President of the Russian Ski Racing Federation Elena Vyalbe in an interview with Sport told how the doping scandals went after the Olympic Games in Sochi, why she doesn’t need an apology from her Western colleagues and why she still doesn’t need to go to the Olympics in Paris.
“I don’t have the courage to apologize, they are small people”— This year we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Olympic Games in Sochi. What is your most vivid memory from those Games?
— It was February 23, for the first time in men’s cross-country skiing at the Olympic Games, three athletes from the same country stood on the podium. I can proudly say that there was no such organization of the Games anywhere, and not because they were in Russia. At that time, foreigners had great fears; we were terribly tormented by FIS. Every time we made reports, they came and got to the bottom of every comma. And in the end, everyone noted that the organization was enchanting.
Usually the Olympic Games are some kind of hostel. I remember veterans telling me that in 1980 in Lake Placid, athletes lived on the prison grounds. In 1992, we were settled in barracks, after removing the military from there, and in 1994 — in construction trailers. It was all collapsible. In Nagano, athletes traveled from the Olympic village to the stadium for 2.5 hours by bus. Therefore, the Games in Sochi were fantastic in all respects.
— The Games in Sochi were great, but then everything was overshadowed by doping scandals.
— It became darker a year later, when false accusations arrived in 2015. The thing is that if I were far from sports, perhaps I would have some doubts about athletes. But I worked in a team since 2010, I understood that this was the invention of a not entirely adequate person, and I was confident in my athletes. We immediately, without hesitation, went to court. I was 1000% sure that we would win it, because people who understand at least something about sports should understand what is nonsense and what is not.
— Did you get a lot of nerves then?< /strong>
— All these extra nerves, gray hair… I constantly went with the guys to Lausanne. But I will fight in any field if my athletes are treated unfairly. The most offensive thing is that the general tendency is that they will look for any opportunity to offend, insult and humiliate Russia. In sports at least there are competitions, but in culture there are none. And how can you cancel culture? They are trying and have already canceled it. I'm sure everything will come back, but it will take a long time. It’s just a shame that these people will never ask for forgiveness. No one will apologize to us, these are not strong people, but small people, they simply do not have the courage to do it. A person must be truly strong to ask for forgiveness, but they are snot…
— Do you need these apologies?
“We haven’t needed anything from them for a long time.” Look at the great competitions we have, what kind of competition we have, fans, good prize money. A journalist recently told me that some Norwegian said that I was homesick for international competitions. Yes, I don’t miss or feel nostalgic for anything, I enjoy what I see and do now. I'm in awe of my girls and guys, I see this crazy struggle — nine seconds away from nine people per 50 kilometers for men. Where will you see this abroad? And I don’t give a damn what they think, really.
I don't even know who won the world championship last year. I don’t know anything, I’m not interested in this, I crossed them out of my life. Not because I’m offended, I really want to enjoy what’s happening in our country. We are such a fantastic team now that they should bite their elbows that they cannot compete with us.
— Alexander Bolshunov recently said that he receives a large number of messages from Norwegian athletes who are waiting for the Russians to return to international competitions.< /strong>
“The fact is that athletes may certainly want to compete with us, but they cannot decide anything. They were told to sit, be afraid, be silent. Such is life, they live in their own country and obey some of their leaders. I don’t think that athletes from several countries will unite and make a revolution so that the Russians also compete. An athlete always wants to compete with the strongest, then there is more interest, and when you beat him, you have more pride. What should I do? We just all need to be strong, to get through this with dignity.
— Do you believe that someday there will be an Olympics in Russia again?
— Taking into account the fact that the Olympic Games Rarely do they take place twice in the same country, probably won’t happen again in my lifetime. Although, on the other hand, there is a tendency that more and more countries are refusing to host the Olympic Games. Therefore, who knows how events will develop in the Olympic movement.
“It’s bitter that we won’t go to the Olympics, but it’s not sad.”— Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with proxies, said that the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the Ministry of Sports must finally decide on the issue of the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympics in Paris in conditions of discrimination. What solution would you like to hear?
— The last thing I saw about the declaration is that they themselves will somehow hand out invitations, like for a wedding. My daughter’s wedding is coming soon, but she doesn’t send invitations to the whole country, but only to those whom she would like to see. It's the same story here. They immediately identified those who agree with the government and specifically with the president of our country on the question “whose Crimea?”, are you in relations with the security forces, for example, Dynamo, CSKA, etc. But I want to tell you that if you think that athletes from other countries are not in the security forces, then you are very mistaken. It’s not for nothing that the World Military Championships are held, and I also have medals from these championships.
All countries have the same story, why then are they not asked what structures the athletes belong to? It seems to me that for such a declaration we can say thanks to Mr. Bach, he immediately made sure that the athlete did not doubt and did not hope, he simply would not pass the criteria.
Will this be a general, some kind of collective decision? Don't even know. Perhaps there is no longer a need for a collective decision. The federations have already made up their minds.
— Do you think we should refrain from going to the Olympics?
— Don’t abstain, but spit on them. I'm a tough person, everyone knows that. And also everyone knows how much I love the athletes I work with.
The athlete is a young man, and this is just the beginning of his life. There is also life after sports, and you can still spend a smaller part of it in sports, but then you will have to live differently. Of course, the main thing now is that none of the young athletes make a mistake. Because it is precisely in this situation that we must 100% understand that we need to create such conditions in the country so that athletes can train and compete. And we need to explain, convey to them in every possible way the real message — in addition to sports, you must be a worthy person of your country, then you must live here and look people in the eyes.
Athletes are our children, and we must convey everything to them and explain it correctly. It’s really sad that we won’t go to the Olympic Games, but it’s not grief. Grief is when a mother loses her son, this is grief. Now more than ever we must be united. Only in unity is strength and victory.
“Maybe Olympic medals should be awarded posthumously?”— The anti-doping system is developing every year. Doesn't it reach the point of absurdity or, on the contrary, makes the sport equal?
— I think there is a lot that needs to be reviewed. Firstly, this doping list, it expands every year. And when I hear that there is a certain drug that protects you from asthma, and WADA tested it and reported that there is no help in sports performance, I have a question, why is it on this list then? And there are a lot of the same drugs.
Another mystery to me is why they store doping samples for 8-10 years. Let's award the medal posthumously then. The athlete won the Olympic Games, they waited until he died, and then they awarded the medal posthumously (just kidding). WADA must run ahead of the pharmacists who come up with doping. They should check everything right away at the Olympic Games and World Championships, well, let it be a maximum of two or three months, but why wait ten years?
— Tell us how everything was arranged before. It wasn't so strict, was it? Have you noticed that athletes from other countries could use something?
— The checks were the same as now. They also took doping tests from us, maybe not so often, but it always happened. Now, in general, every day you have to write down where you are in your ADAMS diary. I understand that this can somehow discipline the athlete. But why do you need to schedule every day? There are different situations that sometimes reach the point of absurdity.
— Olympic champion Yulia Stupak is on the verge of ending her career. In addition to being removed from international competitions, could she have been affected by the departure of Markus Kramer from the Russian national team?
— I think this is reason number one.
— Was it really not possible to keep Kramer in the team, if the question was only about paying wages? Or was it his desire to leave?
— To be honest, I don’t think he would have stayed despite this whole situation. Considering that he is a German citizen, I can’t imagine that this would be highly approved in his homeland.
— Do you continue to communicate with Markus?
— We are with him We have good relations, we keep in touch, we call each other, we correspond, we send photos to each other.
— How did it happen that the leaders of the national team have a lot of illnesses this season? Or, as Denis Spitsov told me, this was simply not noticed before because of the World Cup stages?
— It seems to me that these post-Covid consequences will be felt for a long time. For example, Sergei Ardashev, when he was ill with Covid, did not admit it, immediately began to train and compete without completing his treatment, and then went into a deep hole. Only now it is slowly coming out. This is not the infection we are used to. Yakimushkin has already been ill four times this season, Maltsev many times, Chervotkin, Spitsov. Almost everyone got sick this season.