KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — Russian skiers are beginning to show up more frequently on the World Cup ski circuit in Europe, and their presence will be hard to miss this week and next at the Alpine test events for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
While only a handful of Russians will compete in the men’s downhill and super-combined this weekend, more than 10 women will be on hand the following weekend for the same events — which are valid World Cup races.
As soon as the 2010 Vancouver Olympics ended, the Russian Alpine Ski and Snowboard Federation hired two experienced Slovenian coaches to guide a budding program.
The women’s job was given to Marjan Cernigoj, who spent 13 years with the U.S. Ski Team, including as head women’s coach between 1998 and 2003; while the men’s job was given to Urban Planinsek, who guided the Slovenia men’s team from 2006-10.
The goal is a respectable showing on home snow in 2014 — but that’s not all.
"They did hire us to get as good results as possible in Sochi, but this team is still extremely young. Most of the girls will be 21 or 22 by then, so we’re really looking very, very far past 2014," Cernigoj said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Of course there is pressure from the Russian federation but it’s healthy pressure, so it’s no problem."
The veteran racer of the team is 27-year-old technical specialist Alexander Khoroshilov, who is preparing to race in his third Olympics. At the Vancouver Games, Khoroshilov competed in all five events, with his best finish 21st in super-combined.
Then there is 22-year-old Sergei Maytakov, who won a second-tier Europa Cup giant slalom last month, and 23-year-old Stepan Zuev, who finished fifth in a Europa Cup slalom in January.
Another veteran is Slovenian-born downhiller Alek Glebov, who was out injured for two years but started racing again in January and is making his World Cup return this week in Sochi.
Glebov switched nationalities in 2010.
"My grandfather and father are Russian," he said. "My mother is Portuguese and my grandmother Croatian, so I’m not too Slovenian. But I live there because the family lives there. But I always had a wish to (race) for Russia."
Since there are no slalom or giant slalom events, the only other Russian men besides Glebov competing this week are Ivan Muravyev, Andrey Bystrov and Evgeniy Lisitsa — with all three making their World Cup debuts.
"On the speed side the guys are without experience, so I’m helping them a little bit," Glebov said.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Pavel Trikhichev will be aiming for top-10 finishes at this season’s junior world championships in Roccaraso, Italy, beginning later this month.
The younger racers hope to get more World Cup experience before the Sochi Games.
"We need to get our start numbers down to have a good start position," Planinsek said. "A top 20 or top 15 result in the technical events would be respectable. There’s two years to go but we have to be realistic."
As the host nation, Russia can enter up to four skiers in each Alpine event at the games.
"We hope we can fill them, although we’ve got to be careful in the speed events," Planinsek said. "You’ve got to deserve to start at the Olympics."
Three 19-year-old Russians competed at the women’s World Cup stop in St. Moritz, Switzerland, two weeks ago: Maria Bedareva, Elena Yakovishina, and Anastasia Kedrina. While all three competed in downhill training, World Cup rules meant only one Russian could start each event.
"It was great to give them each a little exposure. They learned a lot," Cernigoj said.
While there are no standouts on the current Russian team, there have been some successful skiers in the past.
In the mid 1990s, Varvara Zelenskaya won four World Cup downhills and Svetlana Gladysheva took one. Gladysheva also won a silver medal in super-G at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics and a bronze in downhill at the 1991 world championships in Saalbach, Austria. She is now the president of the Russian federation.
Unlike those pioneers, Russian skiers now have world-class slopes to train on at the Rosa Khutor center. The future is the main focus, and that’s the message that Cernigoj and Planinsek are passing on — even if they don’t speak much Russian.
"I speak Serbian, which is a bit closer to Russian and I know how to read Cyrillic — I learned in school — so that helps," Cernigoj explained. "But we want the girls to learn English so they can operate around the world, so we’re trying to communicate with them in English and they’re doing a great job with that."
