Five years ago, biathlete Elena Kruchinkina changed her citizenship from her native Russia to Belarus. The now 28-year-old is now competing for Russia again. Now the ski hunter has spoken about the background.
Russian biathlete Elena Kruchinkina has decided against an early end to her career, as she confessed in an interview with “Sport Express”: “Last season was really difficult. I thought about quitting. Every month I got sick at least once. I went to training with tears in his eyes.”
Kruchinkina moved to the Belarus national team in 2018, and her sister Irina also joined the neighboring country. Together they were supposed to close the gap left by top biathletes Darya Domracheva, Nadezhda Skardino and Nadzeya Pisarava, who had retired at the time.
As a Belarusian, Kruchinkina finally won the 2020 European Championships ahead of the Russian Kristina Retsova in the pursuit. The 2020/21 season was her best in the World Cup to date, and in 2022 she also traveled with Belarus to the Beijing Winter Olympics.
As a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, she, like all other Russian and Belarusian athletes, was subsequently excluded from international competitions. Instead, she competed in the Commonwealth Cup, Russia’s rival competition.
Biathlete puzzles about not being nominated
“When we traveled to the Russian Championships in the spring, I saw the environment and realized that – even though I wasn’t in shape at the time – I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to biathlon yet,” said Kruchinkina, who is in Last season, he no longer received a squad spot in the Belarusian team.
The 28-year-old still doesn’t know why she was kicked out. The biathlete was told that she would no longer be there because of her age. However, her twin sister, who is five minutes younger, received a nomination: “I didn’t understand why. Either because I was injured or because I was too old. Or because I didn’t meet the criteria – even though I wasn’t the worst .”
Ultimately, Elena Kruchinkina decided to return to Russia and from then on compete for her birth country.