Biathletes opened the season before the SBR starts: “They earned money, but someone promoted themselves”

The tournament happened. And the show was a success in the best sense of the word. Yes, officially the season, according to the officially approved calendar plan of the Russian Biathlon Union, will begin only at the end of the week in the same Khanty-Mansiysk. But even in this there was a charm and interest in a new start. As the biathletes admitted, at the beginning of the season everyone can be called favorites, because no one has competed with each other in the winter. So there is a lot of intrigue. The cool ones on the ski track and shooting range (there are plenty of others in biathlon even without tournaments).

And the mass start and pursuit race are a good start to the season for all athletes, this was also recognized by the Cup participants. Because in contact racing there is an opportunity to work with each other and push each other.

The biggest element of the show is the cash reward. It worries everyone, even those who don’t run, that’s human nature. True, if they want to make money, and there is nothing shameful about the word “at all,” sports professionals do not forget about the main thing: work comes first. Karim Khalili, having won one race and became third in the second, admitted: money is a secondary part of these starts; first of all, you still want there to be a result.

To be honest, it’s not very clear why the MLKB tournament even had opponents. And they arose. Not in the IBU, which was immediately alarmed by the news of the new tournament and refused to allow the Chinese club to participate in the Russian start. And at home – within our own walls, where any form of advertising and support for the sport should be accepted with pleasure.

Why not?

Before the start of the MLCB, the information space discussed an interview with RBU Vice-President Pavel Rostovtsev, who said that he “has no understanding of why these competitions are needed, other than for the athletes to earn money, and for someone to gain publicity from it.” At the same time, he expressed bewilderment: from a methodological point of view, there is no understanding why some more competitions are needed if last year “the entire coaching staff talked about the excessive competitive load, which led to athletes getting sick and missing competitions.”

And finally, Rostovtsev even virtually “stamped his foot”, saying that no one can prohibit anything for athletes, but “let them look at their contracts with the Center for Sport, which clearly regulates the participation of athletes in competitions not included in the calendar, and what sanctions can be imposed.” be for it.”

The founders of the International League of Club Biathlon were the Regional Biathlon Club of the Moscow Region and the Belarusian Biathlon Club. Since the clubs are not members of the IBU and the Biathlon Union of Russia and Belarus, the activities of the MLKB are not under their jurisdiction. But the International Biathlon Union decided that the MLKB was a threat. And he said: the new tournament is an international competition that is not approved by the IBU, and the participation of foreign athletes in it may entail consequences for those who decide. Because any international competition – one in which athletes from more than two countries take part – must be approved by the IBU.

With the IBU, as with the entire IOC, which is now threatening all sorts of sanctions to those who decide to go to our future Friendship Games, everything is clear. The policy of crushing everything that is possible and desirable in Russia – immediately at the root – rules. How did it happen that the tournament is not accepted by specialists who are not involved in any way in organizing the tournament or in obtaining prize money? Has MLKB taken over the blanket with the new Cup from the official opening of the season, taken away some of the attention that should have gone to the calendar start? Or did you take something else?

The first claim of the SBR (about money and PR) seems purely emotional. Concern about the competition load seems strange, since two tournament days are not a shock at all for athletes. One of the biathletes even cited the example of coach Mikhail Shashilov’s group, which did not interrupt the training camp in Tyumen for the sake of the MLKB: they work in Tyumen from morning to night, and to say that it is easier than past competitions, “it’s impossible, 100% not easier “

The third point – the offer to look at contracts – is perhaps fair. Of course, athletes must have labor discipline; all starts for those who work with the help of the state must be taken into account and under control. But – and this is a very big “but”: we live today in a world of foreign bans. The only way to come out of this situation of exclusion alive is to find new ways for athletes to compete and make money.

Existing and signed contracts are serious, no one argues, but, in the end, they can be quickly rewritten, adjusting them to the new reality. But pretending that we remain in the old reality is dishonest. And in relation to athletes, and to the entire sport.

And in your pocket – What?

Today, biathletes excommunicated from international sports live not only with thoughts of earnings, but also with them. Belarusian Anton Smolsky, having become second in the mass start and then winning the pursuit race, did not hesitate to say: prize money is a very important motivation for high-level athletes. And he clarified: for two races in Khanty-Mansiysk he earned the same amount as for winning the World Cup.

Yes, according to the spectacular laws of the show, at the first ever Cup of the International League of Club Biathlon, athletes ran and shot according to the new rules of reward: they won, they immediately received it, not on the record, alive. Private money dictates its own rules for receiving prize money. And you could take them out of your pocket and even show them during an interview.

This is what Anton Babikov did, becoming second in the pursuit race. In response to the question of what he could say to the athletes who did not apply for participation in the tournament, Anton showed a chic pack: this is what. “This is a joke, of course, but yesterday Serokhvostov said: to catch up with Karim in finance, you need to win 15 Russian Cup races.”

And, having removed the money, Babikov continued: there is no difference between the race and the control training, call the start whatever you want, but “we give our all in any situation, without thinking about the prize money.” And biathletes at any competition are involved in their work, giving their all, regardless of whether they are “prize money or a soft toy.” Because – and this was probably important to say so that everyone could hear: “We don’t play sports for this. It’s nice after finishing, but the goals for the race don’t change.”

By the way, finishing this topic “out of pocket”, we must not forget that we need money not only to have bread and butter in life, but also for competitions in the literal sense of the word. For example, Alexander Povarnitsyn (trains with Alexander Loginov and Anton Babikov outside the national team) says that every year he buys six or seven pairs of skis on his own, while four more pairs are issued through the national team, from whose field of vision the biathletes still do not fall out. Each pair costs about one hundred thousand rubles.

About the legal blanket

The first MLKB Cup took place. He ran through, made some noise, intrigued, made you worry and worry. Everything is as it should be in biathlon. There may only be one question hanging in the air. We are still a long way from real club biathlon. The athletes ran, we know them: from the Russian Cup, the Commonwealth Cup, the usual starts. There are still questions regarding the availability of clubs. Who represents whom? Of course, it is clear why the Cup received exactly this name; the tournament was “led away” from the intervention of the IBU (which, however, did not protect it from threats from the International Biathlon Union). But we don’t yet know our international biathlon future. The main thing, as a famous politician said, is to start. Whether this form of biathlon development is needed in Russia or not is a debate for the regions and, most importantly, sponsors.

Does the start of the season, official according to the SBR calendar, have a legal blanket left? Biathlon fans, like any amateurs, are fans because tournaments are never enough for them. And the start only warmed up their wishes and desires. The athletes managed to say more than once during the two days of racing that none of them specially prepared for these competitions. And everyone ran “emotionally relaxed,” maybe that’s why the fight turned out to be spectacular.