python said:
http://www.expressen.se/sport/langdskidor/dahlies-ilska-ett-bedrovligt-uttalande/
though saltin did not implicate him directly, bjorn dählie, of course, did not like the above-mentioned statement by saltin that 10-15 y ago a skier could not win wc races without doping.
in the video, he expressed his anger several times and brought forward an old argument ‘it’s not like i was behind 2 minutes one day and suddenly winning the next…i was near the top season long.’
getting back to biathlon… in another interesting recent interview, pichler, when poked that his girls are still too slow compared to the likes of gössner, responded in his usual direct manner, ‘only doping can improved my girls speed my a full minute’.
i don’t think he implied that others are doping (perhaps he did ?), rather that his team runs at the limit of their potential clean. Still the statement, even if true, came across as a tad tactless, particularly given the adverse environment he’s facing everyday.
btw, in all seriousness, he compared zaitseva's talent to tora's.
But a girl like Gössner was destroying fields with her ski speed ever since youth. Yes, she stepped up big-time this season compared to last, but she had health problems with surgery to fix intestinal knotting during the season build-up then, and compared to 2010-11 she's made pretty normal progress. There simply aren't any of the Russian girls who had shown that same kind of skiing prowess as juniors, so you can't really tell whether he's making any accusations or not. Besides, Gössner isn't the one that's winning everything. She's outskiing everybody, sure, but then missing a bunch of targets... which means she then has to ski harder to make the time up, and can't conserve energy like some others. Her style has a very high turnover, but it's a lot more efficient than Berger's, and Berger has been consistently about the 4th quickest on the World Cup, with Gössner, Mäkäräinen and Domracheva typically the top 3. Maybe we can see what Podchufarova is made of, she comfortably outskied Dahlmeier at the Junior Worlds, and Dahlmeier made a big impact on her WC debut. But we've already seen Hilde Fenne and Laura Dahlmeier at the World Cup level, whereas Podchufarova has yet to show.
Perhaps one of the Russian problems is that they are too deep in not-quite-good-enough talent that they have too many people there to take the risks on youngsters; let's face it, Fenne's first introduction to the Norwegian relay in Hochfilzen was as a stop-gap solution with Flatland not ready to return, and in all likelihood had she not been so impressive in that race she'd just have rotated out for somebody like Eckhoff or Ringen for the next relay while they worked out how their relay would shape up; Dahlmeier was included as a gamble by the Germans because with Neuner retiring, Lang not ready to return at the top level, and having sent Tina Bachmann home after Ruhpolding and having not fulfilled their IBU-Cup racing quota for most of the season they didn't have many race-ready competitors to stand in, so when Horchler had an attack of the poor form at the Worlds Dahlmeier was the only other woman in the squad (they had said they might pick a 6th based on the IBU Cup at Martell, but the best German there - by far - was Karolin Horchler, who is just as inexperienced as Dahlmeier). Russia just don't have that need because they have depth... however what they have are a bunch of slow skiers who can shoot well, with a bunch of half-decent skiers who can shoot well as the change of pace. And with big successes of some experienced names on the IBU Cup for them, there's little reason to take the risk on youngsters. Then again, with the A-team heading to Sochi to train for Sochi/Khantiy, they're sending a B-squad to Oslo. The men's team is led by Makoveev and returnee Tcherezov, but the women's team is mostly built around old faces like Iourieva and Boulygina; why not try the likes of Podchufarova there?
The only member of the current Russian squad who has shown real ski speed (that we can compare to the likes of Gössner as a prospect) as a youngster was Sleptsova (well, maybe not, but I've not been following the sport anywhere near long enough to remember Zaitseva as a junior). But she's had surgery this season, is off form, and Pichler himself has suggested she doped in the past. Now, if in four years' time Uliana Kaisheva is setting fastest ski times à la Gössner, it won't seem so strange, since she's mutilating the Youth fields with her ski speed right now. But if girls like Shumilova or Yurlova (hell, even Vilukhina) started skiing with Berger and Solemdal, let alone Kaisa, Darya and Miri, then of course the red flags would be raised: because they've never shown the likelihood of doing so. Remember how many eyebrows were raised by Solemdal last year? Going from finishing 3 minutes down with 2 penalties in the sprint at Khanty in 2011 to outskiing Magdalena Neuner at Östersund a few months later? That.
As for Zaitseva/Berger, it's not so fanciful as you might think, but Berger is 3 years younger, which counts for a lot when it comes to recovery, and Berger is much better at staying at peak level. Let's not forget when complaining about the repetitiousness of the results that before the season everybody was anticipating Domracheva would walk away with it comfortably.
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