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In search of new coach for national biathlon team

This article is not intended for the senior coach of the Russian men’s national team Mikhail Tkachenko, who believes that there’s no point bringing in a foreigner and that our first experience with Knut Tore Berland ended up fruitless. He said we don’t need any foreigners: Tchoudov has been doing his job well, Tcherezov has been competing head to head with Boe and Svendsen, while Ustyugov was only 0.4 seconds behind the said Svendsen in Hanty-Mansiysk mass start. Emil was just lucky, that happens...

But unlike our senior coach, the figures don’t lie: Tcherezov’s average skiing lag behind the leaders has been around 40-45 seconds (and 20 seconds only at the U.S. stages), Ustyugov’s lag makes some 48-50 seconds (25 seconds only in Hochfilzen), while Tchoudov, the ex-Rocket, has amassed 1 minute 15 seconds. Actually, it’s not a lag, it’s a gulf. And one may wonder where mister Tkachenko took his own figures.

If our biathlon continues to experiment with coaches of that sort, we may well go bust by the end of next season. Instead of that, Sports.ru suggests everyone to pay attention to those who will not use forged seconds, but will get our team back to the top level. Today we’ll be looking at the first part of the candidates – professionals from abroad.

Kjell Ove Oftedal (Norway)

Age: 40

Experience: Oftedal has been coaching the Norwegian youth since 2002, where he brought up Emil Hegle Svendsen among others. In 2006, the young coach was put in charge of the men’s national team, replacing the venerable Roger Grubben. But Oftedal has honored only a half of his a four-year contract: in the spring of 2008, he admitted to being tired of travelling and longing for a more relaxed tempo of life.

He then found some tranquility at biathlon clubs: firstly at Meråker, and later at Team Statkraft Trøndelag. However, he didn’t break up the ties with the main team taking occasional odd jobs as a waxman and advising Svendsen discreetly.

During the 2009 World Cup, Oftedal has been working as an expert for NRK.

Achievements: Oftedal’s second (and last) season in charge of the men’s team saw three golden medals in Estersund, the return of the Nations Cup, and Bjoerndalen’s Total Score title. Immediately after the final stage in Holmenkollen the coach suddenly started bidding adieu, emphasizing that he would never leave a sinking ship. As a result, Mikael Löfgren inherited a full-fledged dream team.

Last season: Except for his job at the biathlon club, Oftedal has missed the season.

Benefits for Russia: The young, reputed, and above all unemployed Oftedal could provide an upgrade to our guys. His main asset is versatility: the Norwegian is equally able to pump up their physical fitness, technique, and shooting accuracy, as well as to take up the serviceman’s duties if required. His weaknesses could be the three years without top-level practice and being too democratic at times.

Wolfgang Pichler (Germany)

Age: 56

Experience: Has been fostering the Swedish national team for a decade and a half, although he only coached women during the last season. Easily combines coaching with a job at customs – or vice versa.

Achievements: Instead of delving into the calculations of medals and cups, we’ll just list some names: Magdalena Forsberg, Anna Carin Zidek, Helena Ekholm, Bjorn Ferri. Pichler is also the winner of the 2009 Biathlon Award as the best coach.

Last season: Rather controversial. The situation does not look like a clear setback only because of Ekholm’s Hanty-Mansiysk successes. Zidek is going into decline, the youth still appears unable to replace the current generation, while the general indignation at Pichler’s brutal trainings is growing. Not that the split-up is imminent, but an attempt to lure the maestro doesn’t look utopian.

Benefits for Russia: In terms of working style, Pichler is biathlon’s Alex Ferguson: a motivator and an innovator in perpetual search.

It would be a smart move to appoint the German as the women’s senior coach. In contrast with the gentle Hovantsev, the austere Pichler is able to shake up (to put it mildly) the most indisciplinable and to dictate his terms to anyone. His definite strengths are experience, charisma, and ties within the biathlon world. In addition to that inviting Pichler would be a long-term project, and his signing would remove the women’s coach issue from the agenda for several seasons. He himself made it abundantly clear that he would agree to work in Russia.

Per Nilsson (Sweden)

Age: 40

Experience: Having studied up to the coach’s diploma, Nilsson did not stay long at a Swedish skiing gymnasium. Ten years ago, he went across the pond finding a job at the Maine Winter Sports Center. After the Turin Olympics he was handed control over the U.S. national team. Since then the Swede has called up few more Europeans as his assistants and has come to dominate the local biathlon. He oversees the Italian Armin Auchentaller working with the men’s team and Jonne Kähkönen from Finland preparing women.

Achievements: Nilsson has dragged the women’s team into 15th place in the Nations Cup (they were 20th before he stepped in) and the men’s team has become 10th for the second time already (were 15th before Nilsson). Last season Tim Burke had a leadership spell in the Total Score, while the young prodigy Leif Nordgren has made it into the list of the best rookie nominees for the Biathlon Award.

Last season: In general, Nilsson has made one more step up the ladder (especially when we recall the Americans’ breathtaking performance in Khanty-Mansiysk relay), but with him factored out the ceiling over that ladder seems to be very close.

Benefits for Russia: Nilsson has a contract until Sochi Games and has promised to remain in the United States for long. On the other hand, if we really need a foreigner, it is almost inevitable that we will have to entice someone away. The Swede would come in handy for our guys in terms of technique and functional fitness, and their duo with Auchentaller would look even more powerful. The latter would cope with the shooting problems of the likes of Tcherezov and Makoveev.

Remo Krug (Germany)

Age: 38

Experience: Krug has been a member of the German men’s national team since 2007, where he and Mark Kirchner have been working together under Frank Ullrich, with Krug specifically responsible for the reserves. Before that he had been coaching youth, and also had trained Greis, Birnbacher, Lang, Hitzer, and others individually.

Achievements: Krug has always been somewhere within the German staff, but it’s difficult to link any particular victory to his name.

Last season: Once again he has been training the German reserves – this time it was the girls’ team. Under his guidance Franziska Hildebrand has become the winner in the IBU Cup Total Score, while Nadine Horchler and Carolin Hennecke have made it into the top 4.

Benefits for Russia: Krug can work with both men and women, and is likely to accept the role of a sensei floating from one team to the other and back again. He specializes in basic training, be it collective or individual. If you want to lay the foundations during the summer, to improve your fitness in the autumn, or to restore your conditions – you need Remo. Being still quite young, the German has seen a lot, which means his techniques may revive, say, Anna Bulygina and – with some help from supernatural forces – even Maxim Tchoudov.

Steffen Hausvald (Germany)

Age: 37

Experience: For 15 years, Hausvald has been the head of a prestigious gymnasium in Baden-Wurtemberg and has been providing individual training. Among his most well-known pupils there are Kathrin Hitzer, Simon Schempp, and Hausvald’s current spouse, Simone Denkinger-Hausvald.

Last year, he was put in charge of both Swiss teams. They have defined the development strategy and have signed a four-year agreement, but it seems unlikely that the ambitious German or his employers will be digging their heels in case of an ardent desire from the Russians.

Achievements: During Hausvald’s tenure Selina Gasparin has established herself as a mid-table resident in the Total Score, while young Benjamin Weger has stepped up onto the podium, his talent now being cautiously compared to that of Dario Cologna.

Benefits for Russia: Hausvald is undoubtedly not ready for a head coach position in a top national team (which Russia still is), and maybe even not ready to be a senior coach. Still he may be very good in taking on some particular area of activity. Last season the German has been pushing for some changes in shooting practice and skiing technique. Judging by the much controversial leaps in percentage, he has succeeded more in the latter than in the former. Ideally for Russia, he could become the women’s coach for technique and fitness.

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Our circle of candidates is not limited to the names above. As a bonus we would like to add five more coaches. All of them seem to be at least as attractive for the national team as the first five, but getting them would be way more difficult.

Alfred Eder, 57 years (Austria)

Option for Russia: men’s team senior coach.

Stephane Bouthiaux, 45 years (France)

Option for Russia: men’s team senior coach.

Siegfried Mazet, 33 years (France)

Option for Russia: any team’s shooting coach.

Andreas Zingerle, 49 years (Italy)

Option for Russia: men’s team senior coach.

Joseph Obererlacher, 47 years (Austria, works for Finland)

Option for Russia: women’s team senior coach, women’s team shooting coach.

by Vyacheslav Sambur