How is it currently ordered about Russian biathlon sports? Not good at all, the Olympic champion and former world champion Svetlana Sleptsova, who is convinced: the athletes pay a high price for exclusion from the World Cup.
If it goes to Svetlana Sleptsova, the status quo of Russian biathlon sports is not satisfactory at all.
The past season was anything but special, the Olympic champion of Vancouver told “Metaratings”. But this is not surprising.
“Our people are tired of always being in the same pot. Perhaps their motivation has changed. There was nothing special this season. And I also agree that the fans lose interest without international competitions. The athletes therefore lose their motivation. The excitement is no longer as before,” said the former biathlete.
Olympic champion: “Level has not kept Russian biathlon sport”
If it goes to Sleptsova, the level of sport in her home country has noticeably decreased since the exclusion from the World Cup. “I don’t think that the Russian biathlon sport kept its level. When we started in the World Cup, the level was much higher,” she said.
A big problem in their eyes: the Russian athletes have subsided both in the trail and at the shooting range. How much they have lost the connection to the top of the world can only show up after returning to the international stage, the relay world champion from 2009 emphasized.
Before Sleptsova, other voices from the Russian biathlon warehouse had recently critically commented on the level. Association Vice Vladimir Barnashov, for example, publicly complained about the level of their own athletes at the shooting range. The 25-year-old Daniil Serokhvostov also admitted that the quality of the team had decreased.