Translated material
End "Yo-Biathlon"
The whole sport agency spread the message that the current president of the Russian Biathlon Union Mikhail Prokhorov would not exhibit his candidacy in the election of the new head of the SBR, which will be held on May 20 in Moscow during the organization’s report and election conference.
In addition to Prokhorov, the executive director of the SBR Sergey Kushchenko, as well as the former long-term president of the SBR, 4-time Olympic champion Alexander Tikhonov , does not intend to apply for a post. It was his on October 27, 2008 and replaced Prokhorov as president of the SBR. Then Prokhorov’s arrival was perceived as a whole positively, with great hopes - first of all, hopes for the financial well -being of Biathlon. Of course, it was understood that the billionaire and oligarch Prokhorov will invest some considerable money in the development of the biathlon, after which his obligatory heyday will follow.
At the Olympic Games, the situation with gold medals looks a little better: there are 3 of them in total 3. Two in Vancouver, another in Sochi. Moreover, in 2010, the Russian team won only 3 gold medals, so that two biathlon “gold” could be considered as a certain success of the Prokhorov team. True, there were 10 medals in the Biathlon Olympic program, but then the biathlonists were not paid to this relative failure. In Sochi, Russia in the overall standings won 13 medals, and biathletes won only one “gold” of 11 possible. And this could no longer be silent - after all, on the eve of the games in Sochi, Prokhorov publicly promised that his wards would win at least two higher Olympic awards - otherwise he would resign.
In addition, during the leadership of Prokhorov, the Russian biathlon shook two very loud doping scandals. On the eve of the World Cup , three athletes of the Russian national team were convicted of the use of forbidden drugs: Ekaterina Yuryeva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Yaroshenko. All three were removed from participation in competitions. And literally before the start of the Olympiad in Sochi , two more Russian biathletes were exposed - all the same Ekaterina Yuryeva and Irina Starykh, on whom the coaches faced certain hopes before the games.
So, there is little gold medals for the reporting period, the doping is not eradicated. One of Prokhorov’s most high -profile personnel decisions - the coming to the post of head coach of the Russian national team of the German specialist Wolfgang Pihler - was perhaps the most loud failure of the “biathlon oligarch”. In any case, the bright and, more importantly, the pichler could not achieve stable results.
Mikhail Prokhorov himself did not comment on his prospects in the SBR. To the direct question of the correspondent of the whole sport agency, he replied: “You will find out everything on May 20, when the report-election conference passes. We will have everything in accordance with the Charter of the SBR and Russian legislation. Now our task is to form the coaching headquarters of the Russian national team. We must complete this process until the end of April.”
It is possible to discuss for a long time whether in principle, the direction, which, with the advent of Prokhorov in Biathlon, many seemed almost the only possible? The project "Prokhorov in Biathlon" in 2008 was considered many for Prokhorov a forced, such a socially useful "tribute". That is, if you appoint the head of the sports federation of the oligarch for the post of the head of the sports federation, the corresponding sport is awaited by immediate prosperity, not only financial, but also sports. It turned out that this method does not guarantee anything, although he brought the benefits of Prokhor to Russian biathlon.
Here is what one of the most famous biathletes of the Russian national team Olga Zaitsev says about this: “You can thank him and ask him to stay, go. You can ask him to stay. Of course, there is help - the development of schools in the regions, the purchase of an inventory. This is a lot of help on his part. He did everything well. We have a desire, let him have a desire, then let him go, why not. All this.”
But the opinion of another two -time Olympic champion Viktor Mamatov : “If Prokhorov actually leaves his position, then the Russian biathlon will lose a lot. Because he raised many centers to their feet, providing them with rifles, skis, sticks, cartridges and targets. And in some centers they saw high -quality skis and modern rifles. If it leaves, we leaves, we leaves, we leave. We will lose a lot, because the state has not yet reached the point that Biathlon should be seriously developed in centers, and not just at the expense of the regions. ”
This point of view is understandable. She was also called "Yo-Biathlon." The oligarch came, to put it mildly, not very versed in the intricacies of this sport. But, carried away by the leadership, he made not the most correct managerial decisions. So biathletes want to financing to “Prokhorovsky”, and the leadership-some other, more professional, or something. After all, Prokhorov brought with him as the “right hand” of Sergei Kushchenko, a big specialist ... in basketball. Yes, and Prokhorov himself was and remains enthusiastic about his basketball project: in 2009 he bought the New Jersey Nets NBA club, and now the team, renamed Brooklyn Nets, entered the NBA playoffs. In the world of sports management, perhaps there is no much difference between biathlon and basketball. But from the outside all the time I recall the words from the Krylov fable "Pike and Cat":
"Trouble, since the pies will start the stove for the shoemaker,
And the boots are accumulated a cake. "
But we still do not really remember the Yo-Mobil project ...
Who will replace Prokhorov as the head of the SBR. The press is a number of names, among which are two two -time Olympic champion. This is a former member of the board of the SBR, a former deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Svetlana Ishmuratova and the current member of the board of the SBR, president of the Biathlon Federation of St. Petersburg Dmitry Vasiliev. The candidacy of the Director of the Center for Sports Training of the national teams of Russia Alexander Kravtsov is also mentioned.
Kushchenko, as already mentioned, will not go to the SBR, since he will run for the presidency of the International Biathlon Union. On March 3, the SBR leadership unanimously decided to delegate Kushchenko as president IBU. The election of the head of this very influential international organization will be held in September. But why it will not participate in the elections of the head of the SBR, Alexander Tikhonov, who headed the Union before the coming of Mikhail Prokhorov for 12 years, is not very clear. After all, it was Tikhonov who acted as the main critic of the activities of Prokhorov and Kushchenko, accusing them of worsening the results of athletes of the national team, of the wrong, in his opinion, appointments at the coaching staff and in other incorrect managerial decisions. Perhaps the great athlete in the past simply does not want to again "enter the same river."
Be that as it may, the Russian biathlon is now at the crossroads, and the greatness in it remains only on one of the federal television channels. About this, going in hysterical screams, is repeating the same telecumentist who recently received a spit from a three -time world champion ...