The PyeongChang Olympics are less than a year away, and Russian biathlon is full of unanswered questions. How did the Olympic champion of Sochi-2014 Dmitry Malyshko from St. Petersburg come to life in the tail of the first hundred of the World Cup? Where do the juniors disappear, who tore apart the Germans and Norwegians in the teenage races? What happens to a biathlete who is expelled from the national team? "Sport Day by Day" is looking for answers with Dmitry Vasiliev, two-time Olympic champion and head of the St. Petersburg biathlon federation.
Bitter gold
- What is your assessment of the season for the Russian team?
- It's great that there is a gold medal of the World Championship (in the men's relay. - "Sport Day by Day"), but we all understand that this medal is bitter. The instability of the results is sad. The failure in shooting, which manifested itself during the season, is especially alarming. To count on something in the Olympic season, confident shooting is a must.
- Who shoots well, he does not run - like Maxim Tsvetkov.
- Not that Maxim does not run at all. He had a couple good starts in the World Cup. He lacks stability. Coaches must figure out why Maxim Tsvetkov and Anton Babikov gave up at the World Championships. Although they ran the relay well. Suddenly they won.
Petersburger Ekaterina Yurlova, after winning the 2015 World Cup, got married, gave birth to a daughter, and is now returning to the Russian team. Can she perform in PyeongChang?
- Undoubtedly. She is preparing very seriously for the Russian Championship, after which she expects to get into the national team. If he hits, he will prepare for a trip to the Olympic Games.
Dmitry Malyshko until recently was the only representative of St. Petersburg in the Russian team. Will he leave the national team after a career-worst 94th place in the sprint at the last World Cup?
- The fate of Malyshko only God knows for sure, we can only guess. The season didn't go well for him. Since the head of the RRF, Alexander Kravtsov, said that Dmitry was transferred to self-training, then it will be so. Who keeps people with such results in the national team? It's a pity, of course... Malyshko has a good potential, but it is not realized.
The sports committee understands everything
- Who will finance Malyshko for self-training?
The city won't leave him. The St. Petersburg Federation will do everything so that Dmitry is not left without funds for training. But that's not the point. Of course, we will help him. First of all, Malyshko himself must want to do something. He needs to decide how he intends to train, where and with whom.
- So, all the problems of Malyshko are in himself?
- Exactly. He is too distracted by all sorts of external factors. He needs to compare himself as a sample of the 2013/14 season with the current state. If Dmitry analyzes, understands what is happening, he will be able to change for the better.
- What exactly distracts Dmitry from racing?
- First of all - the burden Olympic champion and the close attention of a variety of people. Someone knows how to abstract and train in the same rhythm, while someone is exchanged for all sorts of actions and loses shape. Another family. As a rule, leaving headlong into family worries does not change the athlete for the better.
If not a single St. Petersburg biathlete gets into the Russian team and does not compete at the Olympics, does this threaten the city federation with something?
- I do not think that this will greatly affect the financing or otherwise hit us. The management of city Sports committee acts very reasonably. It perfectly understands that places in the national team are a fickle business. Today city pupils brought Olympic gold, and tomorrow they disappeared from the team. The same Malyshko is the clearest example. A year or two before the 2014 Olympics, they did not seriously talk about him, but in Sochi he won gold medal. I doubt that we will suffer greatly if there are no Petersburgers left in the Russian team.
Too professional attitude
You couldn't help but hear the talk that the nervous situation in the national team and the mistakes in the selection of the squad are the result of undercover games of coaches and regional federations. They say that well-connected specialists push their own, while talented but defenseless ones, like Ulyana Kaisheva, are pushed away from the national team.
- I don't know anything about such facts. I know one thing: athletes are selected for the national team by sports principle. In the biathlon team, the principle is respected. In any case, I have no questions on this topic.
- Then what happens to Russian juniors, and especially juniors, who win everything in the world at their age, and then cannot break into the adult team?
- Our coaches are chasing rapid achievements in adolescence, which provide them with increased salaries, a prosperous life, titles and other preferences. There is a performance ratio that increases the coaching salary depending on the results of the wards. And it's easy to get them. Squeeze all the juice out of an athlete and win the World Youth Championship - you don’t need a lot of mind. Moreover, Western coaches do not take seriously the outcomes of children's tournaments and do not cling to them. And we are the opposite. Too professional attitude to children's sports.
- We ourselves are ruining our juniors.
- Children's race mows down a resource Russian biathlon. The same thing happens in other species. This is a global, perhaps the most serious problem Russian sports. Therefore, we have no one to put in the women's biathlon team. Let's take the same Ulyana Kaisheva. In juniors, she brought huge margins to the current superstar, Germany's Laura Dahlmeier. Dahlmeier is now a seven-time world champion at 23! And Kaisheva...
- Still making it to the national team.
- Yes. German coaches they competently brought Dahlmeier to the “base”, and we did everything exactly the opposite, concentrating on intermediate results that no one needed. This is our mistake.
|Numbers
16 Russian biathletes go to close the season in Holmenkollen. The coaches of our national team took full advantage of the clause of the regulations, which allows them to bring an expanded squad to the last stage of the World Cup due to successful performances in the IBU Cup. The full application of the Russian team is as follows. Men: Anton Shipulin, Evgeny Garanichev, Anton Babikov, Maxim Tsvetkov, Alexander Loginov, Matvey Eliseev, Igor Malinovsky, Alexey Volkov. Women: Irina Starykh, Tatyana Akimova, Irina Uslugina, Ekaterina Shumilova, Daria Virolainen, Valeria Vasnetsova, Victoria Slivko, Ekaterina Moshkova.
The childhood of Dmitry Malyshko
Dima was born in Sosnovy Bor. It is located in the Leningrad region and is known for its strong biathlon school. The boy was enrolled in the biathlon section by his father when he was in the second grade. Before that, he did not go to any circles and did nothing seriously. Biathlon was the first sport that the boy took up with all his dedication.Naturally, in the summer he played football or basketball with the guys, rode a bicycle. But all this was just to keep fit. He fell in love with biathlon almost immediately, although shooting was the first thing he liked, later the boy got used to it and ski training.
Yuri Parfenov - the first coach of the athlete. He was Dmitry's mentor until he was out of junior age.
Starting in 2008, Dmitry Kucherov became the coach of the athlete, who drew attention to the promising guy when he received the “bronze” at Winter Spartakiad in Saransk. The young biathlete moved to St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, in the same year, the biathlon federation had financial difficulties. At this time, Dmitry decided to leave the sport. He got a job in a bank. I didn’t go to training, I just ran to keep fit.
The athlete himself explains that departure by the fact that he simply did not see his prospects in biathlon, it seemed that he was just going with the flow. There was no feeling that anyone believed in him. In addition, I wanted stability, I had to provide for myself. At that moment he was called to the bank, and he went. Now Dima says that he is very glad that he was dissuaded then, he returned to the sport.
Dmitry Malyshko in the program "Big Sport"
The personal trainer was then very concerned about the departure of a young talented athlete. He turned to Anatoly Alyabyev for help. He invited Dima for a conversation and offered to return to sports on the condition that the federation finds an opportunity to provide financial assistance to the athlete. The amount was small, but Malyshko immediately agreed and began to study again.
The beginning of Dmitry Malyshko's sports career, the path to biathlon
The athlete's debut in adult competitions took place in the 2009/2010 season. Gradually getting used to the level of competition, the biathlete was able to help the team at the end of the season in winning the silver medal in the European Championship relay.After a successful season, the following year, Malyshko was included in the main team, but in the fall he was transferred to the youth team. In November, Dima underwent a medical examination, which showed the need for heart surgery, which was done in January 2011. The operation could not have been done, but in this case the athlete would not have been allowed to participate in the national team.
In February, training began again, and already in April, the talented biathlete came second in the championship in Uvat. The first was Vanya Cherezov.
Legkov, Shipulin and Malyshko on a well-deserved rest-2013
Preparing for the 2011\2012 season, Dmitry showed good results. Starting the season in the IBU Cup, he won his first international sprint gold medal in his first race.
In December 2011, Dmitry Malyshko made his debut at the World Cup and he got into the top ten, and in the men's relay he took second place.
Thanks to such a successful season, the athlete was selected for the World Cup. But unfortunately, good results Dima did not achieve this championship.
Dmitry Malyshko now
Malyshko is a "speedy" biathlete. He's much better at running. In terms of speed on KM, he often entered the top ten. But shooting fails him, so it is difficult for an athlete to fight for prizes. But his shooting statistics for recent months says that he is working on this shortcoming.The 2012/2013 season can be called brilliant. Malyshko has two "silver" and two "gold" in personal races and prizes in relay races.
Currently, the athlete is training, preparing for the Winter Olympics, hoping to show good results. He devotes a lot of time to shooting, trying to improve his performance.
Personal life of Dmitry Malyshko
Dima's main hobby is cars. He is passionate about Formula 1, loves his Audi and fast driving. As the biathlete said, if it were not for sports, he would probably ride a motorcycle. 
Malyshko is a positive and very sociable person. His element is company and communication. His best friends are childhood friends. Good friendly relations also developed with the guys from the national team, but most of all he got along with Lapshin and Shipulin. Dima is an active Internet user and an avid music lover.
Malyshko studies at the University of Service and Economics in St. Petersburg. There are also plans for legal education. The athlete understands that when he leaves professional sports, he will have to look for work and realize himself in everyday life.
Being at training camps or competitions for a long time, Dima really misses his home environment, close people and friends. It happens that he is absent from home for five months. Dmitry loves to relax with friends. Sometimes he travels south.
Dima does not have a girlfriend yet, but there is one with whom he wants to start a relationship. It is important for him that she possesses not only positive feminine qualities, but also understands him, his way of life and work, and has a sense of humor.
Biography of Dmitry Malyshko
Dmitry Malyshko was born in the Leningrad region on March 19, 1987. During his short career, the athlete managed to win Olympic gold, take second place in the European Championship in 2010, and dozens of other awards.
Already at the age of eight, in his native Sosnovy Bor, Dmitry began to engage in a sport that became Malyshko's real profession - biathlon. It would seem that young athlete everything worked out and he will forever be professional athlete, however, in 2008, Dmitry made an unexpected decision - he left the sport and became a bank employee. Fortunately, the career of a bank employee did not last long.
Sports career of Dmitry Malyshko
Real debut in professional sports Dmitry Malyshko happened in 2005. Then the biathlete took part in the world championship among young men. The debut was not the best, but it was a good start. Then in the race, the novice athlete took only twenty-ninth place. Despite not the best start, already in the next season at the Continental Cup, the athlete performed with dignity and became a silver medalist.
After that, there was another pause in the competition. Probably, Dmitry Malyshko until the last moment made a difficult choice - sports or the usual career of a bank office worker.
Out of a thousand athletes, only a few become champions, while the rest of their lives are forced to look for sponsors and opportunities in order to continue training. In addition, it is worth noting that biathlon is not the cheapest sport. In order to train, you need to have expensive equipment, conditions for skiing. In any case, Malyshko made the right choice.
On this moment his name will forever remain in the history of Russian and world sports. Olympic champion is one of the best biathletes conquered the highest sports Olympus in the world.
In 2010, the athlete returned to the sport. From the main national team, he was transferred to the youth team due to the fact that it was difficult for him to cope with the most difficult training of the national team. Then it became known that the athlete needed a complex heart operation. Having done it, after a few months in 2011, Dmitry again transgresses to difficult workouts and competitions.
At the Russian championship, he took an honorable second place and thus proved to himself and his coaches that he is able to win and fight for his place among the world's best biathletes. The constant struggle and training gave their long-awaited result.
Having overcome all difficulties and illnesses, Malyshko's star rose. In 2014, Dmitry Malyshko became the owner of the Olympic "gold" in the relay. It is worth noting that these Olympic Games were held in the homeland of the athlete - in Russia.
At the moment, the biathlete has reached the peak of sports, has become the best among the best, the pride of his country. In the same year, the athlete received the honorary title of Honored Master of Sports of Russia. Malyshko also received the Order of Friendship.
Personal life of Dmitry Malyshko. Dmitry Malyshko and Ekaterina Tikhonova
In addition to a successful sports career, Malyshko became no less successful in his personal life.
Despite thousands of fans around the world, Dmitry remains faithful to his bride Katya Tikhonova.
In 2015, the young couple had a son, Philip.
The biathlete received a higher economic education at one of the universities of St. Petersburg. After the end of his sports career, in case Dmitry does not want to work as a coach, he can take his place in one of the banks in Russia. However, no matter what the future fate of the famous Russian will be, thousands of biathlon fans around the world will forever remember him as one of the best athletes in the world.
The wedding took place near St. Petersburg, in Pavlovsk - on May 14th. Malyshko and his wife Ekaterina Tikhonova have known each other since childhood, in 2015 their son Philip was born.
A photo from the wedding was published on her Instagram page by one of the guests - Luiza Shipulina, the wife of another biathlete of the Russian national team Anton Shipulin.
Malyshko last season at the stages of the Biathlon World Cup won gold in the relay at the stages in Hochfilzen and Antholz.
Castle "Bip" in Pavlovsk for two centuries of its history, for sure, has seen many celebrations. So this weekend, he happened to become a platform for a chic holiday - the wedding of Olympic biathlon champion Dmitry Malyshko and his longtime companion Ekaterina Tikhonova.
Everything was like in a fairy tale. A warm spring day, an arch entwined with snow-white flowers, figurines of cupids, a bride in a snow-white dress beaming with joy, and a no less happy groom. The official ceremony took place on fresh air. A touching note was added by the one-year-old son of the couple, Philip.
The kid himself carried rings for mom and dad to the altar, - Yulia Sinyanskaya, director of the wedding agency Art Jam, who organized the celebration, told Komsomolskaya Pravda. - By the way, wedding accessories for Dmitry and Catherine were made by special order at the Mint of St. Petersburg.
The wedding went on until late at night. And it turned out not only beautiful, but also incredibly sincere. Neither Western stars nor hundreds of guests were invited, as is often the case with stars. Celebrated in a narrow circle with family and friends. Guests counted 50-60 people. Among them is an old friend of the groom in the Russian national team Anton Shipulin. Which, by the way, has recently become a family man himself. He got married last June and became a father in December.
Preparations for the wedding began in September. Of course, Katya took a more active part. But when Dima had a free minute, he also tried to delve into the process, - says Yulia.
In the first wedding dance, the young people swirled to the touching song of Whitney Houston "I have nothing". “I will never ask for more than you can give, And what you can do for me. I'm not trying to look too far ahead. I don’t want to go where you can’t go with me ... I have nothing without you, ”her lines are translated in this way.
We have this song performed by the finalist of the show "Voice" Yana Bashkireva. The toastmaster was NTV presenter Mikhail Gindelev. They also called the illusionist Ilya Larionov. Of the stars, perhaps, everything, - says Yulia.
The next morning, Katya woke up by herself. happy woman in the world.
“To say that I am happy is to say nothing! I am grateful to all our friends who were able to come. Thank you for sharing our little happiness with us, ”she wrote on her Instagram page.
29-year-old Dmitry Malyshko, a native of Sosnovy Bor, has already managed to take the “silver” of the European Championship (2010), the Olympic “gold” in Sochi, and dozens of other awards during his brilliant sports career. It is interesting that Malyshko is not fixated on one thing: he managed to get a higher economic education and even work in a bank.
But it was biathlon that “introduced” Malyshko to his future wife. Ekaterina Tikhonova was also seriously engaged in cross-country skiing and shooting, she became a master. But then I decided to leave this difficult craft.
Athletes together not the first year. It seems that they try to spend as much time together as possible. They relax together, go skiing, go to visit friends. Katya affectionately call Dima "the most important person in life".
Last year, the couple had a son, Philip. Ekaterina gave birth to a baby while his dad was stubbornly going to the “bronze” mass start in Oberhof. The boy was a real hero - with a height of 58 centimeters, he weighed more than four and a half kilograms!
Russian biathlete, Honored Master of Sports of Russia. Silver medalist European Biathlon Relay Championship 2010, three-time winner of the World Cup stage in Oberhof in January 2013.
Dmitry began playing sports in his hometown of Sosnovy Bor, which is known for its strong biathlon school. At the age of 8, his parents sent Dima to this particular sport. At first he liked shooting, but later he got used to skiing and realized that biathlon was his sport. His first coach was Yuri Vasilyevich Parfenov, who worked with Dmitry until he left the junior age.
Since 2008 his personal trainer is Dmitry Kucherov, who noticed Malyshko at the 1st Winter Youth Spartakiad in Saransk, where Dmitry won bronze in the sprint. Then in 2008, due to problems with financing the biathlon federation in St. Petersburg, Dmitry decided to leave the sport. He quit training, got a job in a bank. Kucherov and Vasiliev helped to settle financial issues, and Dmitry returned to biathlon.
Outside of sports, he is a 3rd year student at St. Petersburg State University of Service and Economics. In life, Dmitry's main hobby is cars. He likes good and fast cars. He says that if he hadn't been involved in biathlon, he would have raced on a motorcycle. As a fan, he is interested in motorsport: rally, Formula 1.
Sports career
Junior achievements
Dmitry made his debut at the junior international competitions in 2005, taking part in the World Championship among juniors under 19 years old. The coaching staff entrusted the native of Sosnovy Bor to run three personal races, in which he was able to finish in the Top 10 twice: in the individual race - 8th place and in the sprint - 10th place, and in the pursuit race Dmitry takes only 29th place. The next two seasons are held at domestic competitions, and only in the 2007/08 season Malyshko is again entrusted with the right to play for the Russian national team - this time at the Junior Continental Cup. Five races at the Scandinavian stages bring one podium finish - in second place in sprint race on stage in Sweden.
Season 2009-2010. Debut in adult competitions
IBU Cup
After several years of pause, Dmitry returns to international starts in the 2009/10 season. At the stage of the Continental Cup in the same Sweden, Malyshko makes his debut at adult starts. The Russian is gradually getting used to the level of competition and at the end of the season he helps the national team to win a silver medal in the relay race at the European Championship. In total, he spent 9 races out of 17 during the season, and in overall standings IBU Cup with 162 points took 29th place.
Season 2010-2011
After the 2009-2010 season, he joined the national team to prepare for the World Cup, but in the fall he was first transferred from the main team to youth team, so according to coaching staff it was hard for him to bear training program main team. In November, after a medical examination, he was offered a heart operation, without which further training was prohibited. In January 2011, Dmitry underwent the necessary operation, and in February he began training. Two months after the operation, Dmitry performed at the Russian Championship. He took second place in the sprint, shooting to zero and losing 3 seconds to Ivan Cherezov, and in the pursuit race he took 6th place with 5 misses and a gap of 1 minute 26 seconds. And in the summer of 2011, by the decision of the coaches, Dmitry is recovering from the training camp with the second national team of Russia.
Season 2011-2012
IBU Cup
At the selection for the World Cup and the IBU Cup, Dmitry won the mass start, but according to the decision of the coaches, he went to the first stage of the IBU Cup in Hydre, which was moved to Östersund due to insufficient snow. And in the first race, the sprint, Dmitry confirmed that his victory in the mass start at the selection was not accidental. He won the sprint with 1 penalty and a 30 second advantage over Kazakh biathlete Alexander Trifonov. The next day in the sprint, he finished 8th with 2 penalties, 50 seconds behind Yakov Fak. Thanks to successful performances at the IBU Cup, the coaches decided to transfer Dmitry Malyshko to the main team for the World Cup.
world Cup
At the second stage of the 2011/12 World Cup, he was trusted to run a race in this competition for the first time. The first experience turns out to be more than successful - Malyshko finishes tenth in the sprint race, 21st in the pursuit race. Before the men's relay race, the coaches thought for a long time who to entrust the responsible fourth stage to: Dmitry Malyshko or Timofey Lapshin? The choice fell on Malyshko. Thanks to almost perfect shooting, he helps the Russian team (Shipulin, Makoveev, Ustyugov, Malyshko) take second place in the classic relay. In the future, Dmitry is fixed in the composition national team in the World Cup and more than once finishes in the top ten in individual races. In mid-February, at the World Cup in Finland, he finishes on the podium for the first time, finishing third in the pursuit. At the World Championships in Ruhpolding there was a decline in results. Only 35th in the individual with 4 misses and 3m 33s behind Jakov Fak, 6th in the men's relay and 5th in the mixed. On last step World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, he took 11th place in the sprint with 1 miss, in the pursuit race, forcing Emil Hegle Svendsen to fight for third place in the last meters of the distance, but could not support the opponent's finishing spurt, taking 4th place in the race. In the last race of the season, the mass start, he finished 6th. In the course of that season, the Russian showed himself well in all contact races, finishing 15th in the pursuit race standings and becoming seventh in the race standings from the general start. In the overall standings of the World Cup, he took 19th place with 498 points. By decision of the coaches, he was preparing with the main Russian team for the 2012-2013 season.
Season 2012-2013
world Cup
At the selection for the World Cup and the IBU Cup, Dmitry took 3rd place in the control mass start, losing only to Alexei Volkov and Evgeny Ustyugov, and was selected for the main Russian team for the December stages of the World Cup. By decision of the coaches, he became the first reserve among men in mixed relay at the first stage of the World Cup in the Swedish city of Östersund. Won a test sprint among biathletes not participating in the mixed relay. Having shot without a miss, he won 30 seconds from Andrei Makoveev, who accurately shot back, and also left behind Bergman, Shipulin, Chudov, Garanichev and Zhey. In the first race of the season, the 20 km individual race, Dmitry took 26th place with 3 penalties. He finished 21st in the sprint and 7th in the pursuit.
At the second stage of the World Cup in Hochfilzen, Dmitry took 11th place in the sprint, while making 2 misses at the shooting range. In the pursuit race, he kept the chances of winning until the last, but in the end he lost 0.9 seconds to Yakov Fak. This result was the best for Dmitry in personal races at the World Cup. The next day in the men's relay (Shipulin, Makoveev, Ustyugov, Malyshko) took 3rd place. At the third stage of the World Cup in Pokljuka, Dmitry barely got into the pursuit race after the sprint, taking 58th place and making 5 misses. In the pursuit race, Dmitry won back 39 positions and took 19th place (with two misses). In the mass start, he took 14th place. On January 4, 2013, he won his first victory. Together with Alexei Volkov, Evgeny Garanichev and Anton Shipulin, he excelled in the relay race at the World Cup in Oberhof. He won his first personal victory on January 5, 2013 in the sprint, and the very next day he won the pursuit race. In the pursuit race, Dmitry shot to zero and outstripped Evgeny Garanichev by 42 seconds, who took 2nd place, ahead of the Czech Ondrej Moravec. By the decision of the coaches, he went with Evgny Ustyugov to the training camp in Anterselva and missed the first race of the 5th stage of the World Cup in Ruhpolding - the men's relay. In the sprint race of the 5th World Cup in Ruhpolding, he finished fifth with one penalty, losing 0.1 seconds to Emil Hegle Svendsen, who became fourth. The next day, in the race from the general start, Dmitry took second place, losing 0.5 seconds to Martin Fourcade.
