Head coach of the Russian women’s biathlon team Mikhail Shachilov told the “Championship” that he had previously regularly given gifts to foreign biathletes and coaches in order to establish communication between the teams.
– I’m not sure that world biathlon will lose something due to the absence of Russia. Of course, we just established communication, the athletes began to communicate. The task was to make the people of gloomy Russia sociable, so that our athletes and coaches could talk to others.
Yes, we weren’t very well received for so many years, but we found a common language, I even made gifts for all the coaches at Christmas at the shooting range: they gave spoons, forks , matryoshka dolls (smiles). And everyone got into it one way or another. The same Swedes – there were no questions, somehow they fixed everything. The same Samuelsson congratulated the others. Of course, they were surprised, but then they got used to the fact that we are the same and open to dialogue.
In Beijing, the Ukrainians and we lived as one team. Yes, we competed, but in life we are friends and buddies. I can’t say a single Ukrainian is a bad person. If we enter international competitions again, I don’t think anyone will turn away from us,” Shashilov said.
Earlier, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) suspended Russian athletes from tournaments under its auspices due to the situation in Ukraine.
Championship
Source : MatchTV
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