Olympic cross-country skiing champion Veronika Stepanova in her column on , she expressed her belief that true athletes are only happy to win under conditions of strong competition.
Stepanova, as part of the Russian national team, won gold at the 2022 Games in Beijing in the relay. The 21-year-old raced in the final stage. The second place was taken by the Germans, the third – by the Swedes.
“As for the opponents, I imagine that many of them, deep down, are happy about our suspension. And not so much for political reasons, but for material reasons. Skiing is not football, the prizes at the stages of the World Cup play a very important role for almost everyone, with the exception of (Norwegian Johannes) Klebo and the same (Swedish Frida) Karlsson, who have advertising contracts for hundreds of thousands of euros. For the rest, 5,000, 10,000, especially 15,000 euros for a podium is a lot of money, which will suddenly become easier to earn, especially among men, where last year there were five Russians in some top ten races.
But even they understand that it will not be for long, because funding will then fall. Again: Russia is too big a market for everyone. Well, for a real athlete it gives joy to win only in a dispute with the strongest. I thought many times, would I have beaten Heidi Weng in Beijing in the last stage or not? Alas, Heidi didn’t make it because of the covid, but I really want to be on the ski slope, preferably at the last stage of the relay,” wrote Stepanova.
Source : MatchTV
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