Biathletes Babikov and Loginov were offered to think about a “road map” for returning to the national team

The new season in biathlon will begin, like the last one, in the conditions of internal rivalry between Russia and Belarus. In general, experts assessed the past season as good, expressed confidence that if they were admitted to the World Cup, there would be no failure: the teams continued intensive work, there was no reduction in workload. Yes, motivation sometimes rushed around in search of some of the athletes, but the starts brought to life. A serious factor was the material support from the SBR.

Perhaps the new season should become even a little easier in moral terms: there is no daily expectation that just about – and athletes will be released to the international level. If only because there are no reasons for these expectations. RBU President Viktor Maigurov at a press conference dedicated to the start of the season – and the Commonwealth Summer Biathlon Cup starts in Sochi on September 5 – said that biathlon “will be one of the last to be returned.” But “we do not lose optimism” and that is why, not thinking about the Olympic Games very much yet, the management sets the task for coaches and athletes to prepare for 100-200 percent. “To be ready to return at any moment.”

The work of the RRF goes in two main areas: training teams and supporting regional organizations. The teams have been training and are training in Russia and Belarus, even in Kazakhstan. “We have allocated 55 million rubles for the regions, 1 million per region. We also have a total prize fund of 30 million rubles for the regions. That is, the leading federations will receive 2-3 million rubles each,” says Viktor Maygurov.

There are many pain points. Shooting, for example, is always and in every sense the headache of biathlon. Close the target, as in theory, not everyone succeeds, the fight with weapons and targets goes on both at the starts and outside the competition. The SBR believes that in terms of speed and accuracy of shooting, the level of athletes performing at international competitions today corresponds to a few Russian biathletes. “We have statistics on the speed, accuracy of shooting, on the speed of movement of foreign athletes, we focus our guys on these indicators. We have something to strive for, we have a few who meet the average shooting performance, about five people.”

But these are more questions of technical and psychological preparation. And in the current conditions, there was also a shortage of cartridges. “The problem has remained, it has not disappeared anywhere,” the SBR admits. Today, the profile company produces 300,000 cartridges per year, which is not enough for biathletes. The organization is somehow trying to resolve the issue of acquiring cartridges abroad, and partially succeeds. But this is a very expensive way because of the exchange rate. “I hope we will be heard and collectively solve this issue,” Maygurov says. The increase in the cost of inventory affects the regional teams, “if we provide the national team, then it is difficult for the regions.”

And the executive director of the Russian Biathlon Union, Alexander Pak, also recalls the existing problems with equipment: it is mainly produced in other countries. “It would be strange to say that we are doing well when 90% of the inventory is imported.” Ways out of the situation, both in terms of logistics and price, are difficult, “but we solve them.”

The SBR brought clarity to the question of who will be to blame if foreign athletes compete in the Commonwealth Cup. The topic arose in connection with the desire of Uzbekistan to compete in the tournament with our and Belarusian biathletes. The RRF sent a request to the IBU regarding the appearance of Uzbek biathletes on our tracks. (Participation in competitions by athletes from three or more countries requires coordination with the International Biathlon Union.)

The IBU then warned the SBR about possible violations due to the participation of other teams in the Commonwealth Cup. But it was not very clear who exactly would break the rules: the host or the participant. And now a clarification has come: athletes from Uzbekistan will break the rules. “It is already difficult for us to apply any sanctions, but we do not want to ignore the requirements of the IBU so as not to complicate the recovery process.”

The RBU, as the leaders say, takes into account the constitution of the IBU, “I would not like to reach a dead end.” Four stages of the Commonwealth Cup are planned for the upcoming season: in Sochi, Ufa, Murmansk and Raubichi.

Last season, which, based on the results of the starts, named members of the national team who are on centralized training and financing, caused heated debate. The selection criteria, to put it mildly, did not seem fair to everyone. For example, Anton Babikov, one of the most experienced biathletes of the national team, multiple World Cup winner and world champion, was not on the list. And in the season, he became seventh in the overall standings of the RBU and fourth in the Commonwealth Cup. Today, Babikov, and two-time Olympic bronze medalist Alexander Loginov, and World Cup medalist Alexander Povarnitsyn are undergoing pre-season training separately from the national team.

So, the RBU has already announced the coaching council, which will formulate the criteria for selecting biathletes for the Russian national team for the next season. The Council will be held in September, and the initiative came from the athletes. This is the first time such an event will take place.

Moreover, the president of the Russian Biathlon Union said that he suggested that Babikov, Loginov and Povarnitsyn, who had left for self-training, think about returning to centralized training. “There was a request for funding for their group from the CSP. I suggested that the athletes prepare a roadmap on how this could be implemented, but there is no initiative from the side of the athletes yet,” says Viktor Maygurov. And he clarifies that, for example, Loginov, who missed almost the entire last season, is not even a member of the extended list of the national team, “but at the next stage he will be able to show good results and return.”

The money issue, which is always important, but today works very well for motivation, did not go unnoticed. The leadership of the RBU believes that many athletes would never have earned such prize money at international competitions as they received last year. “Our prize money is less than what athletes would receive at the World Cup, but most of our athletes earned more at the end of last season than they could earn in international competitions.”

The RBU keeps the prize money this season the same: last year, 67 adult athletes entered the prizes, 111 juniors also received payments. The total amount of payments for the season amounted to about 70 million rubles. For the victory in the individual races of the Russian Championship, one could get 100 thousand rubles, in the Russian Cup – 70 thousand, and in the Commonwealth Cup – 150 thousand at summer starts, 300 thousand at winter starts.

As for the explosive topic of changing citizenship, the President of the RBU believes that it will not be on the agenda of our biathlon. Among other things, President Maygurov believes that “some strong federation will definitely not invite our athletes, because it is Europe or North America, and a weaker federation will not invite them, because they do not have enough funds.” For athletes who have previously moved to Moldova or Romania, the SBR looks after. “They can get advice from us.” There were no new requests to change citizenship, and there were no talks about transitions either. “I must say thank you to the athletes that they understand everything.”