Alexander GovorovCorrespondent SportAll materialsHe was considered the main talent of the Russian biathlon some five or six years ago. However, he preferred another passion to sports — helicopter flights. On July 17, 25-year-old Igor Malinovsky was found dead in an aircraft crash in Kamchatka. In his youth, he tore apart the Norwegians. Malinovsky won five gold medals at the World Junior Championships. No one in our biathlon has done this before him. He fought on equal footing and often defeated young Norwegian stars Sturla Legrade and Johannes Dalle. They then became the stars of the World Cup, and Legrade finished second in the overall standings twice, quite a bit short of the big Crystal Globe. Igor had even more talent, but, unfortunately, the transition from youth to adult sports was very difficult for him. Perhaps this is a global problem of Russian biathlon, where it used to be customary to wait for the moment to throw a young athlete into battle. Nevertheless, a bet was made on Malinovsky. No wonder he made his debut at the World Cup before he was 20 years old. Quite a unique case for our biathlon. They believed in him. They tried to give him chances, but, unfortunately, the result did not come. By the age of 24, Igor spent only five races at the highest level, while failing to get into the points. They even talked about ending a career, as mentioned by the biathlete's coach. Malinovsky soon denied the words, but it was clear that he was less and less interested in biathlon.Igor Malinovsky He dreamed of flying. The fact is that Igor has long dreamed of flying in helicopters. Aviation was his dream, which he aspired to even more than success in sports. It was enough to look at the social networks of a biathlete to conclude what his priorities are.
"An airline pilot earns a little more than a titled biathlete, such as Shipulin. Private pilot — ten times more. Aviation is more profitable, but for me it's not about money. Soul in the sky — this cannot be taken away, my childhood and my life. I do not want to change myself, I will be a pilot. The question is now or later?" – Igor said in an interview with Sports.ru.
In April of this year, he graduated from the Omsk Flight Technical College of Civil Aviation. Malinovsky boasted of his achievements in this field, while emphasizing that he had not yet completed his final race in biathlon. He planned to compete at the regional level and theoretically did not rule out the possibility of a return to work with a rifle and cross-country skiing.