ALEKSANDER NAZAROV, HEAD COACH OF THE RUSSIAN PARA ALPINE SKIING TEAM: WE HAVE A UNIVERSAL TEAM, WE PERFORM IN ALL KINDS OF PROGRAMS
In Lillehammer (Norway) ended Para Snow Sports World Championships.
The Russian athletes from the RPC team won 67 medals - 22 gold, 23 silver and 22 bronze.
The alpine skiers with physical impairments brought won 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals.
The results of performance of his wards in the interview to the press service of RPC were summed up by Alexander Nazarov, the senior coach of Russian national alpine skiing team for persons with physical impairments, the Honored coach of Russia:
"The team performed successfully at the World Championships. The competition was very representative, almost all strongest athletes took part in it.
Nowadays, because of the pandemic, it's difficult to organize competitions, but everything was held at the highest level. The organizers did a great job.
I think our team did very well, winning 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals. It should be noted that our athletes are not yet at their peak form, but we are quickly approaching it. We still have some time to spare before the Paralympic Games.
All the strongest teams with the exception of China participated in the world championship. As evidenced by the past in December 2021, the stage of the World Cup in Austria, the Chinese athletes can give us serious competition and will quite predictably be among the winners at the Paralympic Games.
As for the World Championships, in my opinion, we could win more gold medals. Varvara Voronchikhina gave two gold medals to Maria Bochet of France. If not for technical mistakes, Varvara would have finished first twice, not second.
Alexey Bugayev was leading in the slalom, but his fall during the second attempt shortly before the finish pushed him down to sixth place.
In general, I believe in every athlete of the team. Our young swimmers Taisia Foriasch and Ivan Vasiliev performed really well. Of course, they do not yet show results which at their age (15-16 years) Alexey Bugajev showed. Let me remind you that Alexey won the national championships among the Olympians. Taisia and Ivan are not yet ready to show results at the level of world championships medalists, but in the future with proper training will be able to show it. Some of them are ready sooner, some later. It happened so that even at the age of 27 people open up, and until then, they were not visible, they trained, performed, but about any achievements it was not a question.
Separately, I would like to note the result of Alexander Alyabyev - third place in the slalom. It was in that race that Bugayev gave gold to the Frenchman, and bronze to Alexander.
But still, the most valuable to the team are gold medals of Alexei and Varvara.
At the Beijing Paralympics our main rivals will be the Frenchmen Maria Bochet and Arthur Bouchet. Among the men we will have a good competition with Theo Gmur from Switzerland. Among women we should also mention Moly Jepsen from Canada and Ebba Vigs from Sweden. But we shouldn't forget about Chinese and Austrian teams.
As for the disciplines, we have a universal team, we compete in all disciplines, although in modern sports it's quite difficult. Usually athletes are divided into downhill (downhill, super combined, and super-G) and slalom (technical slalom, giant slalom) disciplines. But still we achieved better results in technical competitions.
On January 25 we moved from Norway to Sweden. On January 27 we started the World Cup here. The guys had a little time to recover. There were 7 athletes in the team, the same number as at the World Cup.
Preparations for the main start - the XIII Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing are in full swing. The World Championship and the World Cup are one of the stages. Now we are at the final stage of preparation. After returning from Europe, our athletes will have time to meet with their families, go home, and on February 9 the team will meet again in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk for the Russian Championship, after which there will be a training camp, ending on February 25. Starts will be held at the Mountain Air Sports and Tourist Complex. I am constantly in touch with the staff of the complex. In Beijing the tracks will be hard and icy, and on Sakhalin we are preparing the tracks for us so that they correspond to those of the Paralympics as much as possible. The main task for the final stage is to bring the team in a good physical and emotional condition. More attention will be paid not to the volume of the training process, but to the speed indicators. So to speak, there will be a "polishing" - emotional, physical and technical, which will allow to reach the peak of form for the Paralympic Games.
Special attention is also given to the epidemiological situation of the team. We will minimize the contact of the team with the "outside world". We have selected a hotel, organized special transport, there are certain agreements with the ski center. We will do everything possible to keep our athletes healthy.
Alpine Skiing World Cup will take place from January 27 to 30 in Are, Switzerland.
The Russian national team consists of 7 athletes:
Alexander Alyabyev (Moscow/Sakhalin region), Alexey Bugaev (Moscow/Sakhalin region), Alexey Mikushin (Kamchatka region), Varvara Voronchikhina (Moscow/Irkutsk region), Daria Ischenko (Kamchatka region), Taissa Foryash (Altai region), Ivan Vasiliev (Saint-Petersburg).
The Russian athletes from the RPC team won 67 medals - 22 gold, 23 silver and 22 bronze.
The alpine skiers with physical impairments brought won 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals.
The results of performance of his wards in the interview to the press service of RPC were summed up by Alexander Nazarov, the senior coach of Russian national alpine skiing team for persons with physical impairments, the Honored coach of Russia:
"The team performed successfully at the World Championships. The competition was very representative, almost all strongest athletes took part in it.
Nowadays, because of the pandemic, it's difficult to organize competitions, but everything was held at the highest level. The organizers did a great job.
I think our team did very well, winning 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals. It should be noted that our athletes are not yet at their peak form, but we are quickly approaching it. We still have some time to spare before the Paralympic Games.
All the strongest teams with the exception of China participated in the world championship. As evidenced by the past in December 2021, the stage of the World Cup in Austria, the Chinese athletes can give us serious competition and will quite predictably be among the winners at the Paralympic Games.
As for the World Championships, in my opinion, we could win more gold medals. Varvara Voronchikhina gave two gold medals to Maria Bochet of France. If not for technical mistakes, Varvara would have finished first twice, not second.
Alexey Bugayev was leading in the slalom, but his fall during the second attempt shortly before the finish pushed him down to sixth place.
In general, I believe in every athlete of the team. Our young swimmers Taisia Foriasch and Ivan Vasiliev performed really well. Of course, they do not yet show results which at their age (15-16 years) Alexey Bugajev showed. Let me remind you that Alexey won the national championships among the Olympians. Taisia and Ivan are not yet ready to show results at the level of world championships medalists, but in the future with proper training will be able to show it. Some of them are ready sooner, some later. It happened so that even at the age of 27 people open up, and until then, they were not visible, they trained, performed, but about any achievements it was not a question.
Separately, I would like to note the result of Alexander Alyabyev - third place in the slalom. It was in that race that Bugayev gave gold to the Frenchman, and bronze to Alexander.
But still, the most valuable to the team are gold medals of Alexei and Varvara.
At the Beijing Paralympics our main rivals will be the Frenchmen Maria Bochet and Arthur Bouchet. Among the men we will have a good competition with Theo Gmur from Switzerland. Among women we should also mention Moly Jepsen from Canada and Ebba Vigs from Sweden. But we shouldn't forget about Chinese and Austrian teams.
As for the disciplines, we have a universal team, we compete in all disciplines, although in modern sports it's quite difficult. Usually athletes are divided into downhill (downhill, super combined, and super-G) and slalom (technical slalom, giant slalom) disciplines. But still we achieved better results in technical competitions.
On January 25 we moved from Norway to Sweden. On January 27 we started the World Cup here. The guys had a little time to recover. There were 7 athletes in the team, the same number as at the World Cup.
Preparations for the main start - the XIII Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing are in full swing. The World Championship and the World Cup are one of the stages. Now we are at the final stage of preparation. After returning from Europe, our athletes will have time to meet with their families, go home, and on February 9 the team will meet again in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk for the Russian Championship, after which there will be a training camp, ending on February 25. Starts will be held at the Mountain Air Sports and Tourist Complex. I am constantly in touch with the staff of the complex. In Beijing the tracks will be hard and icy, and on Sakhalin we are preparing the tracks for us so that they correspond to those of the Paralympics as much as possible. The main task for the final stage is to bring the team in a good physical and emotional condition. More attention will be paid not to the volume of the training process, but to the speed indicators. So to speak, there will be a "polishing" - emotional, physical and technical, which will allow to reach the peak of form for the Paralympic Games.
Special attention is also given to the epidemiological situation of the team. We will minimize the contact of the team with the "outside world". We have selected a hotel, organized special transport, there are certain agreements with the ski center. We will do everything possible to keep our athletes healthy.
Alpine Skiing World Cup will take place from January 27 to 30 in Are, Switzerland.
The Russian national team consists of 7 athletes:
Alexander Alyabyev (Moscow/Sakhalin region), Alexey Bugaev (Moscow/Sakhalin region), Alexey Mikushin (Kamchatka region), Varvara Voronchikhina (Moscow/Irkutsk region), Daria Ischenko (Kamchatka region), Taissa Foryash (Altai region), Ivan Vasiliev (Saint-Petersburg).