There are significant replacements in the Russian biathlon team: for the first time in many years, Evgeny Garanichev (75th and 113th in the Ostersund races) and Matvey Eliseev (30th and 78th) were transferred to the reserve from the World Cup.
It is customary to generalize their cases, although this is more inertia: experienced racers perform significantly below their capabilities and, what's more, they are a little annoying – with childish mistakes, harsh remarks or, conversely, the absence of any replicas.
In fact, the situations are different: Garanichev is almost 34, he has been regressing for a long time and does not pull at the World Cup (sometimes he does not pull to the comical). But the decline of the 28-year-old Eliseev is not funny: he entered the season as the confident third number of the national team, a strong relay runner, until recently a winner of stages in personal races.
How did everything fall apart and what does the isotonic have to do with it?
1. It is better to start with the version of Matthew himself after 78th place in the sprint, with 101st speed: "I should take a break - not for one day, not for one race. There was a moment that I didn't want to mention, but it was still there: for 1.5 months I couldn't train in the summer for health reasons.
I missed two training camps in Rybinsk with Kaminsky – I just couldn't physically work for more than an hour, the biochemistry was terrible. Most likely, the isotonic that was given to us in the team did not fit. It was made of soluble tablets – accordingly, the composition is defective. It was a cumulative effect, and by the end of the collection I just folded."
Matvey was about to say something about the liver, but Match TV correspondent Dmitry Zanin interrupted him.
Coach Yuri Kaminsky retorted in absentia: "This is the first time I've heard about the isotonic story. I can't remember what happened at the gathering in Rybinsk. Probably, he confused it with the collection in Toksovo. He couldn't train there because he had too much at the first training camp in Belmeken (Bulgaria). When they stopped him, he didn't want to, he said that everything was fine.
But in September, when tested in the laboratory, he showed decent results, according to some indicators, his best. It is not necessary to transfer from a sick head to a healthy one."
And later he added: "These pressed tablets were no different from powder, except that soda was added to them to dissolve faster – that's all."
2. Let's first understand, could an isotonic dump an athlete for 1.5 months? We asked Eliseev to add at least a little:
"For the first training camp in Bulgaria, we were brought isotonic from soluble tablets. We were warned that there would be such an option. Then it's my fault that I didn't take care… As a matter of fact, I didn't know how my body could react. But I didn't bother to get myself an ordinary drink, which I was used to.
We had quite extensive training sessions, and at the end of the training camp, biochemistry just dropped catastrophically and was kept in poor condition for 1.5 months. An osteopath with whom I have been working for a long time helped. Before that, I could not train normally: an hour – and a complete shutdown of the body.
– What exactly is the isotonic on tablets worse than usual?
– The question is rather to the chemists. The energy value is different – perhaps there was not enough energy in training, because they were 5-6 hours each. And in general, the composition is slightly different. And you never know what the body is responding to inadequately.
I am very sorry that the company Voronin Nutrition, with which I cooperate, has not yet managed to produce its isotonic by that time."
We contacted Yuri Klyushenkov, the head of the company "Sport-Express", engaged in the distribution of sports nutrition in Russia and found out whether the realistic version of Matthew is similar.
"Isotonic is essentially a set of salts and minerals. Sugar is often added – this is not a problem for cyclical sports, and it is very difficult to drink such drinks without sugar. It is needed to replenish the water balance due to salt, so that this water lingers in the body; as well as those useful minerals that leave the body during training. For bone health, for rapid recovery.
Isotonic powder is a highly soluble product. If an athlete used a tablet version, which is now in fashion, then I will say this: it is difficult to fit the necessary dosage into a tablet. Although this is a convenient form: I threw a tablet, dissolved it, there is no need to carry a jar and bags.
Powders are a more standard story. In addition, something is probably added to the tablet that helps it dissolve faster. In this case, after taking isotonic, everything may not be well with the stomach, for example, lime deposits form on the walls. I speak from my own experience – so maybe the athlete did not go. But then why continue to use if the stomach reacted? To say something more precisely, you need to look specifically, not from the outside.
But to fly out for 1.5 months because of isotonics - well, I don't know. In the isotonics itself there is nothing but salt, sugar and minerals. We use all this in our food every day, so the isotonic cannot negatively affect a person."
It seems that there is no truth to be found in this story. On the one hand, the athlete understands his condition best of all: if he folded after several weeks of taking it, then it is quite normal to associate the crisis with a new drink.
On the other hand, the counterarguments from Kaminsky and Klyushenkov are also weighty. At least we know that in September the tests showed that Matvey was fine, which means that the isotonic problem (if there was one) was solved.
3. Now Eliseev is out of the national team on business, there is nothing to sympathize with.
But it's also strange to forget that just two years ago – that is, the last time Matvey was preparing with the team in a normal mode – he had a good season:
• in three of the first four sprints, he finished in the top 4. A race in which it is impossible to climb high if there is not enough speed;
• the first podium, and in general – some of the best results in my career;
• 15th place in the overall standings. For comparison, none of the team finished higher last season.
Yes, two years ago Eliseev gave plus or minus the same progress as Eduard Latypov last season. Then the team was coached by Sergey Belozerov, Maxim Maksimov, plus Albina Akhatova was connected to the shooting part – and she seriously influenced Matvey.
4. Eliseev's weakness has long been known: the last circle. In fact, this weakness is common to the team (few of our people know how to add or at least not lose much in the final); it's just that Matvey looks more convex because of his texture and manner of movement. And it's not that he doesn't work out enough in training. His problem was perfectly explained by Belozerov:
"Muscularly, Matvey is no less talented than Loginov, but he is, as it were, on the opposite side from Sasha.
Loginov is an aerobic, he is naturally given good opportunities for lactate utilization. Let's just say he's more suited to our sport. Matvey has high coordination abilities, he has a high anaerobic potential – which may not be so important for us. Disposal capabilities are limited, but this is subject to training.
Competitions are not recreational activities, but stress and destruction for the body. And with Matvey, it happens quickly. Therefore, it must be prepared point-by-point."
Belozerov's words are directly confirmed by the result: even in a strong season, Eliseev slipped from week to week, and he looked the sharpest after pauses – coming out fresh. The problem of the last lap will not disappear, but it can be minimized and played with tactically – at least selectively remove Eliseev from races and stages.
5. Finally, there is a huge reserve – in the very attitude of Matthew to the case and others.
Over the past 3-4 years, he has been coached by anyone: Khovantsev with Istomin, Belozerov with Akhmatova and Maximov, a certain personal trainer, Kaminsky, since September, Bashkirov. This is such a vinaigrette of ideas and methods that it is no longer clear: what kind of work has had an effect, and where to look for a weak link? And so even within this year: was Matvey cut down by an isotonic, or was it excessive zeal, or a change of coach?
Yeliseyev left Kaminsky in the summer after a quarrel at the training camp – that's how it was, if it was super short: on the weekend, the biathlete left for rafting on the river, lost altitude, was not ready for training the next day, but went to it in spite of the coach.
Conflict at the gathering
The next time Eliseev went to the gathering with Yuri Kaminsky's group in September. There was a conflict between him and the coach at the Seminsky Pass, as a result of which Matvey said that he would no longer train with Yuri Mikhailovich. He went to that training camp in excellent condition by all indicators, and arrived in zero.
The athlete and the coach decided not to bring the details to the public, and there is hardly half the truth in what was published. We can only add that Matvey was poisoned at the gathering, which also could not but affect.
Kaminsky stressed that he considers Eliseev, if not the most, then one of the most gifted athletes of the Russian national team, whose potential is huge, and is ready to work with him as part of the national team at the World Cup.
Yeliseyev, with the permission of the President of the SBR Viktor Maygurov, joined the group of Sergei Bashkirov, but failed to gain combat form. At the end of last season, he was included in the main squad without selection, but he turned out to be uncompetitive in the World Cup races. The same thing happened in the IBU Cup races. To prevent the same thing from happening at the Izhevsk Rifle and the Russian Cup, Eliseev decided to suspend his career until March.
He voluntarily withdrew from the 2022 Olympics, although in Pyeongchang he was one of two biathletes of the men's team admitted to the Games. The other was Anton Babikov.
I haven't run over yet"
"I haven't run over yet and I want to return to the highest level. But now I need to take care of my health. To begin with, I will undergo an examination in Moscow, I will start from its results. I will prepare for the Russian Championship. I plan to do it closer to home, perhaps I will go to a gathering in undisturbed places like Rybinsk," Eliseev said in an official press release of the Russian Biathlon Union.
In big sports, one missed season in the prime of life — and Eliseev is only 28 years old — can be very expensive.
Who is to blame for what happened? Someone will think that Eliseev behaved like a boy who has neither experience nor wisdom, who listened to everyone, including his wife, a psychologist, but did not listen to the coach. Someone will call Matvey a storyteller or a dolt, prone to endlessly looking for excuses. The athlete himself will think quite differently. Everyone has their own truth.
But the fact is that in the Olympic season, the Russian national team was left without a gifted athlete, who is not inferior in his potential to either Eduard Latypov or Alexander Loginov.
