Yana Kirpichenko

Has a new bright star appeared in the Russian national team?

One of the main characters of the women's relay at the World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf was Russian Yana Kirpichenko. The 25-year-old skier ran on the first stage and brilliantly passed her part of the distance, passing the baton in the group of leaders and making a good start for the rest of the team. The Russian national team eventually achieved its best result in 16 years and became the second in the relay. Kirpichenko's progress over the past year is amazing. It looks very much like this pretty girl is ready to break into the elite of ski racing.

The first steps in your career

Yana started skiing at the age of six and was studying in the Altai Territory at the Olympic Reserve School. The first big success came in February 2017, when the Russian became the bronze medalist of the junior World Championship in skiathlon.

Then there was a triumph at the youth championship of Russia, where Kirpichenko won the same skiathlon. The coaches quickly noticed the athlete's talent, and the debut at the adult World Cup was not long in coming. Yana ran her first elite races at the end of 2017.

The performances at the Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk in 2019 turned out to be especially successful. In all personal races, Kirpichenko won bronze medals, and as part of the relay team she took gold.

Tears after the relay race

Yana became really famous at the beginning of March 2020, when she ran as part of the relay at the adult stage of the World Cup in Lahti. The young Russian woman was put the finisher, thus placing a huge responsibility on her.

Yana fought on equal terms with the Swedish world champion Maya Dahlqvist and practically pulled the Russian national team to the bronze medal. Some fractions of a second were not enough to reach the podium.

Immediately after the finish, Kirpichenko clutched her face with her hands and burst into tears, realizing that she was one moment away from the medal. Teammates immediately supported Yana, who really gave her all at the distance.

"I basically understood that it would be very difficult to finish with a Swedish woman, with my sprinting abilities. I tried to make a start early, but it failed. And so, considering that she is the world champion in the sprint, it would be a miracle if the fight at the finish line ended somehow differently," Yana later told in an interview with Sport-Express.

A harsh lesson from Vyalbe

That spring, Yana had an unpleasant period in her career. The president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation, Elena Vyalbe, excluded the athlete from the national team and sent her to self-training. It was believed that Kirpichenko did not live up to expectations, although she was definitely not the worst in terms of results.

And such a psychological move from Vyalbe worked. Yana added, returned to the national team, took fifth place in the mass start at the World Cup in Falun and a high 13th place in the overall standings of the Tour de Ski in 2021, while failing all sprint disciplines.

Kirpichenko was a solid candidate for the classic relay at the World Championships in Oberstdorf. And Yana did not disappoint, doing everything even better than expected. The Russian is now a silver medalist of the World Championship and I want to believe that this is just the beginning.