Chaos in Russian Biathlon: Athletes Urged Not to Stay Silent

Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexander Vilf, Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

The past season in biathlon did without high-profile stories, but the off-season fully compensated for the lack of scandals. Everything is like in the good old days – allegations of corruption, disputes about the composition and internal problems.

Now it turned out that three well-known athletes were deprived of their salaries, and a number of biathletes are on the verge of being thrown out of the national team.

Continuous scandals

It all started with the story of the world champion Anton Babikov. Commentator Dmitry Guberniev said that one of the leaders of the team was not included in the centralized list for preparation for the next season. It looked strange, because Anton was quite good at the competition last year and obviously should have been included in the squad. Vice-President of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) Pavel Rostovtsev, during a conference call with reporters, explained that Babikov does not meet the new approved criteria, and also noted that the biathlete himself refused to centralized training.

The history there was quite interesting. The original list included another world champion – Alexander Loginov, but he refused a place in the national team. This vacancy was offered to Babikov, but he did not agree. There were also rumors regarding the conflict between Anton and the group’s coach Sergei Bashkirov, but they were not confirmed.

The fun in Russian biathlon did not end there. And again, Guberniev became the catalyst for movements. The commentator gave out information that immediately three of our biathletes were deprived of their salaries in the Russian national team. And all of them are engaged in the group of Yuri Kaminsky. We are talking about Larisa Kuklina, Ilnaz Mukhamedzyanov and Evgeny Yemerkhonov.

– Kuklina, Mukhamedzyanov and Emerkhonov are deprived of the salaries of members of the national team! And they made it to the team! We pulled the juniors up very well at the expense of those who honestly earned a place in the national team! Ministry of Sports, CSP – we are waiting for a reaction. Emerkhonov was thrown especially cynically! Just great guys! Damn, people, it’s really time to end this biathlon lawlessness, ”Guberniev wrote in his Telegram channel.

Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

Problems may go deeper

Kuklina had a great season after moving to the Kaminsky group, at the Commonwealth Cup stage in Raubichi, Larisa won all the races in which she participated. Mukhamedzyanov was second in the individual race at the Russian Championship in Izhevsk, and then won the mass start. Yemerkhonov is considered one of the most talented athletes of the new generation. So these are not just ordinary biathletes. Ildar Nugmanov, the head of the Tatarstan Biathlon Federation, which Evgeny represents, confirmed the information about the deprivation of Yemerkhonov’s salary. Guberniev did not stop there and said that a number of other athletes could fly past the national team.

– Kaplina, Tomshin, Dovgaya, Kudisova, Kolotov also did not get into the team! The guys’ contracts are ending the other day, and they just got kicked out! The regions will help, of course, but the SBR changed the rules for getting into the team in a boorish way! At first, the biathletes were told that the main starts were Izhevsk and Tchaikovsky, then everything was changed and the athletes were deceived, Guberniev added.

The commentator is sure that the problem is not only in the Russian Biathlon Union, but also in the fact that the athletes themselves prefer to remain silent, rather than raise an unpleasant topic. In an interview with Match TV, Dmitry admitted that he was waiting for a reaction from the Ministry of Sports and the Russian Olympic Committee.

Actually, at first I want to see the reaction of the head of the RRF, Viktor Maigurov, in order to understand how serious everything is. And, of course, the biathletes themselves, because if they don’t speak, this can mean two things – either they are satisfied with everything, or someone uses certain levers so that the scandal does not reach an even larger level. Agree, both options look so-so when it comes to depriving the salaries of top Russian athletes.

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