Sergey Ustyugov: “Autographs, interviews, photo shoots are not mine. I like to run races!”

We bring to the attention of the readers of "Skiing" the answers of the five-time world champion among juniors, the winner of the world championship in cross-country skiing and multi-day skiing of the Tour de Ski and the Tour of Canada, the multiple winner of the World Cup stages and the champion of Russia Sergey Ustyugov to direct questions.

Carier start

13.01.2016 19:13

Sergey, thank you very much for your races, we always cheer and worry! The question is: who is your first coach? (a few words about how they started skiing). how did you train at a young age - in the period of 12-15 years - in your opinion - did you perform strong loads at that time? At what age did you start more serious training - training camps, training, regional and all-Russian competitions, national championships?

12.01.2016 20:23

At what age did Sergey go in for boxing, when and why did he switch to skiing.

12.01.2016 21:18

Sergey sincerely congratulate you on your brilliant performance in your debut Tour de Ski! You're a big lad! Stay motivated and don't catch a star! I have several questions:

1) At what age, Sergey, did you start skiing?

I started cross-country skiing in 2001. Before that, like any child, he also went to different sections, he wanted to find something of his own, in particular, he got into the boxing section. But I only did boxing for about a month. I liked it, everything worked out, but at some point the coach punished me, and I thought that boxing was not my thing either. And then neighbor Sergei Ganin called me to the ski section - it was the biathlon sports school of the village of Mezhdurechensky. I immediately liked it there very much, and over time, the sports school became my second home! We rode a lot from the hills, learned to go around the sticks on the slopes. Pretty soon, about a week after I signed up for the section, the first competitions were held, which I won. And so my skiing career began. And then it somehow happened that from the group of guys who studied with my current personal trainer, three or four were taken to the biathlon team, but they didn’t take me, they sent me to the skiers. I didn’t want to go, I said that I didn’t know anyone there, but my coach told me that if I want to continue practicing, then I have no other way. So I ended up not in the biathlon, but in the ski team of the KhMAO, led by Valery Pavlovich Sivkov. Getting into the district team for many was considered a big step forward in their careers, there was a serious discipline, since we had to protect the sporting honor of the district. And I came to this team as a guy who just liked skiing, training, but I had problems with discipline. Pretty quickly, in two training camps, I scored three explanatory notes, and after three explanatory notes, they usually kicked me out of the team. They already told me that we would come home now, and they would not call me to the training camp again, but on the last day of the training camp I won the control training, which, I remember, was carried out by cross-country, and by a rather large margin, and they decided to leave me anyway. When we arrived home, my personal trainer scolded me properly, explained that I have a huge potential that I can simply ruin with such behavior. That was the turning point when I started to train consciously.

How did you train at a young age - in the period of 12-15 years - in your opinion, did you perform strong loads at that time?

Yes, we practiced a lot. At that time I was already in the team of the Autonomous Okrug with Valery Pavlovich Sivkov. I don’t know how people train at this age now, but at that moment it seemed to me that we trained a lot. We did a lot of speed work, strength work. Every Thursday, we had a control workout for strength training, which included bars, a horizontal bar, a multi-leap, a long jump and a few more types.

At what age did you start more serious training: training camps, training, regional and all-Russian competitions, national championships?

For the first time I went to the All-Russian competitions in Tchaikovsky as part of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug team. We then had a fairly strong line-up, which included Alexander Vasilkov, Viktor Denisov, Dmitry Konev ... True, I don’t remember the year now. Athletes born in 1992 ran in the races, and Gleb Retivyh participated out of the competition, who won the race, and I was second behind him. Then there was the Smetanina Prize in Syktyvkar. At that age, we already traveled a lot to training camps and competitions.

14.01.2016 11:41

I wanted to ask Sergey where in his childhood in Khanty he liked to train and run more: in the Valley or at the Biathlon??

I always liked the Valley, and we spent much more time there. Like any children, we loved to rest somewhere, cut, leave the cones, which were much more there (laughs).

Workout

12.01.2016 20:11

An interesting detailed answer on strength training, especially in the offseason. Q: Are you building muscle? Are you familiar with statodynamic exercises and how do you feel about them? Thank you:)

We do statodynamic exercises mainly on the press. Sasha Legkov posted a video on the Internet, we are doing approximately the same complex. The first year when I started training with Isabelle and Reto, it was hard for me, but by the end of the prep season, the muscles got used to it, and these exercises became much easier. As for muscle mass, I did not add to it, if only a little, since we do not do exercises aimed at its growth.

12.01.2016 19:58

I have only one question for Sergey.
Sergei, do your coaches know what a biologically based system of sports training is?

I can't tell if they know it or not. This is the first time I've heard of such a system.

12.01.2016 20:31

Sergey, tell us, what is the difference between the training methods of Russian and foreign specialists, based on your experience of training with both of them?

The first thing that caught my eye was that everyone was equal before the coach. We had an Olympic champion Alexander Legkov, but to me, to each of us, attention was paid no less than to him. And no one had any privileges. They also pay great attention to discipline, and if one person does not comply with it, everyone suffers.

- Are there any differences directly in training?

In principle, we worked the whole year according to the same scheme, slightly changing the loads, increasing or decreasing the length of the intervals. Also with Isabelle and Reto, we work much less on the technique of movement.

And the second question is why, in your opinion, so few promising juniors, moving into adulthood, stop in their development (except for you) and at the age of 21-23 they no longer compete with their foreign peers, who were beaten before.

Perhaps someone will be offended by this answer, but it seems to me that after junior success, many people change their approach to business, to training. Plus, there were victories in juniors, and now they are gone - and people simply do not see themselves further in sports. I think because of this.

12.01.2016 21:37

1. Sergey, why is the group Reto and Isabelle? Why not Carriers and the main team?

I was already preparing with Oleg Orestovich, and I wanted to try something new. Moreover, Isabelle and Reto could see how Alexander Legkov, Ilya Chernousov progressed ... Each team has its pluses and minuses, but Reto and Isabelle have much more pluses

Athletes Sergey Ustyugov, Stanislav Volzhentsev, Evgeny Belov, coaches Reto Burgermeister and Isabelle Knaute, servicers Viktor Churkin and Evgeny Uftikov

2. Isabelle is a beautiful young woman. Do you perceive her as older (I mean not her age, but her status in the team)? Is it easy for you to obey a woman? Or do you have some other relations between coaches and athletes in the group, different from the Soviet-Russian realities of national teams?

Yes, we have a rather different relationship in the group. We are all friends. But we all understand that it is Reto and Isabelle who are in charge here, and we came to prepare for them. Therefore, as they say, so be it. If you have a desire to spend an extra half an hour arguing, then this, of course, can be done, but it will still be the way the coaches decided. Of course, it is noticeable that in Europe everything is arranged differently, and in many ways Reto and Isabelle still do not understand our realities. For example, if they gave you a training plan for an inter-gathering, that means you have to do it first. They don’t care about relatives, hospitals, traffic jams, that some boss called you somewhere urgently - you have a duty to train, eat on time, sleep, change clothes after training. Everything is as in the collection, only at home.

12.01.2016 22:26

What is the current state of the Russian women's team, in your opinion?

It's hard for me to judge this.

Does the pulse greatly affect training in young athletes (13-15 years old), should we focus on the heart rate indicator?
I will be very grateful to you for your answers! All the best

Before the district team, when I trained with my personal trainer, we did not pay much attention to the pulse, although sometimes, of course, we measured it. When I got into the district team, we were all given heart rate monitors, and we trained clearly on the pulse. We were very much scolded for violating the pulse zones ... Now the situation is approximately the same: we are undergoing an examination, where we determine the pulse zones, which then must be observed during training. So I think that it is necessary to focus on the pulse indicators.

13.01.2016 13:12

Sergey, Greetings from your American fans!
How do you feel about mountain training?

There is a good height, after which you are rushing, and you show a good result, and there is a height, after which you do not feel anything. In general, I like to run after camps at altitude, and all my best results were shown after mountain camps. For example, at the Junior World Championship in Turkey, where I won four out of four races, we descended from the Bulgarian Belmeken. And although Turkey also had a height, I felt great. In Nove Mesto, where I won the sprint for the first time at the World Cup, we descended from the Khmelevsky Lakes - this is a neighboring ridge with the one on which the Sochi Laura ski complex is located. There is also a great height, and after it a very good effect. From there I descended to Sochi, and although there is only a hundred meters difference in height, it is very strongly felt.

Glacier training

13.01.2016 13:16

Sergey, during the race do you like to dominate the group, stay behind, or do you prefer to move separately from the group? Why do you choose this particular tactic?

Let me give you a fresh example. Most recently, the guys and I ran the Yugra Marathon, and I realized that I was very uncomfortable when the pace of the group was too low for me. If I don’t have a task given in advance to hold on to someone, wait, then I can’t sit for a long time, wait, and I start to get nervous, twitch. This time a lot of people came to the marathon, the group was quite large, but I, Seryoga Turyshev, Zhenya Dementiev, Dima Yaparov were the leaders. And it turned out that I, being in good shape after the Russian Championship, raced the whole distance, twitched, tried to make a break, to run away. But I didn’t have enough strength to finish, and I realized that a plan for the race was necessary. Otherwise, you go to the start, your head blows off, and you start doing something incomprehensible. After the race, we went into the service cabin with the guys, looked at each other and said: “Here we are fools!” (laughs).

13.01.2016 13:20

What motivates you the most in training to get the maximum result? Or are you just fulfilling the plans that the coaching group puts in front of you?

There are workouts that you enjoy, but this, of course, largely depends on the mood. I go in for sports, I get high from it, but sometimes I still go to training just because I have to. As my friends say, I am a person of mood, if I am in a good mood, then the race will be successful, and the training will be successful.

13.01.2016 13:25

Your biggest success in cross-country skiing to date is known by the whole country - this is a great performance at the Tour de Ski 2016 Maybe remember your most unsuccessful race in your adult career and what conclusions did you draw from this?

- Probably the most unsuccessful race in my adult career is the Russian Cup in Syktyvkar. I flew there after the junior world championship and had to run the team sprint with Sergei Turyshev. On the eve of the start, he asked me to try to run well, since a lot will depend on me, and that if I run unsuccessfully, I can screw up the whole race for the team. And so it happened: either I couldn’t cope with the excitement, or the form began to leave, but I ruined the race. It was very disappointing that I let my friend down. After that, I came to the conclusion that it is necessary to come to any competition as prepared as possible and tuned in to a high result.

13.01.2016 14:07

Sergey, please tell us about the warm-up before the race - how many minutes before the start do you start, briefly in what mode do you do it, when do you finish? Do you perform different warm-ups for sprint and 15-30 km distance races, and how? Thank you!

I usually go out to warm up an hour and a half before the start. Before the sprint, I warm up more intensively than before the distance race.

13.01.2016 15:37

Do you use a bicycle in your off-season training? If yes, in what volumes and modes?

Last year I used it, but this season it was on the bike that my knee began to bother me, so I switched to cross.

Before last season, Sergey Ustyugov's training included long cycling workouts, Sergey Ustyugov's Instagram

14.01.2016 08:09

Sergey, congratulations on a great performance! Cross-country skiing is interesting to watch on TV only if our skiers are fighting for the victory!

In an interview with Isabelle, there are such words about you: "You can directly say:" I don't want to do this. Explain why this is necessary? "We were looking for a compromise, but not in the sense that we started to train less, but explained to him why this or that work was necessary." Please give an example of your creative disagreement with the coach.

Good luck and health!

Yes, it was. After the World Cup stage in Drammen, I did not want to do strength training, because I considered myself tired. They tried to convince me, but I still refused. After that, I felt bad at the race and realized that the coaches were right.

Tour de Ski

- Did you expect that you would be able to perform so successfully in the Tour de Ski?

I myself am surprised how I managed to stay in good shape for so many days at the Tour de Ski, and then at the Tour of Canada. I still can't believe it. I prepared purposefully for the Tour de Ski this year, because I really wanted to go to it. Before that, twice I missed the opportunity to go to the Tour de Ski. The first time I won the uphill race at the Russian Cup stage in Chusovoy, I was told that I was preparing for the World Youth Championship, so I was not considered for the Tour. “What do you like Tour de Ski? You are still young!" Although that year I had a very strong one: I beat everyone who went to the World Cup stages, and we were very disappointed that I, winning, stayed at home, and they, having lost, again went to the stages. But at the end of the season at the World Championships, I was put on the last stage of the relay, and we managed to win bronze medals.

Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Evgeny Belov and Sergey Ustyugov with bronze medals for the relay race at the World Championships in Val di Fiemma, photo by REUTERS

Last year we prepared a lot in Europe, and I had a slight decline. I ran unsuccessfully at the World Cup stage in Davos, did not qualify and asked Reto and Isabelle to let me “feel the blood”, to start. They then sent me, together with Ilya Chernousov, to the Alpine Cup stage in Hochfilzen, where I managed to breathe properly, to feel the taste of blood in my mouth. After I returned, they sent me to the Krasnogorsk Ski Track, where I had to run a sprint and return back to continue training for the Tour de Ski. I left half of my things in Europe and went to Krasnogorsk. There, together with Gleb Retivyh, we did some work to prepare for the sprint, but the race itself ended for me already at the quarterfinal stage due to a fall. The next day there was a long race, which I did not plan to run, and Gleb asked me to give him a drink. And right during the race, Elena Valerievna calls me and asks: “Why aren’t you running today?” I answer that Isabelle and Reto told me that I was preparing for the Tour de Ski, to which she again puzzles me: “Who told you that you were going to the Tour de Ski at all?” It turns out that my candidacy for the multi-day race was again not considered, other guys went there, and I bought tickets and went home to celebrate the New Year. With Elena Valerievna, we agreed that I would go with the women's team to a training camp in Otepää to prepare for the sprint stage of the World Cup. Isabelle and Reto wrote me a preparation plan, and when we discussed it, I told Isabelle that I had a little cold, but I would leave at the training camp, since nothing serious had happened. And already on the way to the collection, Vyalba calls me again:

Isabelle said you had a cold?

It’s a pity, otherwise Legkov refused to go to the Tour de Ski, they wanted to take you, but now, apparently, nothing will work out.

I was very disappointed. In fact, I then had another chance to get to the multi-day race, but I missed it. At the training camp in Otepaa, because of this, I began to train with tripled strength, because I knew that I had to prove myself at all costs. As a result, I not only won the Estonian stage of the World Cup, but the fuse was enough for the stage in Rybinsk, where I got on the podium in both the distance race and the individual sprint. I got in fantastic shape and after Rybinsk I kept it for a very long time. But everything was ruined by the control training in Davos, which we conducted together with the Americans and the Swiss. I won there with a huge margin, but I breathed in the cold air and got sick. The next day I woke up with a fever, we urgently descended from the mountains to the plains, but, no matter how hard I tried, I did not manage to fully recover from this illness for the World Championships in Falun, and I did not show the results there that could have been count over the course of the season. I am very sorry that I did not succeed at that World Championship.

Together with Alexey Petukhov, Sergey Ustyugov won the team sprint at the World Cup in Otepää, photo fasterskier.com

And then he became the winner of the World Cup stage in Rybinsk in the sprint, photo fasterskier.com

And the 15 km freestyle race, photo RIA-Novosti

12.01.2016 21:09

Hello Sergey! Fans have noticed that you react very reservedly to the greetings and congratulations of the Norwegians. Is it natural modesty or something else? And whether the question was discussed in the team with the replacement of both skis, during the classic mass start, by the Norwegian Krogh. Is that even possible during a race like this? Thank you in advance!

We did not discuss this issue, we did not hear anything about this episode.

12.01.2016 21:18

Knowing now the feeling on the Alpe de Cermis mountain, do you think that the tactics you chose for the race were unambiguously correct or would a different race pattern have been applied retroactively?

Yes, probably, knowing how the race ended in the end, I would have chosen a different tactic. If he had known that Krogh would run away, he would have followed him all the time, but then he did not know what to expect from him and from his body, at what point the crisis would come. Later, a personal trainer told me that when he saw me look back for the first time, I realized that I just had to reach. So it was.

Three winners of the Tour de Ski 2016 at the top of Alpe di Cermis: Finn Hagen Krogh, Martin Jonsrud Sundby, Sergey Ustyugov, photo fasterskier.com

12.01.2016 21:44

Sergey, Elena Valerievna Vyalbe somehow congratulated you on your success at the Tour de Ski?
- Yes, I called or sent SMS, I don’t remember now.

12.01.2016 20:31

Sergey, what, in your opinion, is the secret of the overwhelming superiority of Norwegian skiers and female skiers at the present time?

Skiing is in their blood.

12.01.2016 22:48

Sergey, congratulations from Ukraine for your excellent achievements at TDS! Ukraine for Ustyugov!
And the question also concerns the Burgemeister and Knaute groups. All the latest achievements of Russian skiers on the TDS (with the exception of Max Vylegzhanin, special greetings to him) - Legkov, Belov and you - are associated with this group. Moreover, in those years when the above-mentioned athletes became winners of the TDS, they did not have any more victories (I mean the World Cup). So, is there a purposeful preparation and prioritization of the TDS?

No, before the World Championships in Falun, the priority was the World Championships. True, then, as I said, I had a slight failure in preparation, so I did not participate in the Tour.

Knaute seemed to deny this. What is the secret of this group in preparation for the TDS? And expect more victories from you this season?

Professional secret. If you relax a little, you are immediately reminded of who you are and why you are here. And it turns you on, and you begin to train with renewed vigor.

Knaute before the start of this Tour said that she expects 4-5 good stages from you. Five excellent stages you have in any case. Did the coaches call any of the mass starts successful for you?

Yes, it's thirty in Lenzerheide, where I was eighth. They praised me, said that I ran it perfectly. Yes, I myself was very happy, because I did not expect that I would get the eighth job in such a strong company.

Sergei Ustyugov leads the peloton during the classic mass start of the 2016 Tour de Ski in Lenzerheide, photo: Felgenhauer/NordicFocus

And one more question. How did you thank Isabelle for passing the stick on time and successfully during the first sprint?

I don't remember, I just said "thank you". This is, in principle, an ordinary situation, this happens in races all the time.

13.01.2016 01:29

Sergey, please clear up some doubts about the photo finish at the 3rd stage of the Tour.
1. Comment on your joyful reaction right after the finish - did it seem that you were ahead of Krogh?

Yes, I thought I was third.

2. Did you pay attention to some inconsistency of the real picture of the finish with a run, with almost vertical silhouettes of photo finish skiers / where a noticeable loss of about 30 cm is recorded - the length of the boot /?

No, I trust the judges. If they said that I was the fourth, then it was so.

3. Have you seen the slow motion video of the finish from the side that was not shown to viewers during the broadcast?

I didn’t see it, I only saw the video from the front, only the photo from the side

The same finish in the fight for third place with Finn Hagen Krogh, photo by Flavio Bekkis

Why do you often move separately from the peloton when almost everyone prefers to "backpack"?

I have already broken a lot of sticks, so I try to move more carefully.

Sergey, questions about TDS:
1) The classic 15 km mass start race in Val di Fiemme, Belov rode almost the entire distance nearby, but a little behind, was it teamwork, or did it coincide?

We did not agree on team tactics, each defended his position in the race.

2) By a certain point, it became obvious that you were fighting for the top three at TDS, in connection with this, were there races or moments when your group or teammates worked for you?

- As I said, there was no such thing as a team agreeing to work for me. At least it wasn't discussed with me.

3) If, for example, someone from your group (team) would claim the top three (in the overall standings), but you do not, and the coach received an assignment to help your partner, if possible, during one of the races, would you agree?

I would not even wait for the coach to give such a task, but I would take the initiative myself.

4) Do you see how our girls train? Do you think they are really a class slightly lower than the leaders among women, or just miscalculations in preparation, or a psychological factor?

As I said, I would not like to talk about how our women's team trains.

Sports data:

What is the length of skis and sticks used by Sergey in classic races (his weight and height can be found on Wikipedia). Are these parameters different for distance races and sprints (or the same)?

In classic races, if you do not take into account city sprints, then the length of the sticks is 157.5 cm, skis are 207 cm. If you take races such as sprints in Drammen or Stockholm, then there I use sticks a little higher. And when Nikita Kryukov found out at the sprint in Stockholm this year that I was running with longer poles, he asked for my usual ones, which were slightly higher than his. I gave them to him, and he ran with them and even won this race with them.

How many times can Sergey pull up (max) on the horizontal bar?

Now we are not engaged in performing pull-ups for the maximum number of times. We have a certain strength work that we adhere to. So now I do 10-15 pull-ups. In general, my record is 32 times, but it was in adolescence, when we were purposefully preparing to pass the standards for pull-ups. And then I also did a lot of push-ups on the uneven bars.

Pulse value at rest (in the morning) - in a state of peak form (before the competition)?

In the morning, it is not always possible to measure the pulse, but on average it is 38-40 beats. Sometimes even before going to a workout, when you turn on the heart rate monitor, there are 42-43 beats.

13.01.2016 11:34

1 Average heart rate for 10-15km races?

2 heart rate max

It's always different depending on how you feel. Maybe 195-196 average heart rate per race and 207-208 maximum, as happened sometimes this year. But usually it is 185 average and 203-204 maximum.

3 Question on tactics in the race. It seems to me that it is less rational and more energy-intensive compared to many, especially Nortug. Is it possible to somehow explain this? (Let's say you like it this way, and that's it!)

It very much depends on the situation in the race, on what numbers you run in, with whom you run. If earlier, in juniors, I worked the race from the very start to the end, until you die, and I barely ran the last laps, I lost a lot on them, now I try to start calmer. But when the form is good, it doesn’t matter how you run: with a fast start, by the end of the race you can lose a little, but you know that you will win back this gap in the first laps. This year I had a very good race in Nove Mesto, where I went very well in circles, and on the last lap I felt that I could add more and leave. And sometimes it happens that from the very start you run for all the money and still lose. Of course, Isabelle has been telling me a lot about these issues lately: where, with what rivals, I can overlap in the race, and how to behave in this case. He and Reto discuss this and then inform us. By the way, this year you could choose your starting position in the red group. Reto did this for us: first he collected our wishes, at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the group we would like to start, and after that he took the numbers.

- Do you mean the choice of position in the sprint?

No, these are distance races with a separate start. In sprints, I always chose which race I would run. This year I often won the qualification, and I tried to choose the first race as soon as possible. And the rivals watched and did not want to go to this race.

4 Height / length of skating poles?

Poles 170 cm, skis 192 cm.

5 Skiers participate in cross-country competitions. Did you get better/worse in pure cross-country skiing than skiing? (relatively)

In the cross country competition that year I competed in Oberwiesenthal, Germany. These were starts, it seems, among some sports schools. In general, many guys perform in cross-country shoes, some even prepare specially for them.

How are your crosses going?

Previously, my cross-country was not bad, but at the last summer championship in Tyumen, it was very difficult for me. I don’t know what it is connected with, maybe I gained a lot of muscle mass. I also became very interested in why I used to run cross-country very well, and then suddenly stopped abruptly.

During a training camp in Oberwiesenthal, Germany with Tour de Ski winners Alexander Legkov and Lukas Bauer and World Cup winner Rene Sommerfeldt. Rene lives in Oberwiesenthal itself, and Lukas a few kilometers away - in the Czech God's Gift,

6 Are there individual athletes or even entire teams in the elite who often ski better than others?

No, it doesn’t happen that one team or a particular skier always has good skis, everyone has “flights”. As for me, this year I was lucky with the serviceman with whom we worked this year. My skis worked just incomparably, in almost all races I had one of the best skis among all participants. There were races where I could get downhill at the back of the peloton and be the first to ski, like the 30 in Lenzerheide on the Tour de Ski or the skiathlon at Canmore on the Tour of Canada. So I want to thank our entire service team and hope that my servicer will be left for me next year.

12.01.2016 23:09

Sergey, congratulations on the successful performance at the Tour de Ski, he was worried and sick, the Tour came out great.
Nutrition question, what do you eat/drink during 30/50km

Also, what do you eat before races?

We eat a lot of pasta. They ate them all summer and all autumn. I will probably remember this forever. We ate them, ate and ate ... There was, of course, other food, but mostly pasta (smiles). If we talk about sports drinks, then before races, on multi-day races, we use special carbloaders. There are no food restrictions. Isabelle and Reto explained that it is better to eat well at breakfast, lunch and dinner than to come into the room later and eat something sweet or even sit in a cafe in the evening and drink coffee with some bun. We should also always go to training full.

During the races Isabelle makes us a special drink. I can't say exactly which Vitargo Electrolyte I think. I also told her that I could not drink it, because it made my mouth dry, but she replied that it should be so. At a distance, you need to drink a lot so that the body does not “dry up” and is ready to maintain maximum performance throughout the race. Well, 10 kilometers before the finish line - Coca-Cola. Everyone probably already knows about this, even at the Russian Championships they drink it, and not only in marathons, but also in 30s, many drink Coca-Cola with an activator before the finish line.

What does "activator" mean?

These are special substances that are added to drinks, such as guarana.

12.01.2016 23:54

Thank you for the pleasant surprise, for giving the fans the pleasure of imposing a fight and for the high result!

I would like to find out from the source the reasons for the recent falls in order to resolve disputes.

I've had quite a few this year. The most memorable is in Davos. I was so ready that day! I knew that I could be in the prizes, I had so much energy, so much strength!!! And then some ridiculous fall! At that turn, the track was icy and a little broken, and I myself did not understand how it happened, but if it happened, then, probably, it should have been so.

- Did you fall yourself, or did your opponents “help” you?

No, I fell myself, there was no interference from the opponents. I was completely focused on the race, on the fight, maybe that's the reason. When I fell, I realized that today I had no prizes, although there was a lot of strength left! I think if I had fallen on the first lap, and not on the second, I would have managed to catch up, but there were no chances anymore ... (sighs) After the finish, I went to the mixed zone, and there was my former servicer Misha Lukerchenko, who worked with me in the Olympic season and now works for Swix. He looked at me, smiled and said: "It's just that today is not your day, the main thing is not to despair." This somehow calmed me a little, and I thought that my day would probably come soon. Isabelle was also very upset then, even crying with annoyance.

13.01.2016 19:40

Sergey, good afternoon!
How do you choose one or another brand of manufacturers of skis, bindings, boots, poles? That is, what influences your choice: the advice of other skiers, the wishes of the management, your own experience, or something else?

As for poles, unlike biathletes, we do not have the right to choose the manufacturer of poles, since our Federation has a contract with Swix. Therefore, the entire Russian team runs on sticks of this company. In skiing this year my contract with Fischer ended, on whose skis I have been running since the time of the Smetanina Prize, when they brought me my first contract in my life. I never had any questions about skis, but I had a lot of questions about boots. But all my wishes were taken into account by the manufacturer, and now Fischer boots are also on top! This year, when the results appeared, representatives of manufacturing companies began to constantly spin around me, offering to try skis of their brand. I tried Rossignol skis from the guys and I can say that the work of these skis is different from that of Fischer. Fischer suits me, especially since I have good "material" for this brand.

Personal life

12.01.2016 21:18

Do you have signs and superstitions before the start?

No, I don’t have any prelaunch signs and superstitions. Perhaps if you are in a bad mood before the race, then you will perform poorly, and then you yourself will not understand why this happened, and no one will tell you about it. At the World Cup stage in Toblach, I was not put on the classic race, although I went through all the selections and was ready to run it. When we arrived in Italy, they announced to me that I was only running the sprint, I was very upset, and because of this, the sprint did not work out for me either. I didn't qualify, and at a hitch, Maxim Vylegzhanin drove up to me and offered to run the classic race instead of him. Of course, we do not solve these issues, but since he did not want to run, but I, on the contrary, was burning with desire, our coaches managed to agree and declare me. I was very happy about it, and already in that race I ran very well, took seventh place.

With a girl - the owner of the Eastern European Cup-2016 Elena Soboleva on Weiner Street in Yekaterinburg, Instagram photo by Sergey Ustyugov

What is your favorite distance and what style?

I guess I don't have a favorite distance. I was always considered a sprinter, I ran only sprints, and only this season I fully felt how cool it is to run both sprints and races all season long. But it’s also very difficult, and sometimes you think that maybe it’s better to just start a couple of races and that’s it, than to run a top ten or a tag the next day (smiles). On the other hand, this year there were a couple of races that went very fast, almost like a sprint. For example, 15 km from the general start at the Tour de Ski, everything was so fast there that I didn’t even notice how this race flew by!

If we talk about style, then at home I skate more, because I don’t have to bother with holding lubricant. Although the classics just walk around is also a lot of fun. This year, after the Tour de Ski, I went home to the village of Mezhdurechensky, I had 10 days, I had a training plan, but 35-degree frost hit, and I asked me to prepare a classic track for me and went for a walk with the classics. I got such a pleasure, such a buzz, despite the fact that I got a little frostbite on my cheeks!

12.01.2016 21:20

Sergey, if it weren’t for sports, what would you show yourself in? Do you have/were there any serious hobbies, perhaps not sports?!

13.01.2016 12:01

Sergey, thank you so much for such an explosion of positive! That was great!!! As they say, not a year without a pedestal :))
I really want to see you for many more years at the top of cross-country skiing. I would like to believe that all the root causes of falls during the races are gone and will no longer upset either you or us fans :)))
It is very interesting to know how you live, besides skiing :))???

I live mostly skiing. Of course, sometimes you want to go ice fishing, sit on the ice with a fishing rod, but you have to take care of your health. We still have a winter kind of spot, and in winter we compete, so I can’t afford such entertainment. I have a girlfriend, Elena Soboleva, who is part of the national team, we spend a lot of time together. I also love my family very much, I try to get home as soon as possible. I also like to drive a car over long distances, I can sit down and drive 1100 km from Yekaterinburg to my house and enjoy it.

- Is this your longest trip?

Probably one of. Drove somewhere 1100-1300 km. For example, I flew to the Yugra marathon after the Russian championship. In Yekaterinburg, we got into the car, drove to Khanty-Mansiysk, ran a cross-country race in the evening, ran a marathon the next day and drove towards the house. It turned out about 1700 km in two days. For me, it's a pleasure.

I read mostly on the Internet, but also books. I have read two or three books this year. One of them is based on the movie "The Martian". It was not possible to look, I took the book and was so carried away that I did not notice how I read it. We even argued with Stas Volzhentsev that I would read the book, and after that the film would seem like complete nonsense to me. And I lost this argument, everything is described in the book much more realistically! So this year I plan to take literature with me to the training camp, read more, wean from the phone. I will not hide it, now I go there almost in any free moment: either I communicate with friends and family, or I read something on the Internet.

I don’t have a favorite movie or favorite music, I like a lot depending on my mood. This year, for example, we listened to the Leningrad group a lot. I also like our Russian cartoons about Alyosha Popovich, "Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf" and others - if you get bored at the training camp, they really cheer you up!

- Is Isabelle also listening to Leningrad?

No (laughs). In fact, I not only listened to Leningrad this year, I just chose a few songs. I also like some songs of the DDT group, something from Spleen, Aria has several things. Everything is different.

12.01.2016 22:26

Sergey, how can I get your autograph? I really want to have an autograph card of the bronze medalist of the Tour de Ski.

Actually, I don't really like it. There was a Vkontakte page, which was created by fans and led on my behalf. I wrote to them, went forward when they asked, sent autograph cards, but gradually came to the conclusion that I was not the kind of person to put my life on public display. Therefore, I asked the girls to close the group, because I did not want it all to revolve around me. In fact, people through the Cross-Country Ski Federation get my address and send letters to my mailbox at home, probably your reader can do the same.

13.01.2016 08:51

Do you practice meetings with fans after EKM races?

In fact, I don't like autograph sessions or press conferences after the race, I don't enjoy it, although I understand that it's necessary. Thank you Isabelle for shielding me from all this. If I manage to get on the podium, she takes my hand, quickly leads me to change and to the press conference. It happens that you have to wait for rivals for 15-20 minutes while they talk and sign autographs. But it's not mine.

13.01.2016 20:50

Sergei bravo! Pride for such talented young Russian skiers!

1. Where do you like to perform most (country)?

Russia, of course! Houses and walls help. It has its own language, everything is familiar, so you feel more comfortable. In fact, when you run a race, you disconnect from it, in any country everyone screams, everyone cheers ... If I formulate the question differently and choose my favorite track, then I will name the track in Rybinsk. I really like the terrain on which it is profiled.

2. Is there an idol in sports or someone you look up to and strive to be like?

No, I don't have any idols. Each person is unique, and we see only one side of people who in life can be completely different than on TV. Here, even from the outside, some may say that I am conceited, but I have good friends to whom I always tell that if they notice something like that in me, then let them come and give me bream (laughs). And I know that they will do it without problems. People like Seryoga Turyshev or Stas Volzhentsev will immediately come up and say: "Boy, let's get down from heaven to earth." But I hope they don't have to, and after this successful season of mine, I won't change. This year there were a lot of offers to come somewhere, to appear in some programs, to give interviews ... There was even a case when I came to a ski base in my village, and there was a car and a reporter with a camera. I turned around and went home. I don’t want to give interviews, I run races, I compete for the country, I show the result ... I know that I should popularize our sport, but I can’t help myself, I’m not that kind of person ...

At the 2016 Russian Championship with friends and teammates of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug Evgeny Dementiev and Sergey Turyshev. This year, at the national championship, Ustyugov won four gold and one silver medal, Instagram photo by Sergey Ustyugov

Yes, I'm on Instagram. My nickname - sergei86m, so you can subscribe and like my photos, although I post them quite rarely. I look more at what others post.

- Why 86, are you born in 1992?

- 86 is my region, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

- Your wishes to the fans.

Watch ski races, cheer, worry about us. We are trying for you. If one of us does not succeed in something, we should not be scolded and blamed. I see how everyone is trying, how everyone trains a lot and wants to show good results. Also, taking this opportunity, I want to say hello to my native sports school - Biathlon Sports School of the village of Mezhdurechensky!

Prepared by Andrey Krasnov

Sergey gives the most interesting answers regarding strength training, exorbitant heart rate in races, tactics at a distance, nutrition and choosing the length of sticks. Are you building muscle? Are you familiar with statodynamic exercises and how do you feel about them? - We do statodynamic exercises mainly on the press. Sasha Legkov posted a video on the Internet, we are doing approximately the same complex. The first year when I started training with Isabelle and Reto, it was hard for me, but by the end of the prep season, the muscles got used to it, and these exercises became much easier. As for muscle mass, I did not add to it, if only a little, since we do not do exercises aimed at its growth. Sergey, tell us, what is the difference between the training methods of Russian and foreign specialists, based on your experience of training with both of them? - The first thing that caught my eye was that everyone was equal before the coach. We had an Olympic champion Alexander Legkov, but to me, to each of us, attention was paid no less than to him. And no one had any privileges. They also pay great attention to discipline, and if one person does not comply with it, everyone suffers. - Are there any differences directly in training? - In principle, we worked the whole year according to the same scheme, slightly changing the load, increasing or decreasing the length of the intervals. Also with Isabelle and Reto, we work much less on the technique of movement. Does the pulse greatly affect training in young athletes (13-15 years old), should we focus on the heart rate indicator? - Before the district team, when I trained with my personal trainer, we did not pay much attention to the pulse, although sometimes, of course, we measured it. When I got into the district team, we were all given heart rate monitors, and we trained clearly on the pulse. We were very much scolded for violating the pulse zones ... Now the situation is approximately the same: we are undergoing an examination, where we determine the pulse zones, which then must be observed during training. So I think that it is necessary to focus on the pulse indicators. How do you feel about mountain training? - There is a good height, after which you are rushing, and you show a good result, and there is a height, after which you do not feel anything. In general, I like to run after camps at altitude, and all my best results were shown after mountain camps. For example, at the Junior World Championship in Turkey, where I won four out of four races, we descended from the Bulgarian Belmeken. And although Turkey also had a height, I felt great. In Nove Mesto, where I won the sprint for the first time at the World Cup, we descended from the Khmelevsky Lakes - this is a neighboring ridge with the one on which the Sochi Laura ski complex is located. There is also a great height, and after it a very good effect. From there I descended to Sochi, and although there is only a hundred meters difference in height, it is very strongly felt. Sergey, during the race do you like to dominate the group, stay behind, or do you prefer to move separately from the group? Why do you choose this particular tactic? - Let me give you a recent example. Most recently, the guys and I ran the Yugra Marathon, and I realized that I was very uncomfortable when the pace of the group was too low for me. If I don’t have a task given in advance to hold on to someone, wait, then I can’t sit for a long time, wait, and I start to get nervous, twitch. This time a lot of people came to the marathon, the group was quite large, but I, Seryoga Turyshev, Zhenya Dementiev, Dima Yaparov were the leaders. And it turned out that I, being in good shape after the Russian Championship, raced the whole distance, twitched, tried to make a break, to run away. But I didn’t have enough strength to finish, and I realized that a plan for the race was necessary. Otherwise, you go to the start, your head blows off, and you start doing something incomprehensible. After the race, we went into the service cabin with the guys, looked at each other and said: “Here we are fools!” (laughs). Why do you often move separately from the peloton when almost everyone prefers to "backpack"? - I have already broken a lot of sticks, so I try to move more carefully. What is the length of skis and poles used by Sergey in classic races? Are these parameters different for distance races and sprints (or the same)? - In classic races, if you do not take into account city sprints, then the length of the sticks is 157.5 cm, skis are 207 cm. If you take races such as sprints in Drammen or Stockholm, then there I use sticks a little higher. And when Nikita Kryukov found out at the sprint in Stockholm this year that I was running with longer poles, he asked for my usual ones, which were slightly higher than his. I gave them to him, and he ran with them and even won this race with them. Height / length of skating poles? - Poles 170 cm, skis 192 cm. How do you choose one or another brand of pole manufacturers? - As for sticks, unlike biathletes, we do not have the right to choose the manufacturer of sticks, since our Federation has a contract with Swix. Therefore, the entire Russian team runs on sticks of this company. How many times can Sergey pull up (max) on the horizontal bar? - Now we are not doing pull-ups for the maximum number of times. We have a certain strength work that we adhere to. So now I do 10-15 pull-ups. In general, my record is 32 times, but it was in adolescence, when we were purposefully preparing to pass the standards for pull-ups. And then I also did a lot of push-ups on the uneven bars. Pulse value at rest (in the morning) - in a state of peak form (before the competition)? - In the morning, it is not always possible to measure the pulse, but on average it is 38-40 beats. Sometimes even before going to a workout, when you turn on the heart rate monitor, there are 42-43 beats. Average and maximum heart rate for 10-15k races? - It always happens differently depending on how you feel. Maybe 195-196 average heart rate per race and 207-208 maximum, as happened sometimes this year. But usually it is 185 average and 203-204 maximum. How are your crosses going? - Previously, my cross-country was not bad, but at the last summer championship in Tyumen, it was very hard for me. I don’t know what it is connected with, maybe I gained a lot of muscle mass. I also became very interested in why I used to run cross-country very well, and then suddenly stopped abruptly. Do you use a bicycle in your off-season training? If yes, in what volumes and modes? - Last year I used it, but this season it was on the bike that my knee began to bother me, so I switched to cross-country. Please give an example of your creative disagreement with the coach. - Yes, it was. After the World Cup stage in Drammen, I did not want to do strength training, because I considered myself tired. They tried to convince me, but I still refused. After that, I felt bad at the race and realized that the coaches were right. Also, what do you eat before races? - We eat a lot of pasta. They ate them all summer and all autumn. I will probably remember this forever. We ate them, ate and ate ... There was, of course, other food, but mostly pasta (smiles). If we talk about sports drinks, then before races, on multi-day races, we use special carbloaders. There are no food restrictions. Isabelle and Reto explained that it is better to eat well at breakfast, lunch and dinner than to come into the room later and eat something sweet or even sit in a cafe in the evening and drink coffee with some bun. We should also always go to training full. During the races Isabelle makes us a special drink. I can't say exactly which Vitargo Electrolyte I think. I also told her that I could not drink it, because it made my mouth dry, but she replied that it should be so. At a distance, you need to drink a lot so that the body does not “dry up” and is ready to maintain maximum performance throughout the race. Well, 10 kilometers before the finish line - Coca-Cola. Everyone probably already knows about this, even at the Russian Championships they drink it, and not only in marathons, but also in 30s, many drink Coca-Cola with an activator before the finish line. What does "activator" mean? - These are special substances that are added to drinks, such as guarana. Sergey, what, in your opinion, is the secret of the overwhelming superiority of Norwegian skiers and female skiers at the present time? Skiing is in their blood.

Sunday at the World Ski Championships in Lahti can be safely called Russian. If the victories of Sergei Ustyugov have already ceased to be surprised, then the silver of Yulia Belorukova and Natalia Matveeva was a real surprise. To understand the reasons for the recent successes of domestic skiers, RT spoke with three-time Olympic champion Yulia Chepalova. The former athlete also spoke about the attacks on Russia and the possible non-admission of the national team to the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

- Did you believe before the start of the men's race that the Russians could become the first?

- Certainly. Why not? You can see for yourself what brilliant shape Ustyugov is in. Moreover, the boys this season are performing very well.

- Would the domestic duo have won if the Norwegian and the Finn had not fallen?

- During the race, it was hard to assume that ours would finish first, but the fall played into our hands. See how good! The force of circumstances played for Russia. That happens. And lucky, as you know, those who are lucky.

- Due to what, in your opinion, did such a jump occur in Ustyugov's results? After all, before he did not achieve serious success.

“He became a real leader of the team. Everything is going well with Sergey, everything is working out. Why not lead the team in such a situation? This burden does not pull at all.

- Before the start of the World Championship, FLGR President Elena Vyalbe, that she does not want to put pressure on Ustyugov and talk about a certain number of medals that he should win after success at the Tour de Ski. Is this the right position on her part?

— Of course, psychologically it is hard to be a leader. But it all depends on the character of the athlete. Ustyugov believed in himself, he had a dream to which he was going. I think the latest results do not put pressure on Sergei, but, on the contrary, spur him on. He wants to win again and again. Ustyugov and I are not personally acquainted, but people who know him claim that he is a man of incredible character and able to work hard.

- On the eve of the team sprint, Ustyugov spoke harshly against Nikita Kryukov. Sergey was not happy that he was paired with Kryukov, and noted that he came to the tournament as a substitute. Did this statement surprise you? Does the skier go too far when talking about the decisions of the coaching staff in the press?

- As far as I can see from the current season, Kryukov is really not in the best shape. In my opinion, now Nikita stands more for past merits. There were such moments in my life. There is nothing to be surprised. On the other hand, he did not walk along the track, he worked and fought. And I don’t see anything criminal in the fact that Ustyugov expressed his opinion. Sergei had the right to express it.

- If Russia won, it turns out that the coaching staff was right in betting on Kryukov?

In any case, Ustyugov did not run alone. There was nowhere to go. Kryukov had to seriously sweat on the track. Although it is clear that in this pair there was an athlete a cut above, capable of stretching. But this gold is the fruit of the work of both Sergey and Nikita, who showed himself to be a real fighter.

- Yulia Belorukova and Natalya Matveeva became the second in the women's sprint. Can this result be called a sensation?

- I'm very happy for the girls. They are great fellows. Sooner or later success comes. In general, it was very difficult for Yulia and Natasha. The weather in Lahti was nasty, but ours managed to endure it. It was clear that everything was in order with the speed. In short, it was just incredible.

- Are you surprised that you managed to “shoot” Matveeva, who survived the disqualification? Plus, the rivals met her not at all kindly.

- Those people who speak negatively about Natalia do not think that they can get into a similar situation. I think that such athletes need to think carefully before saying something, and hold their tongue somewhere. Moreover, you still have to compete with people more than once, go to tournaments and train. Or maybe the rivals are simply afraid of Matveeva.

- Are you surprised by so many negative things about your compatriot?

- No, not at all, given the current situation in the world. In general, it seems to me that people who returned to sports after disqualification should not have such a negative attitude, because they overcame themselves and managed to resume their careers after a very long pause. It is really extremely difficult. This is where people's character comes into play.

- Petter Northug spoke harshly about Natalia - they say, she has no place at the World Cup. Maybe it's better for a Norwegian to mind his own business, and not talk about who deserves to speak?

- Oh, the Norwegians, to be honest, I would generally ask to be silent.

— Do you mean the famous stories about the Scandinavian "asthmatics"?

- I will say this: drug-dependent athletes should participate in the relevant competitions.

- Do you think that another Norwegian, Teresa Johaug, who is serving a disqualification for doping, will also be told a lot of negative words after her return?

- Hardly. Such an attitude, alas, only to the Russians. Generally speaking, smart people don't behave like that. There are individuals who are not able to control themselves. Perhaps this is due to some kind of resentment that they were surpassed somewhere, perhaps with a sense of fear.

- Ustyugov, after each victory at the Tour de Ski and now in Lahti, medals to five suspended Russian skiers. Has the team been affected by the history of their non-admission to the tournament?

- Such things should not affect the team. Skiers should just work to the end, without stuffing their heads with extraneous things. In any case, it would be naive to hope that everything will change dramatically in our direction. Practice has shown that miracles do not happen. Therefore, you just need to work and raise new athletes.

- How does Ustyugov manage to achieve such success with tremendous pressure on the team? Surely there are enough oblique glances from rivals.

Sergei is a smart guy. He does not pay attention to it, but just works. All these, as you put it, sidelong glances are needed to psychologically suppress a person. But let these tricks work better on our functionaries than on skiers.

How do you think the story with the McLaren report will end? The Russian team may not be allowed to the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang?

- Everything possible will be done so that Russia does not participate in the 2018 Olympics. What is there to think? And so it will be if we do not hold fast to them.

- How should Russian sports functionaries behave?

- Don't know. Some of them don't behave at all. Maybe people of a higher level should already react more harshly in this situation ...

Are you talking about Vladimir Putin?

I'm afraid he has enough to worry about. On the other hand, you can see for yourself what is happening in the sports world. Russia is being attacked from all sides. But I'm not a politician. Our job is to train and show results, and other people should do the rest.

Interview with Sergey Ustyugov after winning the Tour de Ski 2017.

Did you personally expect such a performance at the Tour de Ski? If you analyze, due to what it was possible to "shoot" like that?

Not really. Not expected. It turned out to perform so well because of the ridiculous situation that all of Russia, our skiers, faced. Six of our athletes were suspended, at that moment we were preparing at the training camp, when this not at all happy news came. And I realized that if the guys are not allowed to the Tour de Ski, we must try to win this Tour not for ourselves, but for the sake of the guys who did not take part in it.

- I can't help but ask. The transition to the group of Markus Kramer, apparently, was fully justified?

In fact, each group has its pros and cons. And if you look at the trend, how did I train with which coaches, many can say that I often change coaches, but I do not do this because everything does not suit me. I just want to move on, I’m looking for something new and I can say with full confidence that Markus Kramer is the coach who trusts the athlete, he feels you, gives you the opportunity to work with your head, and not always say that you are a lazy, non-professional . From Isabelle (Knaute) with Reto (Burgermeister) I have postponed that I am a non-professional, and I still consider myself to be such. And from Markus, from Yegor (Sorin), I still have not heard that they told me that I am lazy and do not want to do anything. I train and enjoy.

Sundby called you the best skier in the world in the middle of the Tour. Do you agree with him? Or was the Norwegian trying to cheat?

The Norwegian is cunning. The best skier in the world is Petter Nortug, he is the current four-time world champion, but in fact Sundby has the leader's jersey, he is the first in the overall standings. And pulling this T-shirt over myself, saying that I am the best skier in the world at the moment is not good. The best skier is Petter Nortug, and then comes Sundby.

- If Nortug were at the Tour de Ski, how much more difficult would it be for you to achieve such a great result?

Everything would depend on Petter's form. I think that since he missed the Tour de Ski, he is in search of himself. And he will come to Lahti hungry for medals, I'm sure.

Last year, many more began to say that Ustyugov is the "second Nortug", and so on. How flattering was that? Or the main thing - to be "the first Ustyugov"?

I don’t like comparisons, to be honest, because each person is an individuality and personality, he builds himself. You look at it in childhood, you want to be like someone, to be the same as him. But I will say from my own experience that when you watch from a TV screen, no one knows what a person really is. Until you meet him in real life.

- Of all the starts on the Tour de Ski, which one was more difficult? Most likely, it was a mountain or the penultimate race?

Last but not least, it was a crisis moment. I was very nervous before the race because I knew it was decisive. Thanks guys, they helped me a lot. Bessmertnykh, Larkov... I will remember this more than once, without them this victory would not have been possible. We won, this is the victory of the Russian team, the victory of all of Russia.

-Ahead of the World Cup in Lahti. Have you already set some goals for yourself?

In fact, it seems to be not so far before the World Championships in Lahti, but on the other hand, almost two more months. I will prepare, but about plans... There are small plans, but they will be in my head. When the coach puts all the cards on the table, then I will already talk about my thoughts (smiles).

On December 23, the International Ski Federation (FIS) suspended six athletes from the Russian national team participating in the 2014 Olympics from international competitions based on the report of the head of the independent commission of WADA, Richard McLaren. They turned out to be Evgenia Shapovalova, Yulia Ivanova, Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Evgeny Belov and Alexei Petukhov.

Sergey Ustyugov on suspended Russian skiers:

"This victory was very important. Because I fought not only for myself, but also for the guys who were deceived, and they could not take part in the Tour de Ski - they were better prepared than me. And we did it. I was nervous yesterday before the race and today I was more calm than ever and I knew I had to give everything I had to not let Martin [Jonsrud Sundby] go ahead."

"No, I don't feel alone without the (dismissed) guys - we had a very strong team at the Tour de Ski," the skier said. "And I hope that the ridiculous situation will be resolved and the Russian team will strengthen for the World Cup."

A young man dressed in a national team costume gives an interview to the Russian Match TV channel in the lobby of the Scandic Vierumäki hotel.

Sergei Ustyugov has a long day behind him at the World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland. It stretched out to the evening awards ceremony. Ustyugov patiently answers the questions of TV journalists, holding a silver medal won in the ski relay in his hands. The interview lasts half an hour, after which the hero of the track quickly gets up, but immediately notices a Finnish journalist waiting for him.

The skier's face darkens. Some athletes enjoy the spotlight, but Russia's brightest skiing star is not one of them.

Fans of Ustyug who came to the World Ski Championships will be remembered as a joyfully smiling young man. However, behind the scenes, Ustyugov is a person who avoids the limelight. He would have gone to his home in Yekaterinburg with great pleasure immediately after the winning race.

“I don't like signing autographs or talking to the press. Sometimes after the competition I wait at the press conference for 15-20 minutes while my opponents talk to the fans and sign autographs. All this is not for me, ”Ustyugov told representatives of the Russian media before the start of the competition.

However, this season forced Ustyugov out of his comfort zone. Winning the prestigious Tour de Ski at the beginning of the year and five medals at the World Ski Championships in Lahti made him one of the most popular skiers in the world. At the same time, Ustyugov has become the main hope in cross-country skiing against Russia, which is suspected of doping.

Expectations and pressures, the result of which was success, turned the graduate of Western Siberia into a professional who understands that media attention is an inevitable component of big sport. So he sits down again on the soft chair of the hotel and tells his story to the newspaper Urheilusanomat.

© REUTERS, Kai Pfaffenbach Russian skier Sergei Ustyugov won silver in the 50 km marathon at the World Championships in Lahti

Sergei Alexandrovich Ustyugov was born in 1992 in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. The youngest child in a family with three children, he grew up in the village of Mezhdurechensky, whose population was 10 thousand people. Ustyugov describes his family as completely ordinary and emphasizes that he does not want to talk about his father.

“My memories of my father are only negative. He hasn't lived with us for a long time. I love my mother very much. Now she is retired and continues to help me as much as possible, ”says Ustyugov.

Relations with his father broke off early. In early childhood, his father was replaced by an older brother who, like other members of the family, found it difficult to cope with a restless younger brother.

“We then lived on the outskirts of the city. I was a hooligan, fought a lot and studied poorly at school, ”says Ustyugov.

The family realized that the extra energy of a problem child had to be channeled somewhere. At the age of eight, Ustyugov began boxing, but soon the classes came to a standstill due to the strict discipline requirements that the coach made.

“After two months, the boxing coach punished me. On this, the desire to continue disappeared.

In 2001, Ustyugov's mother enrolled him at a local ski school on the advice of a friend. It was then that a man appeared in the boy's life, whom Ustyugov now calls the biggest secret of his success. Coach Ivan Bragin saw great potential in the naughty and took him under his wing. Bragin advised his ward to go skiing, although he, following the example of his friends, wanted to go in for biathlon.

“Ivan told me that I have a choice: to be a substitute in the junior biathlon team or to play in the first team of the ski team of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. In the end, I believed him."

Bragin's fury at the very beginning of Ustyugov's career proved to be a turning point, after which the capricious problem child decided to settle down.

“I was in the regional training camp with coach Valery Pavlovich Sivkov. It was customary for us that for three violations of discipline they were expelled from the team. We had all sorts of conflicts, we did not go to bed on time or misbehaved. In the end, I was told that my tenure with the team was over."

But after the last training competition, in which Ustyugov performed brilliantly, the coaches nevertheless mitigated the punishment. When the boy returned home from the camp, Bragin found out about this incident and became furious.

“He said that I could achieve a lot, but with such actions I cross out everything for myself. Then I decided that I would train for real and develop.”

Devotion to his sport over the years has brought victories in national competitions, performances in the junior team of the national team, trips abroad and titles in international championships.

Context

Predator with roe deer eyes

03/02/2017

Ski King Sergei Ustyugov

Yle 03/01/2017

Meet Sergey Ustyugov

01/08/2017

"If he wants to fight, then I'm ready"

Expressen 07.01.2017

With age and experience, Ustyugov's character became softer, but the rebellious spirit familiar from childhood has not disappeared.

The head coach of the Russian ski team in 2011-2016, Swiss Reto Burgermeister, called Ustyugov the most talented athlete in the history of international skiing. The praise was followed by harsh criticism, because, according to Burgermeister, Ustyugov does not train enough and professionally.

Then the athlete accused Burgermeister and his colleague Isabel Knaute of excessive nit-picking and inability to find a common language with the athletes.

The conflict escalated to such an extent that the president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation, Elena Vyalbe, transferred Ustyugov, Evgeny Belov and Stanislav Volzhentsev to the group of coach Markus Cramer.

Subsequently, the contracts with Burgermeister and Knaute were terminated.

“With Kramer, our joint work is 100% successful. He listens to athletes, this is very important to me. I want to understand what each specific workout gives, ”says Ustyugov.

With a German coach, Ustyugov feels calmer, but the star skier does not deny himself the opportunity to criticize the coaching staff or teammates. Before the start of the team sprint at the World Championships in Lahti, Ustyugov told the press that his partner Nikita Kryukov should not have taken part in the skiing competitions in Lahti at all. The next day they celebrated the victory together.

© RIA Novosti, Alexey Danichev

“Sergey has his own characteristics, like any successful person. He arranges a showdown both where necessary and where it is not necessary, ”says Elena Vyalbe.

Ustyugov may publicly criticize his teammates and coaches, but goes out of his way to defend his teammates on the most important issues that concern the world of skiing.

Russia arrived at the World Championships in Lahti without the winner of the Sochi Olympics Alexander Legkov, world champions Maxim Vylegzhanin and Alexei Petukhov. They are temporarily suspended from participation in competitions.

The names of Russian skiers were mentioned in the report of Professor Richard McLaren. The report spoke about the manipulation of doping samples of athletes during the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

The scandals of recent years have raised great doubts about the Russian skiing system. Ustyugov knows about it.

“The world has been divided in half: into those who believe us and those who do not believe us. I want to thank those who support us, ”Ustyugov told the press on the opening day of the championship in Lahti.

Ustyugov clearly states his position. He emphasizes that his friends and teammates are not involved in the Sochi doping scandals.

Passionate rhetoric, team mindset and international success made Ustyugov a national hero, defender of Russia's ski glory. In a country where sport is of great importance for the political leadership and the whole society, great hopes were placed on Ustyugov.

“I tried to protect Sergey before the start of the championship, saying that there are other athletes on the team. Many people think that Sergey should win this or that competition. But he doesn’t owe anything to anyone,” emphasizes Elena Vyalbe.

Ustyugov acknowledges the burden of hope placed on him, but says he is proud of his life.

“I enjoy skiing, I do what I love. It looks like everything is working now. What could be better?

But in this life-dream, Ustyugov needs his main support. The skiing star says he takes his former coach Bragin with him to all the big competitions. The athlete can also consult with Bragin on personal matters. Sergei Ustyugov meets with skier of the national team Elena Soboleva.

“I am grateful to Ivan for a lot. I can tell him everything I feel. He helps not only me, but my whole family. He was the one who got me on this path of life."

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