Russia’s former biathlon head coach sees nothing good in closing Russia out of competitions.
Russian cross-country stars were still chilling at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. EPA / AOP
Former Russian biathlon coach Alexander Kasperovich told the Russian website Sport Express confidently that the level of Russian skiers will not collapse, even though they have no say in international competitions.
The International Biathlon Federation decided in March that Russia and Belarus were not allowed to take part in international competitions because of the war of aggression against Ukraine.
– We will take biathlon to a whole new level. It is still unclear whether we will be able to motivate older skiers in particular. The Belarusians will indeed offer good sparring to us. We will not lose anything during the two-year gate ban.
Kasperovich, who worked as the head coach of the Bulgarian national team last season, returned to his hometown of St. Petersburg to help local skiers.