Our everything. Or nothing?

It seems that in biathlon before the Olympics we laid out all our trump cards, and our rivals left a powerful reserve

In Oberhof there was a continuous fog, in the Bavarian Ruhpolding it cleared up, the Italian Antholz this week will complete the pre-Olympic biathlon picture. But even after six stages of the World Cup, this picture will not be exhaustive. Because biathlon...

In Oberhof there was a continuous fog, in the Bavarian Ruhpolding it cleared up, the Italian Antholz this week will complete the pre-Olympic biathlon picture.

But even after six stages of the World Cup, this picture will not be exhaustive. Because biathlon is so cleverly conceived that it initially resists stability, mixes all the cards and easily overthrows the record leaders. In biathlon, as in no other individual sport, the element of competitiveness is extremely strong (in this it is close to team sports, many of which are superior in entertainment). Accordingly, everything is decided by the nuances, of which there are a great many every time - from the slightest changes in the weather to psychology.

The current leader of the World Cup and the joker of the Russian men's team, Evgeny Ustyugov, at the last shooting in the mass start, only thought for a second that he could miss - and the only penalty loop cost him first place, although he rolled amazingly to the finish line and almost caught up with the Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen . But in the relay at the fourth stage, Svendsen already saw Ustyugov's back only from afar - and ours won Ruhpolding for the first time in 15 years.

More than twenty thousand German fans almost burst into tears when, at the second relay stage, the jet-powered Magdalena Neuner, carrying her rivals for half a minute, started shooting anywhere but at the target while standing, as a result of which the unconditional favorites of the home race did not even hit the winners. And our girls missed a great chance to continue the winning relay streak: at the last stage, Olga Zaitseva could not stand it in a face-to-face duel with the leader of the World Cup, Swede Helena Junsson.

There were plenty of small and big dramas in Ruhpolding. Yevgeny Ustyugov lost and regained the yellow jersey of the leader, Ivan Cherezov's rifle broke, Anton Shipulin fell while taking the baton in the second stage - but all this faded before Svetlana Sleptsova finished the sprint race. On the last meters, the leader of the Russian national team could hardly move her legs, she fell behind the finish line, and not just from fatigue, but from severe convulsions. It was unbearable to watch the athlete writhing in the snow, the team doctor was not allowed by the judges, the Czech coach was the first to help. The next day, Sleptsova was already smiling, but she was freed from the races away from sin - such a muscle spasm could only be caused by a colossal overstrain.

Here, questions immediately began to arise regarding the strategy and tactics of preparing for the Olympics. All our hardcore participants look different: someone has reached the peak of form, someone has passed it, someone else has not rolled into the season. The coaches of the national team look to the future with restrained optimism, but there is a feeling that we have already laid out our main trump cards, and the main rivals have left a very powerful reserve.

The French put up the second team for the men's relay. The Norwegians do not go to the sixth stage in Antholz at all - as well as the Swedes (their head coach Wolfgang Pichler believes that athletes need emotional relief before Canada). This will result in the loss of World Cup points, but who will remember them in Vancouver?

The great Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen does not take any extra steps before his last Olympics, spending his energy and emotions as sparingly as possible, avoiding the slightest risk. Everything that does not concern preparation is on the side. The undisputed leader of the season, Helena Jonsson, according to the coach, did not reach the required conditions. The Germans who failed the relay in the last race in Ruhpolding take places from the second to the sixth, and the main loser Magdalena Neuner with five (!) misses becomes the third.

Not all of the supposed favorites will add to Vancouver. But most are definitely able to add. And it is impossible to say with such confidence about the Russians, even despite the fact that the women's team is in first place in the overall standings of the World Cup, and the men's team is in second.

The most experienced and titled in our team, Maxim Chudov, immediately everything went awry, now he is not a model of calmness and confidence, but a bundle of nerves. The role of the leader has passed to Evgeny Ustyugov from Krasnoyarsk, but whether yesterday's junior will cope with it in the stressful conditions of the Olympics is a big question. The composition of the women's team is at first glance evener, but it will be very difficult to qualify for gold in individual races.

There is another important circumstance that may play a role in Vancouver. We are talking about our badly damaged reputation, thanks to which the biathlon world is still looking askance at Russian attempts to regain its leadership position. The louder the doping scandal, the lower the degree of trust, and about a year ago, the disqualification of three leaders of the Russian national team at once (Ekaterina Yuryeva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Yaroshenko) is unlikely to be forgotten soon.

The coming to the leadership of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) by a large businessman Mikhail Prokhorov (and then the most successful sports manager of the country, Sergey Kushchenko, as the executive director of the RBU) made it possible to shake things up and regroup quite quickly. But, firstly, the new team had too little time, and secondly, big money with a poor reputation did not add respect to our biathletes. This does not have a direct impact, but even the fact that in the seven years of the existence of the biathlon Oscar Russia has received only one award in a not very important nomination (Svetlana Sleptsova as the discovery of the year before last) speaks volumes.

And yet, biathlon remains our main medal hope at the Vancouver Olympics. We will have to worry about him no less (and maybe even more) than for hockey. There is no doubt that we will not be extras in Canada.

But you have to be ready for anything - Ruhpolding demonstrated this in all its glory.