Ole Kristian Stoltenberg: Pichler will have a tough job changing things in Russia

Why i’m sharing my opinion at sports.ru? I love Russia, it’s history and greatness amazes me. I have also been asked before to share opinion about biathlon with sports.ru. I see many dedicated fans, with a big heart for this sport. I am humble enough to realize that maybe my opinions are not the right opinions, or maybe not even interesting. But I will try my best to bring up subjects that I hope some of you will like. And that maybe can be a start point for discussions.

What now, Russian biathlon?

If I ask the question, how was the last biathlon season for Russia, I guess many of you would say it was a bad season. And that might be true. The World Cup season was the worst for the last five years, everything was built up to a success at WC in Khanty-Mansiysk. There was a total of 33 medals to catch, but Russia ended up with only 3 silver medals. No gold at home soil was disapointing.

During the previous five years, when many of today’s athletes were active, Russian biathlon always had more podiums and wins than during the last season. In individual races, men and women together, Russia always had from five to ten wins – and a total of 21 to 41 podiums. In the 2010-11 season Russia got two wins and 16 podiums altogether. Compare it to the previous season, when Russia won 10 races and had a total of 24 Top-3 positions. The numbers clearly show us that this was one of the worst seasons ever for Russian biathlon and clearly the worst for the last five years.

I won’t get stuck to the numbers, but my opinion is that the last season was not good enough for Russian biathlon. You have a strong history in this sport and there are very talented athletes in the team actually. You also have a lot of talent on the way as well. I’d like to mention some bright moments you have had. One of them was Anton Shipulin’s win in Antholz. The other one is Ivan Tcherezov. He was number five in the World Cup overall – to achieve that you need a steady and strong season. Actually, during the last five years Ivan was really stable at the top, every year he featured in the Top-7 or even better in the World Cup overall (4-5-7-3-5). He is a good captain for the men’s team. Olga Zaitseva has also had the strongest results in the ladies team in the last five years. I was glad to see that she will start in the new season as well.

At the other end of the scale, I wouldn’t like to focus on negative things in my first blog post, but sometimes a wake up call can be good. We have the right expect more from those who had earlier established themselves at the world’s top.

Why were the results so poor in such an important season for Russia?

First of all, I am not in a position to say clearly what went wrong. I am not inside of the team, I don’t know what is done or not done exactly. I just share my personal opinion and would like the readers to share their ideas as well.

Anyway, the first reason that comes to my mind, is the strategy of «ignoring» the whole season and getting everyone in shape just for the World Championship. From my point of view and from what I could read in the media, it seemed like that was the plan. It seems to me a difficult thing to make, especially as biathlon has become so mentally demanding. It is a sport where you need confidence – and you get confidence from your results.

Physically there is nothing wrong in being in top shape 2 or 3 times per season. If you then fight for the top places you get your confidence and stick to the plan. If you are in a good shape and still stay some steps behind the top of the list, you adjust your training in some periods when you give less priority to the competitions.

What we should be aware is that our beloved sport is getting more and more popular worldwide. That’s good, even if it makes it harder to get the same amount of wins and podiums for our heroes they had before. Today there are more nations with more strong athletes. It also means that the development of the sport is going faster. So you must be hungry and sharpened to stay in the top, because what you did yesterday may be not good enough for tomorrow.

Is every member of the national team in Russia hungry enough? This question requires a clear «yes», otherwise the biathlete should leave the team. They must be dedicated and use every day as an opportunity to become a better athlete.

Training correctly or doing the correct training?

In the wake of the upcoming season Russian biathlon did something new, bringing in a trainer from abroad. From time to time I think that is something every biathlon nations should allow themselves to do. New coach will ask different questions making the old organization think: «Why are we doing it this way and not that way?» Remember, the best way of developing yourself is to both borrow and share experience. That is for the whole team to realize. If you dare to teach you will be paid back with a new knowledge.

Wolfgang Pichler will have a tough job changing things in Russia. I am sorry to say, but being a man from the outside I get spun out figuring out who is responsible for what in Russian biathlon. I am not saying there are too many coaches, but I have a hard time understanding who does what. The only thing I am sure about is that the athletes have to train by themselves. And I wonder, with so many coaches around, does it make the athletes stop thinking?

I believe coaches are the biggest difference in biathlon between Norway and Russia. I think we have many of them too! But I believe they decide much more in Russia as to what should be trained and what should not. In Norway coaches are more like consultants and discussion partners. They figure out together with the athlete what is better or worse to do. They don’t decide, they suggest. The main goal for a trainer in Norway is to make his athlete self-sufficient, for the biathlete it’s to know what works well for himself. I’d say this job never ends, but even if the athete trains alone for many weeks during the year, the trainer trusts the athlete.

Wolfgang Pichler has had a great success with Sweden. He trained the biathlon undedogs to some great results. Let him alone to work and obtain results in Russia too. I think his way of training suits Russia well.

Norway and Russia are both strong biathlon nations with, perhaps, different approaches to training. Next time I will describe in detail how the Norwegians organize their training process.

A brief reminder in the end: there is a difference between training correctly and doing the correct training. If you see what is hidden behind those words, you are halfway to Sochi.

Ole Kristian STOLTENBERG is commentator for Eurosport Norway and contributor for strafferunden.no.