A major victory for Russia in spite of Western spiteful critics
On Sunday, the old New Year, the Russian biathlon team presented its fans with a stunning gift: a harvest of gold medals from the World Cup. The gift is all the more precious because our biathlon team has not achieved such a result for 13 years! It turns out that Russian biathletes know how, when they want, to give joy and pride to the country, and not just bitter disappointment.
So, two golds in relay races and one victory in the men's sprint - this is the result of the World Cup stage in Oberhof, Germany, which became the most successful start of our biathletes in recent years.
But perhaps the most surprising thing is how our people were able to mobilize under a barrage of criticism from all sides. There’s a lot that hasn’t been covered in the media: the murky system of selecting athletes, the inability to stay in shape before the start of competitions, and we’ve been buzzing about doping in recent years.
The indoctrinated portion of the fans could have gotten the false impression that Russian athletes are rockets on steroids and terrible meldonium, having forgotten how to win fairly and with dignity.
Already in Oberhof, the Norwegian asthmatic Johannes Boe and the French Martin Fourcade were angry with particular cynicism, demanding that the Russian Alexander Loginov publicly repent for the doping scandal before the competition.
I would like to remind you that Loginov’s test in the out-of-competition period of November-December 2013 showed the absence of doping, but in November 2014, officials from the International Biathlon Union suddenly decided to recheck the old tests, which gave a positive reaction from Loginov’s test to erythropoietin (EPO), which activates the maturation of red blood cells .
Interestingly, no one could explain how EPO ended up in a sample where it had not been found before. Loginov, however, was excluded from the Russian national team right before the start of the World Cup in Östersund, and six months later, in 2015, the Russian biathlete was disqualified for two years.
Despite all these suspicious oddities, “pure” Norwegian biathlon asthmatics coughed furiously at Loginov, demanding that the athlete take the blame, renounce all victories and even quit the sport.
And now, despite everything, Friday’s gold in the sprint was won. Loginov justified all the hopes placed on him, mustering his will and rage, snatching victory from his opponents. Of course, Loginov has long been considered one of the most promising Russian biathletes, but his triumphant appearance with the Russian flag was a real surprise, dispelling the bitterness of the end of Anton Shipulin’s career.
And now the Russian women's biathlon team has achieved a winning double.
On January 13, in the 4x6 km relay race, Evgenia Pavlova, Margarita Vasilyeva, Larisa Kuklina and Ekaterina Yurlova raced in difficult weather conditions. Each of the girls showed their strengths.
Evgenia Pavlova ran so fast and furiously that on the last lap she made up the gap to Lisa Vitozzi herself. Margarita Vasilyeva did not fall apart after the unfortunate fall and showed the will to win. Larisa Kuklina demonstrated sniper shooting, which was not affected by either strong wind or wet snow flying in her face. Ekaterina Yurlova on the track was not inferior to the German Denise Hermann, who switched to biathlon from cross-country skiing.
What’s interesting is that all the girls, except Yurlova, were “dark horses” for their rivals before winning gold in the relay. Kuklina, Vasilyeva and Pavlova performed at the junior level and for a long time could not break into the main team. According to sports journalists, sniper Kuklina at the qualifying competitions took the place of experienced relay athlete Irina Starykh, whose place in the team had not previously been disputed. The first World Cup race in my sports career – and such a success!
Spiteful critics claim that the Russians would not have had any chance of winning if the German Laura Dahlmeier and the Italian Dorothea Wierer had competed against them, but commentators agree that even the participation of the leaders would not have helped the rival teams, and the victory of the almost unknown Russian biathletes is absolutely natural .
It’s surprising that with the retirement of the Czech Gabriela Koukalova, who loved to yap at our women’s biathlon team all last season, there was no other evil fury to replace her. And, unlike the Russian men's team, the girls prepared and performed in conditions of complete media calm.
Sports analysts agree that the victory of the Russians at the World Cup stage has both its own patterns and a certain amount of luck. In particular, the change of leadership in the Russian Biathlon Union and the new, transparent system of selection for the national team were clearly beneficial. Well, the bad weather conditions, against which the Russian team’s opponents were saved, did not prevent our team from winning.
In general, those who bring themselves are lucky.
In any case, we should not relax and the victorious courage will still be very useful to our athletes. The first World Cup stage after the New Year's break has been won so far. So Russian biathletes have to prove their claim to leadership.
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