“We will see all the strongest”: the best Russian skiers are ready to conquer the “Champion Heights” - an alternative to the World Cup in Planica

Russian skiers were not allowed to the World Championship, which starts on February 23 in the Slovenian Planica, but they definitely will not sit idle.

At the same time, the Malinovka Ski Center in the Arkhangelsk Region will host an alternative representative tournament called Champion Heights.

It will bring together all the leaders of the national team, the best regional athletes, as well as representatives of Belarus.

In total, about 450 athletes are expected to participate in the competition.

The program of the tournament exactly repeats the world championship, only the regions of Russia, plus the Belarusians, will compete with each other, not the countries.

Both there and there will play for six sets of awards among men and women - in the sprint, team sprint, time trial, skiathlon, relay race and marathon.

The quota of each team participating in the "Champion Heights" will be 20 athletes - ten skiers and skiers each.

Only four athletes can be entered for each individual race.

As you know, a similar rule applies to the World Cup.

According to the President of the Russian Ski Racing Federation Elena Vyalbe, the selection for each team took place with all seriousness - almost the same as before at the World Championships.

“We have been discussing the team’s preparatory plan since spring, and, unfortunately, I was not at the final stage of preparation in Sochi.

I trained in one place, some arrived earlier, some later.

I mean specifically for the national team.

We will see all the strongest in Malinovka, despite the fact that Denis Spitsov and Alexander Bolshunov fell ill with us, having left Sochi earlier.

The guys are getting ready and will take part, Sasha is already in Malinovka, ”Match TV quotes Vyalbe.

She also noted that the athletes will try to perform in the maximum number of races, also because the tournament provides for solid prize money.

So, skiers will be able to receive 150 thousand rubles for the first place, 120 for the second, and 90 for the third. respectively.

“Someone will run only their program.

There are wagons, like the same Denis Spitsov, who runs sprints, but tends to distance races more.

It seems to me that everything will depend on the readiness of the athlete, but the members of the national team will run the entire program, that's for sure.

We have good prize money there, they will fight for money as well,” Vyalbe said.

In turn, coach Yuri Borodavko spoke about plans for Natalia Nepryaeva and Alexander Bolshunov.

According to him, it is assumed that the athletes will perform in all races, but the final decision will be made immediately before the start, depending on the condition of the skiers.

Beijing Olympic relay champion Yulia Stupak, who has not competed for a long time due to health problems, is also planning to start.

For the past few weeks, the athlete has been training in Italy and returned to Russia on the eve of the start of the tournament.

“Yes, Yulia arrived, just at the starts and we will see what form she is in.

It is not yet known which races he will participate in, we will look along the way, but in the first race - the sprint - he will definitely start, ”said Borodavko.

And here is another member of the Olympic gold quartet - Tatyana Sorina - continues to recover from a shoulder injury.

According to the athlete, she will most likely be able to fully train by the summer.

Meanwhile, another ward of Yegor Sorin, Veronika Stepanova, demonstrates the maximum fighting spirit.

According to the skier, there have been significant changes in the process of her preparation after the 2022 Games, and now it's time to bring all the new ideas of the coach to life.

The Olympic champion also thanked all members of the coaching staff, from the analyst to the massage therapist, noting that cross-country skiing is “a collective matter”.

Sorin sees everything!

The main competitions of the season are such an exam for both the coach and the student.

Since the Beijing Olympics, we have significantly added both in volume and intensity.

I would say very noticeable!

“Champion Heights” in Malinovka will be a test of his ideas – in my performance,” Stepanova wrote in her Telegram channel.

Meanwhile, in Norway, whose team rakes up medals from one tournament after another in the absence of their main rivals, they do not stop releasing hairpins against the Russians.

So, last week, the Norwegian TV2 channel reported that the winners of the Beijing Olympics Alexei Chervotkin and Ivan Yakimushkin, as well as a number of other athletes, were allegedly never tested for doping in 2022 after the Olympics.

Elena Vyalbe explained that this information is very far from the real state of affairs, but such “stuffing” does not surprise her at all.

“If they are guided by the published statistics of RUSADA for 2022, then both athletes are present in it.

But I would like to emphasize: all our top skiers are not in the national pool of RUSADA, but in the international pool of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.

And it is under the FIS program, and not RUSADA, that our athletes come and take the same out-of-competition samples in accordance with the anti-doping rules.

And statistics on samples taken at the request of FIS are not reflected in RUSADA statistics, ”RIA Novosti quotes the head of the FGR.

Against this background, the FIS promo video for the upcoming World Championship sounded rather unexpectedly: it included footage of performances by Bolshunov and Nepryaeva.

Probably, in the international federation, they also miss real competition.