Egor Sorin, coach of the Russian national cross-country team, spoke in an interview with about his attitude towards the change of citizenship among athletes.
In early July, the International Ski Federation (FIS) extended the suspension of Russians from tournaments under its auspices until the end of the summer season, a decision regarding the winter season has not yet been made. The FIS Council meeting is scheduled for early October.
– It’s even hard to say. There are no such athletes around me, I don’t even know who might have such thoughts. Among those who are in the framework of centralized training in the Russian team, I do not know a single one who could go to another country to play the World Cup.
Everyone has excellent training conditions, they have a good salary by Russian standards. Moreover, they work in wealthy coaching groups. These specialists bring their athletes to the right level. That is, they have everything in Russia. The stronger our skier, the better the conditions created for him.
And what then guides the athlete through the transition? For collections, I don’t see the logic here at all. For the pleasure of performing at KM? Ok, where are you going to train there? Who are you going to prepare with? At one point, I myself changed to play for Belarus, but I did it out of desperation, because nothing shone for me in Russia. I didn’t have a chance to qualify for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, I didn’t qualify for the national team. That is, I left the team by plane, I trained for two years alone at the expense of the region, but I wanted to go to the Olympics. Besides, it was already almost the end of a career. And I was offered to extend my sporting life in Belarus. However, it didn’t work. I didn’t know that I would have to give up my Russian passport, so I didn’t change.
However, it was relevant to me at the time. Maybe for those who aren’t in the national team and definitely won’t make it, it makes sense. But in general, in cross-country skiing, these transitions are even difficult to imagine now. Before all the February events, on the contrary, there were a lot of people who wanted to train with the Russians, in our system, with our coaches. In other sports, sports citizenship is sometimes modified in favor of better training conditions. But skiing in Russia has all the conditions. What’s the point? Sorin told .
Source : MatchTV
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