming a lawyer, arguing that Anfisa had great prospects in sports.

Biathlon

Anfisa Reztsova did not begin her sports biography in biathlon. Having just graduated from school, Reztsova won two bronze medals at her first world junior cross-country skiing championship. At the next championship she repeated her success, and in 1983 in Finland the skier won her first world champion title.

In 1985, Reztsova was included in the national team of the Soviet Union, in which she quickly occupied a leading position. In the same year she received a gold medal as a world champion in the relay race. From the 1987 World Championships, held in Germany, Anfisa brought gold for winning the relay and two silvers for distances of 5 and 20 km.

At the first ever Olympics in Calgary, Reztsova won a gold medal in the relay race and silver in the top twenty. The skier considered her own performance unsuccessful, as she hoped to take the highest award. Perhaps the fact that during preparation for the Games the athlete did not fully recover from the disease played a role. And intensive training at the qualifiers led to problems with her leg: Anfisa was running on injections.

At the end of the Olympic season, Reztsova went on maternity leave, but returned after only 8 months. Then a conflict occurred, which the press diplomatically refers to as inconsistencies with the coaching staff. But the sports world knows Anfisa Anatolyevna as a straightforward, sometimes harsh person. Thanks to her candid interviews, fans are aware of many behind-the-scenes events.

During Reztsova’s absence, new faces came to the fore in the national team -,. And each with its own ambitions. The girls were not happy about Anfisa's return. Team coach Alexander Grushin was unable to extinguish the beginning fire, and the titled skier began to think about leaving the sport completely and immersing herself in family concerns. My husband Leonid, who was finishing his sports career by that time, and his former coach suggested that I try my hand at biathlon.

Reztsova’s distinctive feature in biathlon was the combination of poor shooting and good running. To achieve a result, Anfisa only had to hit at least half of the targets; the athlete more than made up for the gap she made while running the distance.

In this sport, already in the second season of performances, the biathlete held the Big Crystal Globe in her hands based on the results of the World Cup competitions. The same award went to the athlete in the 1992-1993 season, after 7 personal victories and 5 prizes.

Anfisa trained for the 1992 Olympics in the men's biathlon team of the Trade Union Council under the leadership of her husband. Then she joined the country’s men’s biathlon team, agreed to endure the appropriate loads and, according to the coach, worked so hard that everyone was amazed. As a result, Reztsova won a gold medal and the title of the first biathlon champion in the history of the Winter Games. These were supplemented by bronze in the relay, as well as silver from the subsequent World Championships.

Later, the coaching staff decided to focus on skiing, paying less attention to shooting, which was already Reztsova’s weak point. The error of the decision was revealed in subsequent competitions, the results of which tended to zero. At the World Cup of the 1994-1995 season, Anfisa failed all personal performances and only once stood on the podium for a bronze medal in the relay.

At the Olympics in Norway, the individual races also ended in failure, but Reztsova still won the gold medal in the relay. But the wild celebration of this victory became the reason for the exclusion of the multiple champion from the team.

Anfisa used this time usefully: she gave birth to a child and graduated from the Academy of Physical Education. In 1996, she tried to return to biathlon, however, according to the athlete, she was offered to join the national team not on sporting grounds at all. Then the biathlete changed her role, turning again to skiing.

The ambitious athlete planned to go to the next Olympics, in Nagano, but the Federation directly refused the skier. In justification, the head coach of the national team said that Reztsova’s non-inclusion was due to her low results in shooting and constant violations of the regime. However, in the “new old” sport, Anfisa received another medal of the highest standard at the World Championships in Austria.

The skier had her sights set on the 2002 Olympics, but two years before the Games she and her husband suffered from hepatitis and decided that “entering the same river five times is extreme.”

Personal life

Anfisa Reztsova is the mother of four children, which is considered a feat for a former athlete, and she gave birth to her fourth daughter Masha at the age of 44, already being a grandmother. The head of the family, Leonid Reztsov, is a former athlete and coach of his own wife, and runs the family business – a sporting goods store in Moscow. The family lives in Khimki near Moscow and adheres to a non-public lifestyle: interviews and photos of mostly Anfisa and daughter Daria are distributed on the Internet.

The couple got married in 1985 and waited three years for the birth of their first child. When they finally found out about the happy event, they had to sacrifice the child for the sake of the Olympics.

Reztsova does not hide the fact that for the sake of sporting victories, her eldest daughter also had to make similar concessions. Dasha, like her sister Christina, is involved in biathlon. According to Anfisa Anatolyevna, the eldest daughter was not taken to the national team for a long time, remembering the harsh character of her mother and her habit of telling the truth, despite the regalia and the situation.

Thus, the athlete was one of the first to admit to doping when she tried to return to biathlon after a break, and she sees no point in hiding it.

The champion, by her own admission, has no friends, except perhaps. Since childhood, Reztsova has communicated more with boys, but does not believe in female friendship. Anfisa Anatolyevna headed the Biathlon Federation of the Moscow Region from 2011 to 2015.

Anfisa Reztsova now

In January 2018, Anfisa Reztsova’s words that she was “neither cold nor hot” from apologizing to Russian athletes who were not allowed to participate in the Olympics in Korea received a warm response on the Internet. The famous athlete believes that sports officials are also obliged to personally apologize to athletes.

The Olympic champion implements her active life position as chairman of the Control Commission of the Council of Deputies of the Khimki Urban District. In the same city there is a children's and youth biathlon school named after the athlete.

Awards

• 1985 – world championship gold medal
• 1987 – gold and 2 silver medals at the World Championships
• 1988 – gold and silver medals at the Olympic Games
• 1992, 1993 – Biathlon World Cup
• 1992 – silver medal at the World Championships, gold and bronze medals at the Olympic Games
• 1999 – world championship gold medal

The track in Oberhof is probably considered the favorite for Dmitry Malyshko, for which in 2013 it was here that his finest hour struck. Six years ago, our athlete won the sprint and pursuit race in one fell swoop, and the victory in the relay was the icing on the cake.

So far, Dmitry is not performing very well at the World Cup this season. He achieved his best result in individual races—12th place—at the first 20 km stage in Pokljuka. There are far more failures so far: 48th, 59th and even 70th place in Slovenia. I would like to believe that in Germany, motivation and pleasant memories will help reverse the trend.

The main hopes for men are now connected with Alexander Loginov, occupying a confident second place in the overall standings after Johannes Boe. Could we have imagined last season that someone other than Anton Shipulin could be better Martin Fourcade? It turns out it can.

Having Loginov is good, but he feels virtually no support from his partners. There are no other Russians in the top twenty biathletes. Matvey Eliseev ranks 21st Evgeniy Garanichev- 25, Dmitry Malyshko - 30. Taking into account the fact that in Oberhof the biathletes will run the second relay of the season, the prospects for the Russian team are not the most rosy.

The two-time Olympic champion agrees with this Anfisa Reztsova, who discussed whether Garanichev, who is not always reliable in relay races, should be returned to the team race.

“We don’t have stable relay runners now,” says Reztsova, “so Zhenya might be worth starting.” Now it’s difficult to judge who is ready for what. We will see this in the sprint and pursuit. Now all our biathletes can either get into the top ten or take 50th place. Both Malyshko and the one who returned to the World Cup Maxim Tsvetkov. Because there is no correct selection.

Search a woman

If the men have at least one leader, then our female biathletes are still disappointing. Yes, we perfectly understand the situation before the start of the season: three girls went on maternity leave, and they were replaced by untested newcomers. But I would like to see points in the overall standings a little more regularly. Thank you Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht, which even climbed onto the podium in Hochfilzen. Without this event it would be completely sad. Irina Starykh, Evgenia Pavlova, Valeria Vasnetsova, Margarita Vasilyeva, Ulyana Kaisheva and Anastasia Morozova, frankly speaking, are not shining yet.

Fight for the truth

Reztsova also gave Anton Shipulin, who ended his professional career, a hard time. Let us remind you that he decided to leave biathlon due to pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), due to which Anton missed the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“Shipulin betrayed the athletes who, like him, did not make it to the Olympic Games,” Reztsova told the publication “Sport Day by Day.” “He did not fight for his colleagues, for trying to achieve the truth. I had to hire a lawyer and prove I was right. And Shipulin simply left, gave up the fight.

“I think he will go into politics.” As a rule, all our great athletes go into politics. To the State Duma and so on. I think they will make him such an offer. Although I would like Shipulin to coach, like all Olympic champions who have completed their sports careers. But, as a rule, they go into politics.

Let's see if Reztsova's prediction regarding Shipulin's work in the State Duma comes true, but for now Anton himself is preparing for the competition. Only now he chooses not biathlon, but a ski marathon. The country hosts many different amateur tournaments, and Shipulin plans to enter some of them as a participant.

Two-time Olympic champion in biathlon and Olympic champion in cross-country skiing Anfisa Reztsova commented on the performance of the Russian women's team in the 15 km individual race at the Biathlon World Championships in Hochfilzen. The best among the Russians was Olga Podchufarova, who showed the 26th result, and the former representative of Russia Ekaterina Avvakumova, competing for South Korea, became fifth.

“Ekaterina Avvakumova’s fifth place is just super. This result was achieved due to the fact that she moved to Korea and calmly prepared there. At my own pace, rhythm, I didn’t invent anything. She was psychologically calm and balanced. And not like in our team, where miracles are happening now. It is unlikely that the Koreans created any special conditions. Catherine has our Russian base. But in our country, as a rule, they say that no one is irreplaceable. We throw ourselves away as athletes, but today we find ourselves with nothing. This is already a pattern - there are athletes who are close to the result, but not everything is working out yet. As a rule, they move to another country and, in calm, normal conditions, perform no worse than ours. And today is even better.

As a rule, in our country no steps are taken to retain young people. They tell them: “Go wherever you want.” Previously, in the Soviet school there was an elite and a lot of young people close to it. In skiing there was Smetanina and around her 5-6 juniors who looked at her and learned. It was the same in biathlon. Now we have missed that school, that system. It is necessary to train, hold centralized training camps - both junior and youth teams, all together. It turns out that the main team is in chocolate, they have all the conditions. And youth and juniors have a training camp in three. There is one, but three are missing. Well, what will be the preparation after this? That’s why we don’t have young people, there’s no change - they don’t let them in. Today they thought that we had the core of the national team. What next? There is no one else.

Avvakumova in our country was average, but she had to be allowed to open up and bide her time. Today she coped with it purely psychologically - she didn’t strive for medals, she did her job as best she knows how. Our athletes were spoiled by the atmosphere in the team today. It has been going on for some time now. For some reason they created several groups, but there should be one team. No groups, no self-study. Using Anton Shipulin as an example, I think this is wrong. We perform together, for one country, team. And we already have a bunch of people on our team who compete with each other. It is not right. And this intensity occurs from year to year, from competition to competition. And the higher the competition, the sharper and steeper our competition,” Reztsova said in a conversation with championat.com correspondent Polina Panina.

Alexander Tikhonov: “We are walking on a rake, our foreheads are already blue. Surgical intervention is necessary”

“Many people scold me and say that I turn everything on myself. There is no Suvorov in the team, there is no unity of command - not a damn thing will happen! We are convinced of this every year. I said three years ago that we need to recruit three or four girls aged 19-20. I said: that these will occupy 30th places, that young people will occupy the same places, but young people have the prospect of growth! And now we have an age group, and the coaching staff is categorically not happy with me. We walk along the rake, our foreheads are already blue. It requires surgery, nothing else. The atmosphere in the Russian team? You know, it's like someone was buried. No smiles, no interesting conversation. I just don’t recognize Russian biathlon. The worst thing is that after running a race, they train again the next day. There is no way I can break this system. We need to recover, accumulate energy and go to the next start. They emasculate themselves to the end,” R-Sport quotes Tikhonov, rsport.ru

Leonid Guryev: “It’s not clear what happened to Starykh in the individual race”

“It is still unclear what exactly happened. Today, all Russian women, including Starykh, failed to prove themselves. Although Irina was very serious. After all, this is her signature discipline. Most recently, she won the individual race with zero at the European Championships. In Hochfilzen, something clearly didn’t work out. Moreover, before the race everything worked out for Starykh, she shot zero in training. And in the race there were three mistakes at once. This rarely happens with Irina. Now we will wait for the relay,” Guryev was quoted as saying by Tyumen Arena, asnta.ru.

Pavel Rostovtsev: “Russian biathletes are not ready for speed”

“Our girls didn’t do anything today. We understand that the main trump card of our athletes is shooting. Only if this component is performed perfectly can we count on something. But today the Russians fell apart in the shooting, and they also lost with their kicks. It was striking how Koukalova left the last line and how Podchufarova left. These are two different things. There was aggression, attitude, flight, but we have some kind of academic prostration. Girls are not ready for speed and work in such difficult conditions. Today it was warm and the track was not easy. We were not ready functionally and physically,” Sport-Express quotes Rostovtsev as saying, sport-express.ru.

Dmitry Yaroshenko: “Bronze in the relay at the World Championships will be a miracle given the gift of rivals”

“I expected a result from the Old Ones, but this is all based on the pursuit. One could have hopes that we could snag a medal, but only under a fortunate combination of circumstances. I don't know why there were such big losses in moves. If we already talk about the relay race, then talking about gold and silver means admitting your lack of professionalism. If we get bronze, it will be a miracle given the gift of our rivals. But at the same time, you can compete for bronze,” R-Sport quotes Yaroshenko.

SBR: There is no talk of Podchufarova skipping the next season at the moment

“At the moment there is no talk of skipping the next season. Now Olga Podchufarova is a candidate to compete in the relay race at the World Championships and is preparing for it,” the press service of the Russian Biathlon Union told the Championship.

Andrei Prokunin: “I asked Avvakumova not to talk about his grudge against the Russian national team”

“Katya Avvakumova has now opened a new page for herself, this is a new story that has nothing to do with her previous Russian career. For South Korean biathlon, Avvakumova’s fifth place at the World Championships is a fantastic success. In Russia no one would have noticed this. But I'm very pleased that we did it. After the end of the individual race, I asked Avvakumova to restrain her emotions and not tell the media about her resentment towards the Russian team. Moreover, Krasnodar specifically did a lot to prepare it. And in Korea they work for Katya as a leader,” quotes the words of Andrei Prokunin, coach of the South Korean biathlon team, “Life”, life.ru.

Norwegian biathlete Tiril Eckhoff: “Because of the heat after the individual race, I was like boiled crayfish”

“At first I felt good, but then it got hot. It was like a summer biathlon competition. I drank a lot during the race. At the end I had to speed up due to misses, so after the finish I couldn’t walk at all. It was like boiled crayfish,” VG quotes Eckhoff as saying.

French biathlete Marie Dorin-Habert: “It’s like I’m not at the 2017 World Championships”

“This World Cup is difficult for me. It was as if I wasn’t at the shooting, I kind of missed it. I have no idea how to prepare for the next races. Today I raced mindlessly. It’s as if I’m not at the World Championships, and first of all, this makes me sad,” Nordic Magazine quotes Doren-Habert as saying.

To vilify current athletes in this way, and even before the Islamic State, knowing that there is no one to replace them, and only a complete fool can read this (4 half-ruins), has achieved its goal.

Ms. Reztsova, why did your Dasha leave due to illness? And last year there were these tricks. Romanova was fooling herself for several years, an athlete of one race, and so was Vira.

Look at Laura, Toad, Kaisa, they run every race. If only we assume that they are TI.

Ilya, he himself said last season that he would not say anything while our people were shooting. This is what he sticks to, at least as long as he shoots cleanly.

Katya Avvakumova is considered almost a World Cup hero! Well, she performed successfully in one race, like Katya Yurlova did at the previous World Cup (she was the first). And this is Anfisa Reztsova speaking! Clearly, this is good! Based on the results of one race, we judge the athlete’s readiness, let’s look further, what will it show?
There are certainly problems in training young people, and I fully support Reztsova on this!
Guryev, Rostovtsev, Yaroshenko - everyone says it right! Unfortunately, this is a fact and there is no escape from it, this is how our coaches prepared athletes, and some of the best at that!
But the rest of the teams also prepared, did not sleep, now there is a lot of competition among teams, these are not Soviet times, when our biathletes and GDR biathletes dominated!

AU! And here TS and SBR. It's all Guber's fault. Do you hear how he yells when he sees our guys shooting? Attention! Loginov is shooting! Not only do we flinch in front of the TV, but the shooter also hears this OR. We need to tell Guber that he would scream in exactly the same way at the sight of Fourcade, BYo, Koukalova and other potential rivals of our boys and girls. And there will be results! See for yourself!

Alina, “We need to recover, accumulate energy and go to the next start.” - as the great Guido Costa said more than half a century ago: “You don’t have to make an effort to become strong, you have to accumulate strength to make an effort.”

“The worst thing is that after running a race, they train again the next day. There is no way I can break this system. We need to recover, accumulate energy and go to the next start. They emasculate themselves completely."

It’s terrible, how sorry we feel for our girls, especially the girls...

“The atmosphere in the Russian team? You know, it's like someone was buried. No smiles, no interesting conversation. I just don’t recognize Russian biathlon” (AIT)
Is it not Ivanovich who contributes to the creation of such a situation with his always dissatisfied statements?

No matter how our Dasha rushes to Korea... My husband already works there, it’s convenient. And a place in the national team will be guaranteed. But then the Olympics will pass by... But there will be a next one.

Alex3, Yes, the trouble is that it’s not the athletes who compete here, but the schools and coaches. And then they recruit athletes from these clubs and schools. And then they are prepared in different groups. So, someone showed outstanding results. The national team is one team, it should include the best and most promising. Young people - while they are on the rise, and this means victories in various competitions, must be attracted to the main competitions, otherwise we will have Volkovs, but there will be no champions. A champion is a state, a belief, not that I’m the best, but that I can perform well, I’m ready, I’m flying, I’m in good shape. But this is not the case, everything is left to the athletes - no matter what happens, they are to blame. Noritsyn says, I don’t know why the shooting failed, I need to talk to the girls - this is a complete paragraph, The coach should know how the athlete smells in the morning on the day of the race, everything about the mood, about the condition. But all this will be useless if work is not done to prepare the athlete for the competition. The province tells how Kaisa Makarainen, Popukalova, Dorin-Aber, Domracheva train - but nothing about how our people do it. Yes, the results are getting worse, but no one resigned or shot himself in shame.

Elena, I completely agree with you, we need to build on our school and take the best from foreigners. And of course there must be healthy competition.

And I believe that several groups are better than one, especially in our conditions. It is impossible to take 10-15 people, give them one job and get one result. And I don’t see anything wrong with self-preparation if it is SELF-PREPARATION, and not working at government expense with a personal trainer.

ELENA, the Soviet system collapsed because it was outdated. Nothing lasts forever. Moreover, now it is a completely different country, with different resources and a different population. The Soviet system made it possible to kill a couple of dozen juniors and get one strong athlete. There are plenty of examples. All these experimental groups and similar teams, where a lot of capable guys and girls died, testing promising methods and new chemistry... Thank you, that’s enough already.

Good day to all. I’m from the Republic of Belarus, but as it was previously written in my passport, my nationality is Russian.
I’m really rooting not only for the Belarusian biathletes, but I’m also deeply worried about our Russian guys. I’ve been watching “Russian” biathlon for a long time, reading comments and now I wanted to express my opinion. But it can’t be that our SOVIET training school collapsed because they began to invite supposedly famous super cool foreign coaches, and they, in turn, here are the destroyers of our Russian biathlon, i.e. they infiltrate and do their job. They break the system, guys, and what they get is that their national sport wins, and the Russian one collapses. We need to give our school back our training system. I may be wrong, but this is my opinion. And I’m also surprised why our athletes are “unloaded” into big sports differently and you can’t tell at the age of old people who are over 25 and 30. And foreign ones already begin to harden at 21 - Dalmeier, Be Jr., etc.

Alex3, I don’t mind football and hockey instead). Yes, a real club system would be interesting in biathlon. In addition, it could allow for an increase in the number of diverse spectacular team races.

Who did they throw around!? Bulygina, who in her entire career won one victory in the mass start, having failed about 10 relay races!? Or Avvakumova, who jumped over her head in a separate race. It's really funny to look at this circus! As soon as someone shows a more or less decent result, the runaways immediately begin: Chief, everything is gone! The client is leaving! They're taking off his cast! Etc. What a habit of giving out advances - only against the backdrop of failures of the core of our team! We must be optimistic - and there are reasons for this! Akimov and Starykh are the absolute backbone of our team + Mironov is also on the way - the team is building again and everything doesn’t look as hopeless as 2 years ago.

Elen, there was money in sports even during a worse economy. Plus, the biathlon league will in any case be less expensive than the KHL or the football championship with inflated budgets and player fees.

Alex3, it’s a good idea, but I’m afraid that we are late in implementing it. We need to see what will happen to the economy.

I will never believe that there are no talented and efficient girls in Russia! They exist and there are many of them. But in fact, our biathletes do not know how to ski fast. You used to be able to, but now you can’t? Why? The answer, it seems to me, lies on the surface; the system of training female athletes has been lost. There are no trainers who can teach this, the methods are lost. And it turns out that a ton of money is spent on preparation, girls invest in training, but nothing changes. So, I think it’s not about the girls! I feel very sorry for them.

This is not the first time I’ve written about the fact that the Russian Federation needs its own biathlon league, similar to the KHL. In his interview, Ferry notes the large number of Russians involved in bialon. This is our given. We have an order of magnitude more people involved in biathlon than in any European country. It is very difficult to get into the national team with the existing quotas in any case. And working calmly on the national team, as Anfisa writes, is difficult because of potential competitors who are also striving to join the national team. In Korea you can do this calmly. In order for an athlete not to give up biathlon early and not leave for other countries, he must become known to fans and earn something to feed his family. Then, even if he doesn’t get into the national team, he won’t think that he spent his time in biathlon in vain. I think the idea is absolutely realistic considering how much money we have in sports. Regions like Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg and a number of others are quite capable of a season. It won't be very expensive. But promotion on TV is required, as happens with the KHL. And this league may well exist in parallel with the KM and KE draws. It’s just that the really best ones will be selected there. The choice will be more objective and transparent for fans.

Our SyByRy is scattered not only by athletes, but also by coaches. They probably get paid for this too.

But if my daughter got into the national team, Anfisa wouldn’t worry that everyone on the national team is covered in chocolate!))

Damn, they treat Katya Avvakumova like the greatest discovery of this World Championship! Well, the girl performed well in one particular race, that’s great, of course, and Katya is smart... but that’s all for now! Let's see what Katya can do next. And Andrei Prokunin, a doping coach, would have been better off not trying at all.
Speaking of Korea... Russia also does a lot for Viktor Ahn (short track) as a leader. To each his own!

Two-time Olympic champion in biathlon and Olympic champion in cross-country skiing Anfisa Reztsova explains in an interview why Daria Domracheva did the right thing by ending her sports career, talks about why she doesn’t have high hopes for the new coaching staff of the Russian national team, and also shares her impressions of the World Cup on football.

– During the quiet off-season, biathlon fans were excited by Daria Domracheva’s announcement of her retirement from her sports career. Is the Belarusian champion in a hurry to hang up her rifle?

– I am very glad that Domracheva came to such a decision. Because sport is sport, and family is family. Yes, the support of a spouse at work is wonderful, but constant moving for a young daughter is not very good. I understand that Daria and her husband Ole Einar Bjoerndalen did not immediately come to this decision: they probably thought for a long time, weighed the pros and cons. It’s clear that it’s a pity to give up this whole thing. Daria has managed to do everything during her sports career: she is a multiple Olympic champion and world champion. Family, of course, is more important. When people are not close to each other, some kind of omissions, some kind of misunderstanding begin. I believe that they made the right decision, and now Daria will always be with her family.

– At one time you managed to successfully combine both a sports career and family life...

– Let’s not compare – everyone has their own career. It happened like this for me. At first I didn’t have children, then God began to give them to me, but I was able to combine everything. But at that time everything was much more complicated for us: we were not allowed to take our relatives and friends to the training camp. Now everything is freer. And, of course, it’s easier for athletes when their relatives are nearby. She has one situation, I have another. My example, probably, cannot be given at all: I am the only one like this: I gave birth to four children, and took three Olympic gold medals. I support Dasha, because the most important thing for a woman is female happiness. And this happiness is a close-knit family. Balancing career and family life is difficult. Now Domracheva has completed her career, everything will be very good for her. She is a healthy girl and will give birth to three or four more. Will her departure be a big loss for the sport? Of course it's a loss. But everything has its time, and everything must be done on time. And now she has chosen the most opportune moment: Domracheva ends her career beautifully, on a high note.

– Summer for biathletes is training time. Today our team works under the leadership of a new coaching staff. What steps do you expect in the work of new mentors?

– I haven’t noticed any significant changes for the better yet. Much is dishonest and unfair. We elected the board of the RBU - it included many people who have nothing to do with sports at all. Athletes for the national team were not entirely selected according to rating. I’m not sure that under the current head of the RRF there will be serious changes for the better. It's my personal opinion. When Alexander Kravtsov came to power, I told him that Anatoly Khovantsev and Valery Polkhovsky should be returned to the team. But in the end, no one returned Khovantsev. Now, perhaps, he is already a little late with his technique. But let's hope he doesn't make things worse. But he disappointed me after our conversation. I asked him: “Anatoly Nikolaevich, you are always for fair selection. Kristina Reztsova’s rating is closer to the first cast than Anastasia Morozova. Nevertheless, Morozova is in the main team, and Reztsova is in the reserve team. He spoke for a long time, but could not say anything intelligible. Polkhovsky was not taken - Drachev does not like him. Someone whispers to Drachev from the side. They are absolutely wrong: Valery Nikolaevich, I think, would have helped the team. Noritsyn was assigned to work with the main team - we'll see. In principle, he did a good job as a reserve coach. There, Ulyana Kaisheva, Kristina Reztsova, and other athletes are happy with working with him. For me, the most important thing is that there is justice. But, unfortunately, she is not. Because some of the young guys weren’t accepted into the main squad of the national team, they decided to keep them in the reserves. And then, when you’re already in your thirties, they’ll say that you’re already old. Now that they are 22–23, they need to be taken into the starting lineup. Even if now they are losing somewhere to the first team, but in four years they will grow and get stronger. Well, what about the main cast? Two or three of our people are among the top thirty in the international rankings! We need to change everything, there is no need to be afraid. These young “half-baked” guys would now have gained strength and then would definitely look no worse than the leaders. It’s a shame, of course, but I always tell myself: don’t interfere - you won’t prove anything anyway. Again, Alexander Ivanovich Tikhonov whispers a lot to Drachev. It is not normal.

– But Tikhonov says that he retired from working in Russian biathlon?..

- How did you get away?! He's constantly bustling around there. Now the autumn championship will begin - he will always be somewhere near the team. He won't go anywhere. An incorrigible person. I told him directly at the Russian Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk: “Alexander Ivanovich, don’t interfere already!” Your methods and tips have become obsolete!” But no, a person sees only himself and no one else.

– Your daughters Daria Virolainen and Kristina Reztsova, what do they say about work at the training camp?

– So far, only Christina is at the gathering. At the same time, according to the rating, she is included in the first team, but for some reason she was taken to the reserve. This is also not at all clear to me. No one can explain this to me: neither Vladimir Drachev, nor Anatoly Khovantsev. Well, Dasha – her sores have popped up – she is now being treated. Probably from seasonal stress, from nerves and worries. That's why she's not at the training camp this month. Christina trains calmly, doesn’t argue with anyone, and doesn’t get into trouble. I don't know what will happen next. Nothing. Let her prepare and prove that she is the best. Even in the reserve team.

– The biggest sporting event of the year is the World Cup in Russia. Are you following its twists and turns?

- Honestly? Not really. My grandson plays football. His idol is Cristiano Ronaldo. Together we watched the match between the national teams of Portugal and Iran. I didn’t really like the game: the team from Iran looked very decent. Of course, in such a situation it’s a shame that you didn’t make it to the playoffs. I also watched ours in the match with Uruguay. Do not know what to say. After victories over two outsiders, our team was lifted to the skies. And the opponent became stronger - they sat down. That's all. I doubt that they will be able to show anything in the game with the Spaniards. But I don’t presume to judge here. Or maybe, maybe!.. We'll see. In general, I don't like football. Because this is a lot of money, and the play of our football players most often does not correspond to this. In comparison with them, we get pennies for the same Olympic gold medals. And one more thing: the World Cup is a major sports tournament, the organization of which is expensive, it is a huge expense. I am worried that this will then hit the pockets of ordinary people.